Ambrose: Letter to Irenaeus: Law Flowing from a Natural Fountain

WE NEED TO THANK A CERTAIN IRENAEUS, a correspondent of St. Ambrose, for having asked St. Ambrose to elaborate on the teachings of St. Paul, and we ought to thank St. Ambrose for having answered. The question that this certain Irenaeus appears to have posed to the holy bishop was what the purpose of the Mosaic law was since St. Paul finds the law injurious: "For the law worketh wrath . . . ." Rom. 4:15a. Lex enim iram operatur. "For where there is no law, neither is there transgression." Rom. 4:15b. Ubi enim non est lex nec praevericatio. "Now the law entered in, that sin might abound . . . ." Rom. 5:20. Lex autem subintravit ut abundaret delictum. If the law brings in wrath and transgression, where there was none before, then what good purpose serves the law? That is the question of St. Ambrose's correspondent.

St. Ambrose by Pierre Subleyras

"It is certain," St. Ambrose begins, "that the Law, which was given by Moses, was not necessary." Certum est non fuissem Legem necessariam quae per Moysen data est. Why was the Mosaic law not necessary? It was not necessary because it was superfluous in the sense that there was already existing a law, a natural law. The Mosaic law was then a re-promulgation, in another form, of that natural law that existed in men's hearts. Had men kept the natural law, there would have been no need for the Mosaic revelation.

For had men been able to keep the natural law, which our God and Maker implanted in the breast of each, there would have been no need of the Law, which, written on tables of stone, tended rather to entangle and fetter the infirmity of human nature, than to set at large and liberate it. Now that there is a natural Law written in our hearts the Apostle also teaches us, when he writes, that for the most part the Gentiles, which have not the Law, do by nature the things contained in the Law, and, though they have not read the Law, have yet the works of the Law written in their hearts [Rom. 2:14] [N.B. Walford, trans., here and elsewhere].

Nam si naturalem legem, quam Deus creator infudit singulorum pectoribus, homines servare potuissent, non fuerat opus ea lege quae, in tabulis scripta lapideis, implicavit atque innodavit magis humani generis infirmitatem, quam elaqueavit atque absolvit. Esse autem legem naturalem in cordibus nostris etiam Apostolus docet, qui scripsit quia plerumque et gentes naturaliter ea, quae Legis sunt, faciunt; et cum Legem non legerint, opus tamen Legis scriptum habent in cordibus suis.

Epist. ad Ir., 73, 2 (PL 16:1251) "This law," St. Ambrose continues,

therefore is not written but innate; not acquired by reading, but flowing as from a natural fountain, it springs up in each breast, and men's minds drink it in. This Law we ought to have kept even from fear of a future judgment, a witness whereof we have in our conscience, which shews itself in those silent thoughts we have towards God, and whereby either our sin is reproved or our innocence justified. And thus that which has ever been manifest to the Lord, will be clearly revealed in the day of judgment, when those secrets of the heart, which were thought to be concealed, will be called into account. Now the discovery of these things, these secrets, I mean, would do no harm, if the natural Law still remained in the human breast; for it is holy, free from craft or guile, the companion of justice, free from iniquity.

Ea igitur lex non scribitur, sed innascitur: nec aliqua percipitur lectione, sed profluo quodam naturae fonte in singulis exprimitur, et humanis ingeniis hauritur. Quam debuimus vel futuri judicii metu servare, cujus testis conscientia nostra tacitis cogitationibus apud Deum ipsa se prodit, quibus vel redarguitur improbitas, vel defenditur innocentia. Itaque cum semper pateat Domino, tum maxime in die judicii manifestabitur; quando occulta cordis in examen venient, quae putabantur latere. Quorum tamen proditio, occultorum scilicet, nequaquam noceret, si lex naturalis inesset pectoribus humanis; est enim sancta, sine versutia, sine fraude, consors justitiae, expers iniquitatis.

Epist. ad Ir., 73, 3 St. Ambrose continues:

Adam broke this Law, seeking to assume to himself that which he had not received, that thus he might become as it were his own maker and creator, and arrogate to himself divine honour. Thus by his disobedience he incurred guilt, and through arrogance fell into transgression. Had he not thus violated his allegiance, (sin non supisset imperium) but been obedient to the commands of heaven, he would have preserved to his posterity the prerogative of nature and the innocence which he possessed at his birth. Wherefore as by disobedience the authority of the Law of Nature was corrupted and blotted out [smeared, struck out?] (corrupta atque interlita est), the written law was found necessary; in order that man, having lost all, might at least regain a part; attaining by instruction to the knowledge of that which he had received at his birth, but had subsequently lost (ut vel partem haberet, qui universum amiserat: et cui perierat quod nascendo assumpserat, discendo saltem cognosceret et custodiret). Moreover, since the cause of his fall was pride, and pride arose from the dignity of innocence, it was needful that some law should be passed which should subdue and subject him to God. [cf. Rom. 7:8] For without the Law he was ignorant of sin, and thus his guilt was less because he knew it not. (Nam sine Lege peccatum nesciebatur, et minor erat culpa, ubi erat culpae ignorantia.) Wherefore also the Lord says, If I had not come and spoken to them they had not had sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. [cf. John 15:22]

Epist. ad Ir., 73, 5. The natural law was therefore part of man's original makeup, it was part of his historical "infancy" or infantiam, before there was any crime, avarice, ambition, guile, rage, or insolence. This was before man claimed things for his own, before he preferred himself to others, before he wished or knew how to avenge himself, before he even knew the meaning of insolence. Epist. ad Ir., 73, 4. This natural law is what the Church Fathers would refer to as "primary natural law." One might also characterize it as "original natural law," since it was with man from his origins. And it exists no more in its pure state. After man's fall in Adam, the natural law remained, but corrupted (corrupta) and smeared (interlita). The natural law after the Fall of man, this post-lapsarian natural law is what the Church Fathers would call the "secondary natural law." In his The Natural Law: A Study in Legal and Social History and Philosophy, Heinrich Rommen explains:

The Fathers also took over the Stoic distinction of a primary and a secondary natural law, which they interpreted in a theological sense. They regarded the former as applying to the state of unimpaired nature or innocence, while they assigned the latter, with the coercive authority of the law, with bondage and slavery, to the theological condition of fallen nature. Nature, somehow wounded indeed but not destroyed, is therefore still able fully to recognize the first principles of morality and law. But the conclusions from the first principles, which were also plainly intelligible in the state of unimpaired nature, are now attainable only by means of deductive reasoning, since the practical reason is also weakened. Accordingly law takes on a harsh, compulsory character, and the state bears a sword.

The nomenclature is not altogether felicitous, because there is no real difference between the content of the natural law before and after the fall. That is, the content of the "primary natural law" and the "secondary natural law" are the same. What is different is the mode or facility by which the voice of the natural law is fathomed, its voice obeyed, and, after the fall of man's integrity which introduced sin into the world, its violation recognized and rectified. The natural law in man's post-lapsarian wounded heart limped, and so it needed the crutch of a written law., and, in fact, required the sacrifice of Christ and the mercy and grace it supplied men. It needed the crutch of a written law as a stop-gap measure, as a cure for man's rebellion, to take away excuse, to expose guilt where it otherwise might remain secret, to provide knowledge where there was ignorance, to stanch the the wounded conscience, to help the practical reason arrive at the good, and ultimately, to point to the need for Christ and his grace.

St. Ambrose by Claude Vignon

The Mosaic law was therefore "not only given to the Jews but also called the Gentiles," (non solum Judaeis data est, sed etiam gentes vocavit), and not only the beckoned Gentiles who responded and converted to Judaism, but those who neglected to do so, those "who after being called [were] found wanting, for the Law also bound those whom she called" (neque vero exceptus videri potest, qui vocatus defuit; Lex enim quos vocavit et alligavit). Epist. ad Ir., 73, 6. Thus, the Mosaic law was promulgated for all mankind, Jew and Gentile.

But the Mosaic law is not necessary. Non fuit necessaria lex per Moysen. The Mosaic law, "would not have been needed could we have kept the natural law," si illam legem naturalem servare potuissemus. Epist. ad Ir., 73, 9. The Mosaic law "was not needed," and "succeeded in the place of the natural law." But had the natural law "maintained its place, the written law would never have entered in."

But the natural law being excluded by transgression and almost blotted out of the human breast, pride reigned, and disobedience spread itself; and then this Law succeeded, that by its written precepts it might cite us before it, and every mouth be stopped, and all the world become guilty before God.

Epist. ad Ir., 73, 10. Though superfluous in one way since it was a restatement of the natural law, the Mosaic law was necessary in a factual sense because man's ability to know it, follow it, and recognize his failure of it was hampered by the loss of the integrity in his nature following the fall. So that resolving "sin by sin," ut peccatum peccato solveret, the law operated through a sort of casual chain: transgression led to the law, which meant subjection, subjection led to humility, humility to obedience. Epist. ad Ir., 73, 6-10. And so in a manner of speaking, transgression was, as we might say borrowing from the Easter liturgy, a happy fault, a felix culpa, because it ultimately led to obedience. Nay, more, the transgression actually led to grace, and St. Ambrose closes his letter to Irenaeus by focusing on this wonder. The same causal chain that Ambrose related led to that advent of grace, the Incarnation of the Son of God. The transgression brought the law, and the law ultimately brought obedience par excellence, that is, it brought the obedience of Christ and thereby our redemption. St. Ambrose closes his letter to Irenaeus thus:

But when the Lord Jesus came, He forgave all men that sin which none could escape, and blotted out the handwriting against us by the shedding of His own Blood. This then is the Apostle's meaning; sin abounded by the Law, but grace abounded by Jesus; for after that the whole world became guilty, He took away the sin of the whole world, as John bore witness, saying: Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. Wherefore let no man glory in works, for by his works no man shall be justified, for he that is just hath a free gift, for he is justified by the Bath. It is faith then which delivers by the blood of Christ, for Blessed is the man to whom sin is remitted, and, pardon granted.

Epist. ad Ir., 73, 11.

St. Ambrose: The Natural Law Duty

AURELIUS AMBROSIUS, known to as St. Ambrose (ca. 337/40 - 397 A.D.), the redoubtable bishop of Milan (Mediolanensis), is the next ecclesiastical writer we turn to in this course of blog entries relating to the doctrine of the natural law in the early Church Fathers. Honored with a dual title by the Church he served, he is both a Father of the Church and a Doctor of the Church, the Pastoral Doctor. "An important thinker by any standard, and particularly important because of his influence upon natural law thinking, was Ambrose of Milan," Crowe states in his The Changing Profile of the Natural Law (p. 61). Crowe continues: "Like Tertullian he was a lawyer with a lawyer's sense of terminology. He was much influenced by Stoic thought; his Offices [de Officiis ("On Duties") or de Officiis Ministrorum] was modeled upon Cicero's work of the same name, (de Officiis) which, in its turn, depends upon Panaetius [the Stoic philosopher (ca. 185-ca. 110 B.C.) from Rhodes, who also wrote a word "On Duties," or in Greek, περὶ τοῦ καθήκοντος]. He also came under the influence of Philo's combination of Stoic and Biblical thinking." Crowe, 61. The reference to Philo by Crowe is apt; Ambrose's indebtedness to Philo especially with regard to the latter's interpretations of Old Testament figures is such that he has been called Philo Christianus, the Christian Philo.

Ambrose was born into an ancient patrician Roman family. His father, likewise named Ambrosius, was a highly-placed Roman official, the Prefect of Gallia, one of the four great prefectures of the Roman Empire, and accordingly, under the Emperor, ruled over the France, Britain, and Spain, and even portions of Africa. Ambrose was the youngest of three children. After the death of his father, Ambrose and his family moved to Rome, where the young Ambrose obtained an education which included Greek language and literature. He also studied rhetoric and law, and, after completing his studies, for a time handled cases at the court of the praetorian prefect, Ancius Probus. Eventually, Ambrose was appointed consular prefect or governor of Liguria and Aemilia, an office which took him to the city of Milan. One would have thought Ambrose destined to the life of the imperial court just like his father.

Icon of St. Ambrose

In 374, however, the death of the then-bishop of Milan, Auxentius, placed upon the shoulders of Ambrose the responsibility of maintaining public peace until the bishop's successor could be elected or appointed. (The selection or installation of bishops in those days, often including public participation, could be tumultuous occasions. And when the population was divided between rivals Arians and Niceans, as it was in this instance, the matter could be particularly testy.) From the evidence we have, it seems that both the clergy and people in unison demanded Ambrose as their bishop, spurred (says Paulinus the Deacon, Ambrose's secretary and first biographer) by the cries of an infant somewhere in a gathered crowd, "Ambrosium episcopum!" Ambrose, bishop!" The as-yet-unbaptized catechumen Ambrose was pressured to accept the office, relented, and with commendable zeal left the life of the tribunal for the life of the pulpit.

In one fell swoop, Ambrose entered into the highest office of the clerical state in his mid-30s, gave his money and property to the poor, adopted an ascetic life style, delved into the study of Scripture and the Fathers, and devoted his life and his talent to the health of his flock as bishop of Milan for the twenty three remaining years of his life. His episcopacy was a model one, and it was highlighted by several notable events: his eminent preaching which edified his flock, and led to the singular grace of the conversion of Augustine of Hippo; his availability to his flock, exemplified by his habit of leaving the door to his chamber open to the public; his battles against the Arian heresy using both persuasion, political, and legal means to advance the orthodox Catholic faith; his contribution to the Church's chant and hymnody, uniquely manifest in the Ambrosian chant and the so-called Ambrosiani, sacred hymns with strophes of four iambic dimeters (four lines of eight syllables each), and perhaps even writing the magnificent Te Deum; the chastening of, and demand of public penance from, the Emperor Theodosius the Great following his massacre of 7,000 Thessalonians (Imperator enim intra Ecclesiam, non supra Ecclesiam est--"For the emperor is in the Church, not over the Church" Sermo contra Auxentium de basilicis tradendis, 36); the discovery of the relics of the second-century twin martyrs and children of martyrs, Gervasius and Protasius; the laborious effort reflected in his writings: homilies, commentaries on Scripture, prayers and hymns, topical works on various subjects, including moral theology, virginity, the Sacraments, epistles, and hymns and prayers. What indefatigable labors! Ambrose was one of God's gifts to the Church, a Christian patriarch and pastor, and one that still continues giving if we but read his writings, sing his hymns, pray his prayers, or ask his heavenly intercession.

St. Ambrose in his Crypt

It would seem that in his capacity as teacher of his diocese, the bishop Ambrose would have had the opportunity of addressing the natural moral law. And so it was. As Crowe summarizes it: "Ambrose frequently refers to the natural law--to its universality, its innateness, its tendency to bring men closer together." Crowe, at 61.

Ambrose did not weave his teaching on the natural law out of whole cloth, and he relied upon both philosophical and Christian sources to knit a concept of natural law which, like the patriarch Joseph's coat, was a coat of many colors. In her work, The Stoic Tradition from Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages (E.J. Brill, 1985), Professor Marcia Colish notes that Ambrose freely combined Platonic, Neoplatonic, Aristotelian, and Stoic, especially Ciceronian, ideas to the teachings of Scripture. Because of such eclectic borrowing, St. Ambrose "is massively inconsistent in his treatment of one of the major Stoic themes of which he was the transmitter, the doctrine of natural law." Colish, at 50. From the perspective of any of these schools of philosophy, he may be "massively inconsistent," but this is only because "Ambrose does not labor under the uncritical delusion that Stoicism," or for that matter any other philosophy, "is isomorophic with Christianity." Colish, at 50. Ambrose's principal authority is Scriptural, his analysis is Scriptural, his examples are Scriptural, and this is revealed both stylistically and substantively. Everything is studied in Christ, with Christ, and for Christ. Putting the new wine of the Gospel into the skins of Stoic philosophy so that neither the skin of reason burst nor wine of the Gospel spilled, Ambrose replaced "Cicero's this-wordly ethic with a Christian ethic, which revalues the Stoic themes that Ambrose uses by situating them in a framework of divine grace and human redemption viewed from the perspective of the life to come." Colish, at 51.

The assimilation of nature and natural law to the law of God is a theme that occurs repeatedly in Ambrose's exegetical and ethical works. He handles it very inconsistently in words large and small throughout his oeuvre. Sometimes he Biblicizes the idea of natural law, subordinating it radically to God's transcendent order and creative will. At other times he treats nature as a norm, accessible to man by reason, that counsels the equality of all men, the common sharing of property, the priority of the common good, and other Stoic desiderata. He develops both sides of this doctrine most fully in the De officiis ministrorum . . . .

Colish, at 52-53. And to St. Ambrose's De officiis we now turn.

St. Ambrose by Pierre Subleyras

Ambrose's De officiis is organized in three books. The first book attempts to define the virtuous (honestum or decorum). The second book discusses the expedient (utile). The third book compares and contrasts the virtues and the expedient, attempting to arrive at a synthesis of the virtuous and the useful sub specie aeternitatis. It is the third book that will hold our interest in the matter of the natural law.

Man, Ambrose insists, must "strive in everything to do not what is useful for himself, but what is useful for many." De offic., III, 3.15. We ought never to "deprive another, with whom we ought rather to suffer, of anything, or to act unfairly or injuriously towards one to whom we ought to give a share in our services." "This," St. Ambrose states, "is a true law of nature, which binds us to show all kindly feeling, so that we should all of us in turn help one another, as parts of one body, and should never think of depriving another of anything, seeing it is against the law of nature even to abstain from giving help." Haec utique lex naturae est, quae nos ad omnem astringit humanitatem, ut alter alteri tamquam unius partes corporis invicem deferamus. Nec detrahendum quidquam putemus, cum contra naturae legem sit non iuvare. De offic., III.3.19. The reasons are obvious: "If the whole body is injured in one member, so also is the whole community of the human race disturbed in one man." Id. This is a particular quality of man. "Wild beasts snatch away, men share with others." Ferae autem eripiunt, homines tribuunt. De offic., III.3.21. "What is so contrary to nature as to injure another for our own benefit?" St. Ambrose asks. Quid autem tam contra naturam, quam violare alterum tui commodi causa? De offic., III.3.23. The promptings of our heart urge otherwise. The promptings of our nature urge us to avoid injuring another, and the violation of such urges bring forth the pangs of conscience:

[W]e infer that a man who guides himself according to the ruling of nature, so as to be obedient to her, can never injure another. If he injures another he violates nature, nor will he think that what he has gained is so much an advantage as a disadvantage. And what punishment is worse than the wounds of conscience within? What judgment harder than that of our hearts, whereby each one stands convicted and accuses himself of the injury that he has wrongfully done against his brother?

Hinc ergo colligitur quod homo, qui secundum naturae formatus est directionem, ut obediat ei, nocere non possit alteri: quod si cui noceat, naturam violet: neque tantum esse commodi quod adipisci sese putet, quantum incommodi, quod ex eo sibi accidat. Quae enim poena gravior, quam interioris vulnus conscientiae? Quod severius iudicium, quam domesticum, quo unusquisque sibi est reus, seque ipse arguit quod iniuriam fratri indigne fecerit?

De offic., III.4.24. The promptings of reason, of the heart, of conscience all witness to the ineluctable fact:

that all must consider and hold that the advantage of the individual is the same as that of all, and that nothing must be considered advantageous except what is for the general good. For how can one be benefited alone? That which is useless to all is harmful. I certainly cannot think that he who is useless to all can be of use to himself.

De offic., III.4.25. This is a central feature of the natural moral law:

For if there is one law of nature for all, there is also one state of usefulness for all. And we are bound by the law of nature to act for the good of all. It is not, therefore, right for him who wishes the interests of another to be considered according to nature, to injure him against the law of nature.

Et enim si una lex naturae omnibus, una utique utilitas universorum, ad consulendum utique omnibus naturae leges constringimur. Non est ergo eius qui consultim velit alteri secundum naturam, nocere ei adversus legem naturae.

De offic., III, 4, 25 (PL 16:152). Thus, we find it offensive for men to cheat in a foot race. Christians, moreover, should go beyond this, and so will not fall into the trap of Carneades plank, or moral quid pro quos. They will recognize the fundamental equality of all men. They will recognize all men as brothers. And this all follows from the general principle:

For what is so contrary to nature as not to be content with what one has or to seek what is another’s, and to try to get it in shameful ways. For if a virtuous life is in accordance with nature—for God made all things very good—then shameful living must be opposed to it. A virtuous and a shameful life cannot go together, since they are absolutely severed by the law of nature.

Quid tam adversus naturam, quam non esse contentum eo quod habeas, aliena quaerere, ambire turpiter? Nam si honestas secundum naturam, omnia enim fecit Deus bona valde, turpitudo utique contraria est. Non potest ergo honestati convenire et turpitudini, cum haec inter se discreta naturae lege sint.

De offic., III, 4, 28 (PL 16:152).

St. Ambrose also addresses the issue of the natural law in some of his epistles. Particularly instructive is his Epistle 73 addressed to a correspondent called Irenaeus. That will be the subject of our next blog entry.

St. Ambrose by Claude Vignon