PL 16 · cols. 1345–1412
Ambrose, On the Death of his Brother Satyrus
Book I
Migne Reading Room
PL 16 · cols. 1345–1412
Book I
(1) ‹anchor: Martyris› · call in col 1345 (epitaph in the editors' admonition, set across the page)
Sancti Victoris videlicet.
That is, of Saint Victor.
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Scripti anno 379.
Written in the year 379.
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Omnes edit. ac mss. nonnulli, « dominum et fratrem ; alii mss. plures et potiores, « domnum et fratrem. » Observat autem Menardus noster in (continues)
All the editions and some manuscripts have "dominum et fratrem" (my lord and brother); other manuscripts, more numerous and better, have "domnum et fratrem." Our Ménard, moreover, observes in (continues)
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(continued) cap. 70 Regulæ S. Bened. vocem Dominum regiam et imperatoriam esse, nec ea salutari voluisse Augustum Cæsarem : postea autem a scriptoribus, ut humiliori vocabulo uterentur, ex τοῦ domibus factam esse vocem domnus per syncopen. Quod ubi exemplis e Sev. Sulpitio, et aliunde petitis probavit, addit apud Græcos idem contigisse in dictione κύριος ex qua κῦρος facta est a recentioribus. Vide Hephten in eadem Regul., Cangium in Glossar., etc.
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Codex Vallil., « Sed ubi abundavit peccatum, superabundavit, etc. »
The Vallicellian codex: "But where sin abounded, [grace] superabounded, etc."
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Ita mss. non pauci, a quibus non dissidet Rom. edit., nisi quod habet, « omnibus timebam ; » cæteri autem mss. ac vet. edit., « quidquid timebamus omnes. »
So read a good many manuscripts, from which the Roman edition does not differ, except that it has "omnibus timebam" (I feared for all); but the other manuscripts and the old editions have "quidquid timebamus omnes" (whatever we all feared).
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Mss. aliquot melioris notæ, mallet (quidam, malit) occidere.
Some manuscripts of better note read mallet (some, malit) occidere (would rather slay).
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Non pauci mss., « perfruitus sum ; » reliqui et omnes edit., « perfructus sum. » At infra ubi mss. prope ad unum, et vet. edit., « commisso mihi fenore, » reposuit edit. Rom., concesso, etc.
A good many manuscripts read "perfruitus sum"; the rest and all the editions, "perfructus sum" (I have enjoyed). But below, where the manuscripts almost to a man and the old editions have "commisso mihi fenore" (the loan entrusted to me), the Roman edition substituted concesso (granted), etc.
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Nannius, variis significationibus quibus vita modo pro anima, modo pro victu, modo pro vivendi spatio, modo pro moribus usurpatur, in medium allatis, hoc ultimo sensu eam vocem hic ab Ambrosio positam dicit. Nihilominus, licet hoc non omnino a nobis respuatur, simplicius tamen pro salute æternaque vita sumi putamus.
Nannius, having set out the various meanings in which vita is used, now for the soul, now for livelihood, now for the span of living, now for conduct, says that Ambrose put the word here in this last sense. Nevertheless, though we do not wholly reject this, we think it is more simply taken for salvation and eternal life.
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Ita cuncti mss., tribus exceptis, ubi legitur impietas est ; pro quo posuerunt omnes edit., « impietas non est. »
So all the manuscripts, three excepted, where impietas est (it is impiety) is read; for which all the editions put "impietas non est" (it is not impiety).
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Omnes edit. cum paucis mss., « de fratris morte ; » cæteri, majori numero, et meliori sensu, « de fratre. »
All the editions with a few manuscripts read "de fratris morte" (about my brother's death); the rest, greater in number and with better sense, "de fratre" (about my brother).
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Mss. aliquot, « dicit : Sic eum volo manere. »
Some manuscripts: "he says: So I will that he remain."
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Non pauci mss., « liberam sortem. » Non male, cum ea sors vere sit libera, quæ pro libito quoscunque sive senes sive juvenes carpit. Potuit tamen error esse scriptorum, a quibus liberam pro liberum exaratum sit.
A good many manuscripts read "liberam sortem" (a free lot). Not badly, since that lot is truly free which at its pleasure plucks any whatever, old or young. Yet it could have been a scribes' error, by whom liberam was written for liberum.
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Quidam mss., « sensum doloris odbuleat. »
Some manuscripts: "sensum doloris odbuleat" [verb as printed, apparently corrupt; the sense seems to be "should dull the feeling of grief"].
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Mss. nonnulli, « speramus (quidam, spe paramus) sperare possimus. »
Some manuscripts: "speramus (some, spe paramus) sperare possimus" (we hope [some: we prepare in hope] that we may be able to hope).
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Nonnulli mss., « Non esset vita et tempus divisum. »
Some manuscripts: "Life and time would not be divided."
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Codex Turon., « Distincta moriendi contubernia. »
The Tours codex: "Distinct fellowships of dying."
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Rom. edit., « et lacryma, juxta propheticum, etc. »
The Roman edition: "and a tear, according to the prophetic [word], etc."
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Ita mss. plures, ac probatiores, a quibus vet. edit. non recedunt, nisi quod pro lacrymavit, ubique præferunt lacrymatus est : nonnulli autem mss. et Rom. edit., « sed lacrymavit in eo, qui tristis fuit : lacrymavit in eo, qui crucifixus est, qui mortuus est, qui sepultus est. . . . . In eo lacrymavit, quod matrem Sion dixit. »
So read most manuscripts, and the better attested, from which the old editions do not depart, except that for lacrymavit they everywhere offer lacrymatus est (he wept); but some manuscripts and the Roman edition: "but he wept in that [nature] which was sorrowful: he wept in that which was crucified, which died, which was buried. . . . . He wept in that which called Sion mother."
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Codex Remig. et Benign., « Deus homo natus est : » melius alii, et edit., « Datus natus ; » hic enim temporali generationi æterna opponitur. Infra etiam pro « et natus et datus, » iidem habent, « et factus et datus. »
The codices of St. Remi and St. Bénigne: "God was born man"; better, the others and the editions: "Given, born"; for here the eternal generation is set against the temporal. Below, too, for "both born and given" the same have "both made and given."
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Plerique mss., « sed in uno concurrit nomine. » Et infra, pro « in utroque perfectus, » iidem exhibent, « utrinque perfectus. »
Most manuscripts: "but he concurs in one name." And below, for "perfect in each," the same give "perfect on both sides."
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Mss. aliquot, « factus est in ea. Dissimilis utique, etc. »
Some manuscripts: "was made in her. Unlike indeed, etc."
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Tractatus quandoque idem est ac simplex expositio : hic vero idem sonat, ac disceptatio seu polemica disputatio. Nec absurdum videri debet quod hoc loco controversiam fidei perstringere neutiquam alienum putavit Ambrosius. Hoc namque attribuendum est Arianorum improbitati, qui, cum adhuc frequentes essent Mediolani, crebro catholicos versutiis suis exagitabant.
Tractatus is sometimes the same as a simple exposition; but here it means the same as a debate or polemical disputation. Nor should it seem absurd that Ambrose thought it by no means out of place to touch on a controversy of faith here. For this must be put down to the wickedness of the Arians, who, being still numerous at Milan, often harassed the Catholics with their cunning.
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Nonnulli mss., « sed consulendi hodie, » etc.
Some manuscripts: "but of consulting today," etc.
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Pauci mss., « sed imperandus est mihi mœror. »
A few manuscripts: "but my grief must be commanded."
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Ita mss. prope ad unum ; edit. vero, « ut nobis etiam mœroris istius minuas ; » Rom., minuisti.
So the manuscripts almost to a man; but the editions: "that you may lessen for us even this grief"; the Roman, minuisti (you have lessened).
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Mss. haud pauci, » non coarctavit animus ; » alii aliquot, « non corruit animus ; » elegantius cæteri ac edit. ut in textu.
Not a few manuscripts: "the mind did not constrict"; some others: "the mind did not collapse"; more elegantly, the rest and the editions as in the text.
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Quam antiquus ac frequens in Ecclesia votorum usus exsistat, et quam efficax tam depellendis periculis, quam beneficiis a Deo impetrandis sanctorum patrocinium, locupletissimus testis est Ambrosius. Confer cum hoc loco alium quam simillimum in Exhort. virgin. cap. 3, num. 15. Quibus addesis etiam quæ de invocatione eorumdem sanctorum lib. De viduis cap. 9, traduntur a beato doctore.
How ancient and frequent the use of vows is in the Church, and how effective the patronage of the saints is, both for warding off dangers and for obtaining benefits from God, Ambrose is a most ample witness. Compare with this passage another very like it in the Exhortation to Virginity, ch. 3, no. 15. To these add also what the blessed doctor teaches on the invocation of the same saints in the book On Widows, ch. 9.
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Nonnulli mss. « commeatum impetrare vivendi. » Minus commode.
Some manuscripts: "to obtain a furlough of living." Less suitably.
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Vet. edit. ac plures mss., « flatus meos inspirasse ; » melius Rom. edit., cum aliis mss., « flatus in os inspirasse. » In hunc porro locum observat Nannius Ambrosium hic decertare cum Virgilii luctu, et in prosa ipsa superare carminis gratiam. Quod autem addit eumdem sanctum non secutum hic esse errores gentilium, qui ex Pythagorica metempsychosi morientis animam exceptabant hianti ore, quasi ejus spiritu posthac victuri : nihil sane verius illa Nannii opinione, cum alias causas Ambrosius confestim subdat. Virgiliana vero carmina quæ ille refert, sequentia sunt et lib. IV Æneid. / ... Et extremus si quis super halitus errat, / Ore legam. / Subjungit et alios Statii versus e lib. II Sylvar., (continues)
The old editions and most manuscripts: "to have breathed my breaths in"; better, the Roman edition with other manuscripts: "to have breathed breaths into his mouth." On this passage, further, Nannius observes that Ambrose here vies with Virgil's mourning, and in prose itself surpasses the grace of the poem. As for his adding that the same saint did not here follow the errors of the pagans, who, from the Pythagorean transmigration of souls, caught the soul of the dying with open mouth, as if thereafter to live by his spirit: nothing indeed is truer than that opinion of Nannius, since Ambrose at once supplies other reasons. The Virgilian verses he cites are the following, from book IV of the Aeneid: / "... and if any last breath still hovers, / let me gather it with my mouth." / He adds also other verses of Statius from book II of the Silvae, (continues)
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(continued) sed eamdem sententiam plane efferentes. Si quis autem alios veterum ritus circa morientes avet cognoscere, adeat Jos. Laurentii Polymathiam lib. III, synopsi 9, sicut et auctores ab eodem illic citatos.
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Mss. aliquot, « ore religabam ; » cæteri atque edit., « ore relegebam, » Rom. ex Virg. supra citato, legebam. Infra vero ubi omnes edit. ac pauci mss., « morte redolebat ; » reliqui mss. magno numero præferunt, « morte redolebam. »
Some manuscripts: "ore religabam" (I bound with my mouth); the rest and the editions: "ore relegebam" (I gathered again with my mouth); the Roman, from the Virgil cited above, legebam (I gathered). But below, where all the editions and a few manuscripts have "morte redolebat" (he was fragrant in death), the remaining manuscripts, in great number, offer "morte redolebam" (I was fragrant in death).
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Mss. non pauci, « in ipsa morte redolebam. »
Not a few manuscripts: "I was fragrant in death itself."
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Nonnulli mss., « perculeret aspectum. » Haud malo sensu.
Some manuscripts: "perculeret [as read; probably percuteret, struck] aspectum" (should strike the sight). Not a bad sense.
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Omnes edit., « in publicis ecclesiæ ; » Paris. quædam, Ecclesiis : optime vero mss. prope ad unum, « in fabricis Ecclesiæ. » Infra etiam pro, « Ut vereor » quod erat in omnibus edit. ac mss. quibusdam, alii mss. frequentissimi legunt, « ut non verear. » Quod autem præmittitur de fabricis ecclesiæ, de constructione intelligendum est illius basilicæ, quam vir sanctus Mediolani construxit, et eamdem esse ad epistolam 22 adnotavimus, cujus ab eo ibidem fit mentio. Ejus etiam meminit Gregorius Turonensis lib. I de Gloria Martyr. cap. 47, sicut et Ughellus tomo IV Ital. sacræ, pag. 34. Neque officit, quod hac in Oratione Ambrosius testatur curam rerum temporalium a fratre Satyro susceptam esse ; quidquid enim ad Ecclesiæ decus pertinet, ab episcopali officio non esse alienum ipsemet profiteatur lib. II Offic. cap. 21.
All the editions: "in the public [affairs] of the church"; a certain Paris [edition], Ecclesiis (churches); but best, the manuscripts almost to a man: "in the buildings of the Church." Below too, for "As I fear," which stood in all the editions and some manuscripts, other manuscripts, very numerous, read "that I may not fear." What is said first about the buildings of the church is to be understood of the construction of that basilica which the holy man built at Milan; we noted on Letter 22 that it is the same one he mentions there. Gregory of Tours also mentions it, book I On the Glory of the Martyrs, ch. 47, as does Ughelli, vol. IV of Italia sacra, p. 34. Nor does it stand in the way that in this Oration Ambrose testifies that the care of temporal affairs was taken up by his brother Satyrus; for he himself declares, On Duties book II, ch. 21, that whatever pertains to the beauty of the Church is not foreign to the episcopal office.
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Non pauci mss., « Vere, ut eum gradum, » etc.
Not a few manuscripts: "Truly, that that rank," etc.
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Codex Tur. solus, « affectum mutatum. » Sequenti autem versu multi cod. simul, « non ad sanctam gratiam vigor solitus pœnitebat ; » melius tamen alii, ac omnes edit. ut in textu.
The Tours codex alone: "affection changed." In the next line, moreover, many codices together: "his wonted vigour did not repent towards holy grace"; better, however, the others and all the editions, as in the text.
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Mss. aliquot omittunt, « fraternæ oblitus absentiæ. » Non pravo sensu.
Some manuscripts omit "forgetful of his brother's absence." Not in a bad sense.
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Non pauci mss., « solitos excipere sermones. »
Not a few manuscripts: "to take up the accustomed conversations."
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Ideo efficaces, id est, ad agendum acres atque habiles, innocentibus ac simplicibus hic opponuntur, quia cum illis plus insit sanguinis et caloris, facilius affectibus cupiditatis aut odii abripiuntur, quam alii.
The effective, that is, those keen and apt for action, are here set against the innocent and simple, because, having more blood and heat in them, they are more easily carried away by passions of desire or hatred than others.
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Mss. aliquot, « eorum exspectanda perceptio ». Et infra partim, « maturo tui obitu, » partim « maturiori obitu ; » alii vero, et edit. ut in textu.
Some manuscripts: "the receiving of them is to be awaited." And below, some "by your timely death," some "by a more timely death"; but others, and the editions, as in the text.
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Sentinoso, id est, in cujus sentinam aqua multa per fatiscentes rimas influebat.
Sentinoso (leaky in the bilge), that is, [a ship] into whose bilge much water was flowing through gaping cracks.
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Edit. quædam Paris., « creditis sollicitudinem ; » reliquæ ac mss. melius, « creditis solitudinem ; » solitudo enim et orbitas de morte dicuntur proximorum. Tertio autem versu deest in mss. pluribus vox vota, qua quidem exempta, sensus adhuc integer constat, sed tamen aliquid adimitur concinnitati.
A certain Paris edition: "you believe the anxiety"; the others and the manuscripts better: "you believe the loneliness"; for loneliness and bereavement are spoken of the death of those closest. In the third line, moreover, the word vota (prayers) is missing in most manuscripts; with it removed the sense still stands whole, yet something is taken from the balance of the phrase.
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Eodem sensu fletus pauperum supra vocabat « lacrymas redemptrices. » Sed et passim in hac oratione quam efficacia vivorum pro defunctis suffragia, nec non sanctorum pro utrisque subsidia jam a primis Ecclesiæ sæculis crederentur, manifestum fit.
In the same sense he called the weeping of the poor, above, "redeeming tears." And indeed throughout this oration it becomes plain how effective the prayers of the living for the dead, and also the help of the saints for both, were believed to be already from the first centuries of the Church.
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Nonnulli mss., « suscepit tamen datum : et si non appellavit... non resedit in lectulo. »
Some manuscripts: "yet he received what was given: and if he did not call... he did not sit back on his couch."
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Mss. aliquot, « resurrectio corporalis. »
Some manuscripts: "bodily resurrection."
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Mss. nonnulli, « mutaret intellectum ejus, aut fictio deciperet animam ejus. »
Some manuscripts: "should change his understanding, or deceit beguile his soul."
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Plures mss. et Amerb., « Nam qui eras... (continues)
Most manuscripts and Amerbach: "For you who were... (continues)
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(continued) misericordia in tuos ; » quidam meliuscule, « pronus in tuos ; » elegantius tamen alii, atque edit ut in contextu.
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Nannius ubi adnotavit in aliis cod. pro concædibus haberi congeribus (in quibusdam scribitur congeriebus , in aliis vero aggeribus, id est, stragibus dejectarum arborum, ut itinera hostibus intercluderentur : subjungit, quid sit melius, aliis divinandum se relinquere ; cum voce concædibus intelligi possint multa ligna quasi communi cæde ac simul strata. Et certe non aberravit a scopo hæc conjectura ; eadem enim voce hoc ipso sensu Tacitum lib. I usum reperias. Consequenter autem, ubi nos cum Gill., Rom. edit. ac mss. aliquot, « tam tenui discrimine, » etc., edit. Amerb. et Eras. cum mss. nonnullis præferunt, « in tanto teneri discrimine tuos ab hoste impuro ; » alii vero mss. non parvo numero, « tam tenui ab hoste discrimine tuos esse, ab hoste impuro, » etc. Minime male.
Nannius, having noted that in other codices congeribus is found for concaedibus (in some congeriebus is written, in others aggeribus, that is, barricades of felled trees, so that the roads might be closed to the enemy), adds that he leaves it to others to divine which is better; since by the word concaedibus may be understood many trees laid low together as by a common felling. And certainly this conjecture did not miss the mark; for you will find Tacitus, book I, using the same word in this very sense. Next, where we, with Gillot, the Roman edition and some manuscripts, read "by so slight a margin," etc., the editions of Amerbach and Erasmus with some manuscripts prefer "that your people are held in so great a danger from the foul enemy"; and other manuscripts, in no small number, "that your people are by so slight a margin from the enemy, from the foul enemy," etc. Not at all badly.
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Cod. Remig. et Benign., « perpeti : atque (quod gravius est) ferre cogemur. » Minus commode. Averte autem hic perpeti idem sonare ac non impedire, quod sane levius est quam si spectare turpitudinem quis cogeretur.
The codices of St. Remi and St. Bénigne: "to endure: and (what is heavier) we shall be compelled to bear." Less suitably. Note [printed Averte, for Adverte] that perpeti here means the same as "not to prevent," which is surely lighter than if one were compelled to look upon the shame.
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Ambrosius eodem modo Symmachum Satyri parentem hoc loco vocat, quo ab eodem epist. 17, num. 12, epist. 17, et epist. 53 num. 5, Theodosius Valent. Minoris et Gratiani parens dicitur, et quo etiam in bene multis Codicis Theod. legibus superiores imperatores licet sanguine prorsus alieni eodem titulo a successoribus ornantur suis, nimirum honoris ac venerationis gratia, et forte hic etiam animi acceptorum beneficiorum non immemoris testimonio. Hinc autem conjicimus Satyrum in reditu ex Africa Roma transiisse.
Ambrose calls Symmachus Satyrus's "parent" in this passage in the same way as, in his Letter 17, no. 12, Letter 17 [so the blurred print appears to read], and Letter 53, no. 5, Theodosius is called the parent of Valentinian the Younger and of Gratian; and as also in a great many laws of the Theodosian Code earlier emperors, though wholly unrelated by blood [prorsus; the print is blurred], are honoured with the same title by their successors, plainly for the sake of honour and reverence, and here perhaps also in witness of a mind not forgetful of benefits received. From this we conjecture that Satyrus passed through Rome on his return from Africa.
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Hic aperta, ut advertit Nannius, imitatio est hujusce loci Virgiliani : / .......................Tuque, o sanctissima conjux, / Felix morte tua, nec in hunc servata dolorem.
Here, as Nannius observes, there is an open imitation of this passage of Virgil: / "... and you, O most holy wife, / happy in your death, and not kept for this grief."
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Ab antiquis petita fuit ea consuetudo, qua morientium oculi conjunctissimorum manibus claudebantur. Ejus meminit ac rationem reddit Plinius lib. XI, cap. 37, et alii multi mentionem faciunt.
That custom, by which the eyes of the dying were closed by the hands of their nearest, was taken from the ancients. Pliny mentions it and gives the reason for it, book XI, ch. 37, and many others make mention of it.
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Hoc etiam in usu positum apud Romanos, ut cadavera parentum a filiis, cognatorum a consanguineis, imperatorum a principibus senatus efferentur ad rogum vel ad tumulum. Sic posterioribus quoque sæculis divum Ludovicum Philippi filii ac successoris cervice portatum ad majorum sepulcra cognoscimus. Sed hæc obvia.
This too was established in use among the Romans, that the bodies of parents should be carried out to the pyre or the tomb by their sons, those of kinsmen by blood relations, those of emperors by the leading men of the senate. So in later ages too we know that Saint Louis was carried to the tombs of his forebears on the shoulders of Philip, his son and successor. But these things are well known.
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Mss. aliquot, « expressiore mentis quam corporis similitudine. » Non satis recte. Ex hoc autem loco intelligamus licet episcoporum vestes ab aliorum cultu potius simplicitate ac modestia, quam forma vel colore fuisse diversas. Hoc pulchre confirmatur epistola Cœlestini I ad episcopos Viennensis provinciæ ita scribentis : « Discernendi a plebe vel cæteris sumus doctrina, non veste : conversatione, non habitu : mentis puritate, non cultu, » etc. Vide similiter quæ de vestimentis, quibus Augustinus indui solebat, tradit Possidius. Nonnulli mss., « nescio quam expressiorem mentis quam corporis similitudinem habere videbamur. »
Some manuscripts: "by a likeness more pronounced of mind than of body." Not quite rightly. From this passage, moreover, we may understand that bishops' clothing differed from the dress of others in simplicity and modesty rather than in shape or colour. This is finely confirmed by the letter of Celestine I to the bishops of the province of Vienne, who writes thus: "We are to be distinguished from the people and from others by doctrine, not by dress; by conduct, not by garb; by purity of mind, not by attire," etc. See likewise what Possidius relates about the clothes Augustine used to wear. Some manuscripts: "we seemed to have I know not what likeness, more pronounced of mind than of body."
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Et hoc queque, inquit Nannius, aliqua ex parte a Virgilio mutuo sumptum est : / Daucia, Laride, Tymberque, simillima proles, / Indiscreta suis, gratusque parentibus error.
"And this too [queque, as printed, for quoque]," says Nannius, "is in some part borrowed from Virgil: / 'Larides and Thymber, sons of Daucus, likest of offspring, / not to be told apart by their own, a sweet confusion to their parents.'"
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Omnes edit., « ad alterutrum pervenirent ; » omnes mss., ad alterum pervenireut. Meliori sensu. Quod autem adverbio plerumque in quibusdam mss. additur complacitum, id prorsus videtur supervacaneum. Adverte porro quanta fuerit Ambrosii nostri in amicorum secretis fides, et quam sancta cautaque religio.
All the editions: "should come to one or the other"; all the manuscripts: ad alterum pervenireut [sic, for pervenirent] (should come to the other). In a better sense. That complacitum is added to the adverb plerumque in some manuscripts seems quite superfluous. Note, further, how great was our Ambrose's faithfulness in the secrets of friends, and how holy and careful his scruple.
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Vet. edit., timere desiderarem ; Rom. et mss. frequentissimi, timere desieram. Infra vero ubi omnes edit., quam inexplorata vulnera ; mss. prope ad unum, quam explorata vulnera. Absurdo sensu.
The old editions: timere desiderarem (I should wish to fear); the Roman and the great majority of manuscripts: timere desieram (I had ceased to fear). But below, where all the editions have quam inexplorata vulnera (than unforeseen wounds), the manuscripts almost to a man have quam explorata vulnera (than foreseen wounds). An absurd sense.
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Ita Rom. edit. et plures mss. ; vet. autem edit. cum mss. nonnullis, vindicabit usu. Non diversa sententia ; idem enim sonat ac liberabit rerum temporalium cura et commercio. Rursus continuo post, ubi Gil. edit. et Rom. cum paucis mss. actor negotiorum ; Amerb., Eras. ac mss. longe plurimi, auctor negotiorum.
So the Roman edition and most manuscripts; but the old editions with some manuscripts: vindicabit usu. Not a different meaning; for it means the same as "will free from the care and traffic of temporal things." Again, immediately after, where Gillot's edition and the Roman with a few manuscripts have actor negotiorum (manager of affairs), Amerbach, Erasmus and by far the most manuscripts have auctor negotiorum.
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Mss. complures, « qui nullum læderes, atque, » etc. ; melius alii, atque edit. ut in textu. Est enim Terentiana locutio ex Adelph. act. V, sc. 4 : « Nulli lædere os, arridere omnibus, » etc.
Many manuscripts: "you who would hurt no one, and," etc.; better, others and the editions, as in the text. For it is an expression of Terence, from the Adelphoe, act V, scene 4: "to affront no one, to smile on all," etc.
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Platonem videtur innuere, qui cum alibi, tum lib. IV de Legib., de divino cultu disputat, et administratione reipublicæ. Quod autem subditur de cognitione sui et vita recte instituenda ex Alcibiade I petitum est.
He seems to hint at Plato, who both elsewhere and in book IV of the Laws discusses divine worship and the government of the state. What is added about self-knowledge and the right ordering of life is taken from the Alcibiades I.
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Remig. et Benig. cod., « in disciplina potuissent, nisi... fonte potassent. »
The codices of St. Remi and St. Bénigne: "they could have in discipline, unless... they had drunk from the spring."
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Mss. aliquot, « non ut curiosus oculos arca- (continues)
Some manuscripts: "not that, being curious, [he might bring] his eyes [to the] secret (continues)
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nis insereret. » Multa sunt in hoc unico loco, quae veterem Ecclesiae disciplinam patefaciant: primo enim hic vides, sicut et alibi frequenter eucharistiam « divinum fidelium sacramentum vocari; » deinde eamdem diligenter oculis subtractam fuisse non initiatorum; tertio non tantum ad praesentem usum consecrari solitam, verum etiam ad futurum servari; postremo ejusdem a Christianis in periculis suis secum deferendae consuetudinem advertere est. De primis duobus jam non semel a nobis dictum, quod sufficiat: ad posteriora vero capita confirmanda lectores tantummodo remittendi sunt ad Tertullianum lib. II ad Uxor. cap. 5; Cyprianum de Lapsis; ubi mirabilem ignis ex arca, in qua idem sacramentum includebatur, eruptionem narrat; Eusebium lib. VI Hist. Eccles. cap. 44, Gregorium magnum lib. III Dialog. cap. 33, et Joannem Diaconum eadem lib. I Vitae Gregorii referentem. Quibus atque aliis addere licet etiam recentiores Spenceum [reading uncertain] lib. II de Adorat. Euchar., card. Bonam lib. II Rerum Liturg. cap. 17, Mabillonium lib. I de Liturg. Gall. cap. 9, Thyersium de Frequenti exposit. Sacram., et alios.
…‹should› put [it] in." There are many things in this one passage that lay open the ancient discipline of the Church. First, you see here, as often elsewhere too, that the Eucharist "is called the divine sacrament of the faithful"; next, that it was carefully withdrawn from the eyes of the uninitiated; third, that it was customarily consecrated not only for present use but was also kept for the future; lastly, one may notice the custom among Christians of carrying it with them in their dangers. On the first two we have already said enough more than once; for confirming the latter points, readers need only be referred to Tertullian, To his Wife book II ch. 5; to Cyprian, On the Lapsed, where he tells of a marvellous burst of fire from the box in which this same sacrament was shut; to Eusebius, Church History book VI ch. 44; to Gregory the Great, Dialogues book III ch. 33; and to John the Deacon, who relates the same in book I of the Life of Gregory. To these and others one may add more recent writers too: Spenceus [reading uncertain], book II On the Adoration of the Eucharist; Cardinal Bona, book II of the Rerum Liturgicarum ch. 17; Mabillon, book I On the Gallican Liturgy ch. 9; Thiers, On the Frequent Exposition of the Sacrament; and others.
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Orarium quid sit, Nannius exponit in hunc modum: « Orarium hic idem genus vestis cum eo, quod nunc in sacrificali cultu stola dicitur, apud veteres infula nominatur: cujus extremitates vittae dicuntur, et etiam nunc in baptismo pueris initiandis imponitur. Insigne illud et hostiarum, et sacerdotum est: credo ideo Christianis solemne fuisse, quod sanctus Petrus genus Christianorum et regium et sacerdotale appellat. » Ita ille. Sed praeterquam quod multa confundit, quae sunt inter se distinctissima, extra dubium est ab eo alienam huic loco orarii significationem afferri. Namque orarium hic idem plane est, atque supra epist. 22, num. 9, nempe sudarium, strophium, seu linteum abstergendae faciei destinatum, quo sensu apud ejusdem aetatis scriptores crebro invenitur.
What the orarium is, Nannius explains in this way: "The orarium here is the same kind of garment as that which is now called the stole in the sacrificial rite; among the ancients it is named the infula; its ends are called vittae, and even now it is put on children who are to be initiated in baptism. It is the badge both of victims and of priests: I believe it was customary among Christians for this reason, that Saint Peter calls the race of Christians both royal and priestly." So he. But besides confusing many things that are quite distinct from one another, it is beyond doubt that he brings in a meaning of orarium foreign to this passage. For orarium here is plainly the same as above, Letter 22, no. 9: namely a sudarium, a strophium, or linen cloth meant for wiping the face, the sense in which it is often found in writers of the same age.
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Quidam mss., « tabulam supersederit... cui crediderat. »
Some manuscripts: "tabulam supersederit... cui crediderat" ("had sat upon the plank... to which he had entrusted himself").
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Mss. aliquot, « nullum ad referendam gratiam, » etc.
Several manuscripts: "nullum ad referendam gratiam" ("none for returning thanks"), etc.
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Non abhorret, inquit Nannius, hoc ipsum a lege Persica, cujus meminit Xenophon, secundum quam summa poena plectebantur, qui ingratitudinis convicti essent. Addere praeterea poterat illam veterum legem, qua libertos qui adversus patronos ingrati exstitissent, licebat revocare in servitutem, quo alluditur a Terentio Andriae actu I, sc. 1, hoc Simonis ad Sosiam libertum dicto, haud muto factum. Consule similiter quae de remetiendis beneficiis disputat Ambrosius lib. I Offic. et locos Officiorum Ciceron. ibidem indicatos.
This very thing, says Nannius, is not far from the Persian law, which Xenophon mentions, under which those convicted of ingratitude were punished with the severest penalty. He might also have added that ancient law by which freedmen who had proved ungrateful to their patrons could be recalled into slavery, to which Terence alludes in the Andria, act I, sc. 1, in Simo's saying to his freedman Sosia, "haud muto factum" ("I do not repent of what I did"). Consult likewise what Ambrose argues about repaying benefits in measure, On Duties book I, and the passages of Cicero's On Duties indicated there.
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Eadem antipallage usus est Ambrosius lib. VI in Lucam, num. 25. Hanc autem figuram eum e Ciceronis Orat. pro Cn. Planco mutuatum esse monet Nannius Tullianaque verba examinari a Juliano rhetore apud Gellium lib. I, cap. 4. Mss. nonnulli, « hujusmodi gratia ejus. »
Ambrose used the same antipallage in book VI on Luke, no. 25. Nannius notes that he borrowed this figure from Cicero's Oration for Gnaeus Plancius, and that Cicero's words are examined by the rhetor Julianus in Gellius, book I, ch. 4. Some manuscripts: "hujusmodi gratia ejus" ("such is his gratitude").
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Mss. aliquot, « ad id lucrum. » Sed non dubius scriptorum lapsus. Quod autem Luciferum spectat, isthaec de illo tradiderunt Patres atque ecclesiastici rerum historici. Erat hic Calaritanus in Sardinia episcopus, qui cum in synodo Mediolanensi morem Constantio imperatori gerere detrectasset, una cum Dionysio, Eusebio, Paulino et Rhodanio sanctis atque catholicis episcopis ejectus fuit in exsilium, in quo mutatis subinde locis, usque ad Juliani Caesaris tempora perseveravit. Exsul Athanasium defendit, editis adversus Constantium praeclaris libris, propter quos eum tanquam sincero martyrii desiderio incensum maximi quique ejusdem aetatis viri prae- (continues)
Several manuscripts: "ad id lucrum" ("to that gain"). But it is an undoubted slip of the copyists. As for Lucifer, the Fathers and the historians of church affairs have handed down the following about him. He was bishop of Cagliari in Sardinia; having refused at the synod of Milan to comply with the emperor Constantius, he was driven into exile together with Dionysius, Eusebius, Paulinus and Rhodanius, holy and catholic bishops, and in exile, moving from place to place, he remained until the time of Julian Caesar. As an exile he defended Athanasius, publishing excellent books against Constantius, on account of which all the greatest men of the same age ‹praised› him as one burning with a sincere desire for martyrdom … (continues)
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dicarunt. Verum idem cum in occidentem rediens, Antiochiam, qua iter illi erat, divisam inter Eustathianos ac Meletianos offendisset, Paulinumque in priorum gratiam ordinasset, longo dissidio, de quo supra ad epist. 58 a nobis dictum est, causam praebuit. Improbavit Paulini ordinationem sanctus Eusebius: quam injuriam Lucifer suam interpretatus, ipse concilium Alexandrinum, cui tamen per legatum suum subscripserat, non recipere constituit, seque ab iis omnibus separavit, qui quempiam eorum a quibus ulli Arianorum formulae subscriptum esset, in communionem suam admisissent. Et hanc originem Luciferianorum schismati attribuunt. Non desunt etiam qui illud Luciferi adversus Eusebium invidentiae, Hieronymo dissentiente, acceptum ferant: sed nec alii, a quibus illud cum haeresi circa infusionem animae junctum dicatur. At neutrum satis credibile est. De Lucifero praeter Ambrosium hoc ipso loco, Hieronymum Dialogo adversus Luciferianos, Rufinum lib. I cap. 19 et seq. et Augustinum de Haeres. cap. 81; egerunt etiam Socrates lib. III cap. 5 et seq., Sozomenus lib. V, cap. 12 et 13, Theodoretus, lib. 3, cap. 5, atque alii.
…proclaimed. But the same man, returning to the West, found Antioch, through which his road lay, divided between the Eustathians and the Meletians; and having ordained Paulinus to please the former, he gave rise to a long dissension, of which we have spoken above at Letter 58. Saint Eusebius disapproved of Paulinus's ordination; Lucifer, taking this as an injury to himself, resolved not to accept the council of Alexandria, to which he had nevertheless subscribed through his legate, and separated himself from all who had admitted to their communion anyone who had subscribed to any of the Arians' formulas. And to this they attribute the origin of the Luciferian schism. There are also those who, Jerome dissenting, put the schism down to Lucifer's jealousy of Eusebius; nor are others lacking by whom it is said to have been joined with a heresy about the infusion of the soul. But neither is credible enough. On Lucifer, besides Ambrose in this very passage, Jerome in the Dialogue against the Luciferians, Rufinus book I ch. 19 ff., and Augustine On Heresies ch. 81 have treated; so too Socrates book III ch. 5 ff., Sozomen book V ch. 12 and 13, Theodoret book 3 ch. 5, and others.
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Jam non semel significatum est ab Ambrosio Satyrum, cum navigationi sese committeret, necdum baptismate fuisse regeneratum. Nihil quidem illis temporibus usitatius erat, quam hoc sacramentum usque ad provectiorem aetatem protrahere, quod cum a multis ea mente fieret, ut liberius cupiditatibus suis frena laxarent, a Patribus graviter ac vehementer reprehendebatur, quemadmodum in Ambrosio nostro saepius licuit observare. Verum Satyri vita tam pie sancteque instituta hic describitur, ut hujusmodi suspicione prorsus liberetur. Potuit nihilominus ipse hoc de se caute vereri, quod timebat de Augustino Monica mater, nimirum ne baptismalem gratiam, qua eum nunquam excidisse Ambrosius testatur, aliquo juvenili aestu abreptus amitteret, si ad eum immaturiori adhuc aetate accessisset. Admonitus porro naufragii discrimine, quod evaserat, ad baptismum ea, quam vidimus, cautione properavit. Neque vero ad solitos catechumenorum gradus observandos adactus fuit; nam quoties urgeret periculum, illos omitti consuevisse intelligimus ex eorum baptismo, qui sontico morbo exagitati eodem sacramento initiabantur. Quod ad locum ubi tinctus fuit Satyrus noster, cum Ambrosius silentio eum praeterierit, confidentiam justo majorem praeferunt Decreti correctores, quippe qui ab Ambrosio narrari scribunt Satyrum, « cum in Sardiniam appulisset, ad se episcopum Sardum advocasse, » etc. Verumtamen etsi Rufinus dum lib. I, cap. 30, scribit de Luciferiano schismate, « quod licet per paucos adhuc volvitur, » quodammodo videatur illis favere; nihil tamen vetat quominus illud non tantum usque in Siciliam, sed etiam usque ad viciniores Africae oras serpere potuerit.
Ambrose has already indicated more than once that Satyrus, when he committed himself to the voyage, had not yet been regenerated by baptism. Indeed nothing was more usual in those times than to put off this sacrament to a more advanced age; and since many did so with the intention of slackening the reins on their desires more freely, it was gravely and vehemently censured by the Fathers, as we have often been able to observe in our Ambrose. But the life of Satyrus is described here as so piously and holily ordered that he is wholly freed from any suspicion of that kind. He could nonetheless have prudently feared for himself what his mother Monica feared for Augustine: namely that, carried away by some youthful heat, he might lose the baptismal grace (from which Ambrose testifies he never fell) if he had come to it at a still immature age. Warned, moreover, by the peril of the shipwreck he had escaped, he hastened to baptism with the caution we have seen. Nor was he made to keep the usual grades of the catechumens; for we understand that whenever danger pressed they were customarily omitted, from the baptism of those who were initiated into that same sacrament when stricken by a grave illness. As to the place where our Satyrus was baptized, since Ambrose passes it over in silence, the correctors of the Decretum show more confidence than is just, for they write that Ambrose relates that Satyrus, "when he had put in to Sardinia, called a Sardinian bishop to him," etc. Yet although Rufinus, writing of the Luciferian schism in book I ch. 30, that "although it still rolls on among a few," may seem in some way to favour them, nothing prevents that schism from having been able to creep not only as far as Sicily but even to the nearer shores of Africa.
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Sublimis idcirco praefectura dicitur, quia tribunal erat praefecti praetorio, cujus dignitas aliarum omnium apex habebatur. Ad hunc provocatio erat a praesidibus provinciarum: et in ejus foro advocati centum, saltem in Oriente, causas agebant, qui clarissimi et spectabiles dicti, varia donabantur immunitate, ut docet Jul. Caesar Buleng. lib. III de Imperio Rom. cap. 4.
It is called the "lofty prefecture" because it was the tribunal of the praetorian prefect, whose dignity was held the summit of all others. To him lay appeal from the governors of the provinces; and in his court a hundred advocates, at least in the East, pleaded causes; called clarissimi and spectabiles, they were granted various immunities, as Julius Caesar Bulenger teaches, On the Roman Empire book III ch. 4.
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Quidam mss., « non fragilitate quadam nos, » etc.
Some manuscripts: "non fragilitate quadam nos" ("not by some frailty, us"), etc.
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Nonnulli mss., « et quadam innocentium morum specula. »
Some manuscripts: "et quadam innocentium morum specula" ("and a kind of watch-tower of innocent manners").
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Pauci mss., « quam necessariam crederes. »
A few manuscripts: "quam necessariam crederes" ("than you would think necessary").
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Ideo parentis, id est, matris familias, non autem virginis occursus memoratur, quod his raro ex ædibus parentum in publicum prodire, nec unquam nisi velata facie, concederetur. Quanto minus sermones in compitis nectere cum adolescentibus !
The meeting of a parens, that is, a mother of a family, and not of a virgin, is mentioned because virgins were seldom allowed to go out from their parents' house in public, and never except with veiled face. How much less to strike up conversations at the crossroads with young men!
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« Pauper spiritu ; » his verbis additur in ant. edit. ac mss. non paucis, « quoniam ipsorum est regnum cœlorum ; » sed illa in Rom. edit. resecata sunt, et in multis etiam mss. desiderantur. Et sane assutamentum scriptoris cujusdam nobis videtur, quod non apte cum antecedentibus et consequentibus cohæret.
"Poor in spirit": in the old editions and not a few manuscripts these words are followed by "for theirs is the kingdom of heaven"; but those words were cut out in the Roman edition, and are also lacking in many manuscripts. And indeed it seems to us a patch sewn on by some copyist, since it does not fit well with what comes before and after.
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Ita vet. edit. ac plures mss. ; Rom. autem edit. cum mss. nonnullis, « forma et expressio desideratur. »
So the old editions and most manuscripts; but the Roman edition with some manuscripts: "the form and the expression is wanting."
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Studia, id est, favor ac benevolentia. Nam alioqui satis usitatum erat, ut defunctis provinciæ administratione præfectis detraherent provinciales ; imo sæpe etiam eos accusarent repetundarum.
Studia, that is, favour and goodwill. For otherwise it was common enough for provincials to disparage prefects who had finished their administration of a province; indeed they often even accused them of extortion.
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Mss. non pauci, « nec distributa aut deliberata : hoc est, immunita et decorticata.
Not a few manuscripts: "nor distributed or deliberata" [so printed; the gloss shows delibrata, stripped, is meant]: that is, diminished [printed immunita, apparently for imminuta] and stripped of bark. [the closing quotation mark is not printed]
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Veteris ejus consuetudinis, qua pueri ad officium lectoris assumebantur, jam admonuimus non uno loco.
We have already noted in more than one place that ancient custom by which boys were taken into the office of reader.
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Mss. aliquot, « nulla ordinavit dispensatio. »
Some manuscripts: "no dispensation ordained."
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Incubatorem hic eum dici, qui præsidia Satyrii atque Ambrosii occupabat, observabat Nannius ; addens insuper Dionysium Siculæ incubatorem aulæ a Macrobio vocitatum.
Nannius observed that the one here called incubator (squatter) is he who was occupying the estates of Satyrus [printed Satyrii] and Ambrose; adding besides that Dionysius was called by Macrobius the incubator of the Sicilian court.
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Omnes edit., « erant voluptati maximæ, cum recordatione doloris exasperavi ; » Gill. exasperavit ; Rom., exasperant : mss. vero ut nos in textu nisi quod pro exasperant, non pauci legunt, afferunt ; et nonnulli etiam., « recordatione dolorem exasperant.
All the editions: "they were the greatest pleasure, with the remembrance of the grief I have sharpened"; Gillot, exasperavit (he sharpened); the Roman, exasperant (they sharpen); but the manuscripts as we have it in the text, except that for exasperant not a few read afferunt (they bring); and some also: "by remembrance they sharpen the grief." [the closing quotation mark is not printed]
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Mss. duo, » sic et instruis Dei plebem » : alii totidem, « siccine Dei Ecclesiam instituis ? »
Two manuscripts: "so too you instruct the people of God"; as many others: "is it thus you instruct the Church of God?"
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Rom. edit., « Stulta, inquit... omni tristitia contristatur... et luget validissime. Et nunc quoniam omnes lugemus : et tristes sumus, quoniam omnes contristati sumus : tu vero contristaris in filio. Interroga terram... lugere tantorum casum super eam germinantium : » Vet. autem edit. ac mss. ut in textu, nisi quod Eras. et Gill. legunt etiam stulta ; sed potius esse ut retineamus vocem stulte, ex eo quod habetur infra, « contristaris in fratre, » intelligimus.
The Roman edition: "Foolish woman, he says... is saddened with every sadness... and mourns most grievously. And now, since we all mourn, and are sad, since we have all been saddened: but you are saddened over a son. Ask the earth... to mourn the fall of so many that spring up upon it." But the old editions and the manuscripts as in the text, except that Erasmus and Gillot also read stulta (foolish woman, feminine); but we understand that we should rather keep the word stulte (foolish man), from what is found below, "you are saddened over a brother."
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Ambrosius viduarum vitæ ac morum gravitate præcellentium mortem sibi dolorem singularem afferre consuevisse non uno loco testificatur.
Ambrose testifies in more than one place that the death of widows excelling in the seriousness of their life and conduct used to bring him a singular grief.
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Mss. non pauci, « Quia facilius est..... ratione apud semetipsum.
Not a few manuscripts: "Because it is easier..... with reason within himself." [the closing quotation mark is not printed]
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Ita mss. et edit., nisi quod Rom. edit. sola præfert, « et nomen quod invocatum est : » sequenti autem versu eadem edit. cum vet. edit. ac mss. nonnullis, « et juvenes nostri, » ubi mss. longe plurimi habent, « et illi nostri, » forte legendum, et filii nostri.
So the manuscripts and editions, except that the Roman edition alone offers "and the name which is invoked"; in the next line the same edition, with the old editions and some manuscripts, has "and our young men," where by far the most manuscripts have "et illi nostri" (and those of ours); perhaps one should read "and our sons." [the closing quotation mark after illi nostri is faint]
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Quidam mss., « Ades enim, et semper offerris. »
Some manuscripts: "For you are present, and are always offered [to me]."
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Videtur Ambrosius respicere ad Platonis locum in Apologia Socratis non longe a fine, ubi mortem lucrum esse disputans eam placidissimo somno assimilat. Hinc eamdem comparationem verisimile est cum alios mutuatos esse, tum Ciceronem lib, de Senectute, sicut et prima Quæst. Tuscul.
Ambrose seems to have in view the passage of Plato in the Apology of Socrates not far from the end, where, arguing that death is a gain, he likens it to a most peaceful sleep. It is likely that others borrowed the same comparison from there, and especially Cicero in the book On Old Age, as also in the first Tusculan Disputation.
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Ita cuncti mss. ac vet. edit., nisi quod pro « vergente, » in quibusdam mss. legitur, « urgente ; » at Rom. edit. proprio marte sic immutavit, « urgente jam in diem quodam noctis occasu ; » sed audacior est ea correctio, quam ut a nobis admitti queat.
So all the manuscripts and the old editions, except that for "vergente" (declining) some manuscripts read "urgente" (pressing); but the Roman edition, on its own authority, altered it thus: "with a certain setting of the night now pressing on into day"; but that correction is too bold for us to admit.
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Mss. aliquot, « in oratione revocat. . . precandi assiduitatem lacrymarum ubertate. »
Some manuscripts: "recalls in prayer. . . the constancy of praying by the abundance of tears."
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(90) ‹anchor: dolendum› · call in col 1371
Nonnulli mss., « qui se admoverit non dolenti. »
Some manuscripts: "who has drawn near to one not grieving."
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Hinc intelligas apertam fuisse Satyri cadaveris faciem.
From this you may understand that the face of Satyrus's body was uncovered.
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Cognati demortuo ter « vale » ideo conclamabant : ut non modo testarentur affectum suum, sed præterea ut si forte spiritus, qui putabatur exclusus, adhuc in eo delitesceret, istis vocibus excitaretur.
Kinsmen cried "farewell" three times over the dead for this reason: not only to bear witness to their affection, but also so that, if perhaps the spirit, thought to be shut out, still lay hidden in him, it might be roused by these cries.
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Iidem mss., « desiderabilem domum, hospitii consortium. . . cupientem deseras. »
The same manuscripts: "the longed-for home, the fellowship of lodging. . . you should forsake one who desires."
(93*) [mark as printed: 93 with a raised sign] ‹anchor: not visible in the foot image› · call not visible Et hic quoque testimonium redditur catholicorum precibus pro mortuorum subsidio et liberatione offerri solitis.
Here too witness is borne to the prayers of Catholics customarily offered for the help and deliverance of the dead.
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(94) ‹anchor: animum declinare fraternum› · call in col 1372
Mss. aliquot, « animum inclinare fraternum. »
Some manuscripts: "to bend [inclinare] a brother's mind."
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His verbis non solum indicatur hanc orationem habitam esse die septimo a sepultura ejusdem Satyri, verum etiam eumdem diem in funeribus peculiari quadam ratione coli solitum. Quod etiamnum tam circa illum, quam circa tertium, nonum ac tricesimum aliquatenus retinetur. Sed de hoc in Orat. de obit Theod.
These words show not only that this oration was delivered on the seventh day after the burial of the same Satyrus, but also that this same day was customarily kept in funerals in a particular way. This is still retained to some extent, both for that day and for the third, ninth and thirtieth. But on this, see the Oration on the Death of Theodosius.
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Plerique mss., « et in sermone moriamur. »
Most manuscripts: "and let us die in speech."
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Non pauci mss., « ab istiusmodi labore. »
Not a few manuscripts: "from labour of this kind."
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Quidam mss., « consortium refutare. »
Some manuscripts: "to refuse fellowship." [quotation marks faint]
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Herodotus, quem Cicero in « Consolatione de filiæ obitu » laudat, populos apud quos obtinebat ea consuetudo, memorat lib. V, cui licet adjicias Val. Maximum lib. II, cap. 6, Solinum, Pomp. Melam, et alios. Vide similiter Tullium sub finem primæ Tusc. Quæst., ubi eamdem illius rei causam, quæ ab Ambrosio hic subjicitur, ex Euripidis versibus promit.
Herodotus, whom Cicero praises in the "Consolation on his daughter's death," records in book V the peoples among whom that custom prevailed; to him you may add Valerius Maximus book II, ch. 6, Solinus, Pomponius Mela, and others. See likewise Cicero near the end of the first Tusculan Disputation, where he brings out of verses of Euripides the same reason for that thing which Ambrose gives here.
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Mss. aliquot, « in hoc vitæ cursu ; » unus, « in hunc vitæ cursum ; » alii nonnulli, « in hoc vitæ solum. » Sed rectius alii, et omnes edit., « in hoc vitæ salum, » id est, in hoc mare ; « salum » enim dicitur vel a ζάλη, seu ζάλος, quod est aqua fluctuans : vel σάλος, quo et mare et jactatio significatur.
Some manuscripts: "in this course of life"; one, "into this course of life"; some others, "in this soil of life." But more correctly the others, and all the editions: "in this salum of life," that is, in this sea; for salum is said either from ζάλη [the Greek word is blurred], or ζάλος, which is surging water; or from σάλος, by which both the sea and tossing are signified.
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« Natales dies defunctorum, » intellige non tantum martyrum, de quibus Cyprianus epist. passim et alii plurimi meminerunt ; sed etiam aliorum Christianorum, quorum obitus quotannis precibus atque sacrificiis celebrari consueverant, ut discere ex Tertulliano lib. de Monog. cap. 10, Denique natales dies ac natalitia præterquam quod martyribus accommodabantur, quo sensu in Paulini carminibus de sancto Felice non semel posita sunt, aptabantur etiam aliis rebus. Sic Ambrosius lib. VIII, in Luc., num. 73, et epist. IV, ad Felicem Com., num. 2, sacerdotii initi natalem dicit : quo ultimo loco etiam nonnihil a nobis observatum est.
"The birthdays of the dead": understand not only of the martyrs, whom Cyprian in his letters passim [word blurred] and very many others mention, but also of other Christians, whose deaths were customarily celebrated every year with prayers and sacrifices, as one may learn from Tertullian, On Monogamy ch. 10. Finally, "birthdays" and "natalicia," besides being applied to the martyrs (in which sense they occur more than once in Paulinus's poems on Saint Felix), were also fitted to other things. So Ambrose, On Luke book VIII, no. 73, and Letter IV, to Felix of Como, no. 2, speaks of the "birthday" of a priesthood entered upon; on which last passage we too have made some observation.
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(3) ‹anchor: Lyciorum› · call in col 1374
Hujusce legis, quæ in Lycia minoris Asiæ provincia circa lugendi modum observabatur, mentio reperitur apud Val. Maximum lib. II, cap. 6, atque Plutarchum lib. de Consolat. ad Apollon.
Mention of this law, observed in Lycia, a province of Asia Minor, concerning the manner of mourning, is found in Valerius Maximus book II, ch. 6, and in Plutarch's book Consolation to Apollonius.
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Hanc sententiam Nannius autumat deformatam esse ex illis Terentianis in Heauton. : « Aut ego profecto ingenio egregie ad miseriam natus sum ; aut illud falsum est, quod vulgo audio dici, diem adimere ægritudinem hominibus. » Item ex istis Ciceronianis lib. XII, ad Atticum epist. 5 : « Consolutionum autem multæ viæ, sed illa rectissima : impetret ratio, quod dies impetratura est. »
Nannius holds that this thought is shaped from those words of Terence in the Heautontimorumenos: "Either I was surely born with a nature singularly made for misery, or that is false which I commonly hear said, that time takes away men's grief." Likewise from these words of Cicero, To Atticus book XII, letter 5: "There are many ways of consolation [printed Consolutionum], but this is the straightest: let reason obtain what time is going to obtain."
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(5) ‹anchor: mortem appetentes› · call in col 1375
Non inepte cum hoc loco concinit, quod Martialis voluntariam Fannii mortem vituperans, epigrammati hunc finem ponit : / Hic, rogo, non furor est, ne moriare, mori ?
What Martial says fits this passage not unaptly, when, censuring the voluntary death of Fannius, he puts this end to the epigram: / "Is this not madness, I ask, to die so as not to die?"
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Cicero lib. III Tuscul. Quæst. illam mulierum in luctibus intemperantiam vocat « varia et detenabilia genera lugendi, pædores, muliebres lacerationes, genuorum, pectoris, feminum, capitis percussiones « et his similia describens et condemnans. At vix quisquam in turpitudinem illam gravius aut vehementius invectus est, quam Chrysostomus hom. 61 in cap. XI Joannis, hom. 4 in cap. II ad Hebræos, et hom. 3 in cap. I ad Philippenses. Atqui nihildum tale viderant aut audierant, quale in regionum haud pridem detectarum Relationibus memoratur, nimirum barbaras Narsingani regni feminas cum mariti cadavere turmatim aut vivas humari, aut cremari pro dignitate conjugis.
Cicero, Tusculan Disputations book III, calls that intemperance of women in mourning "various and detestable [printed detenabilia] kinds of mourning, squalor, womanish lacerations, the beating of knees [printed genuorum], breast, thighs and head," describing and condemning these and the like. But scarcely anyone inveighed against that shamefulness more gravely or vehemently than Chrysostom, Homily 61 on John ch. XI, Homily 4 on Hebrews ch. II, and Homily 3 on Philippians ch. I. And yet they had not yet seen or heard of anything such as is recorded in the Accounts of regions not long since discovered: namely, that the barbarian women of the kingdom of Narsinga, in troops, are either buried alive or burned with their husband's corpse, according to the husband's rank.
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Plerique mss., « mutasti consortium immortalium. »
Most manuscripts: "you have exchanged [it for] the fellowship of the immortals."
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(8) ‹anchor: arbitremur› · call in col 1376
Tullius lib. I Tusc. Quæst. : « Qui est, qui suorum mortem primum non eo lugeat, quod eos orbatos vitæ commodis arbitretur ? Tolle hanc opinionem, luctum sustuleris, » etc.
Cicero, Tusculan Disputations book I: "Who is there who does not mourn the death of his own first of all for this reason, that he thinks them bereft of the good things of life? Take away this opinion, and you will have taken away mourning," etc.
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Mss. prope ad unum, « quam dolere quod jam, » etc.
The manuscripts almost to a man: "than to grieve that already," etc.
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Ita omnes edit. ; mss. autem magno numero, « qua non creaverint. »
So all the editions; but the manuscripts in great number: "which they did not create."
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Complures mss., « etsi dolent discedere. »
Many manuscripts: "even if they grieve to depart."
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Ergastulum est, inquit Nannius, ubi servi vincti tenentur πρὸς τὰ ἔργα, id est, ad opera facienda.
"An ergastulum," says Nannius, "is where slaves are kept in chains πρὸς τὰ ἔργα, that is, for doing work."
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Rom. edit. sola, « Quod exemplum. » Infra vero ubi eadem edit. cum vet. ac mss. aliquot, « velut sepulto quiete corpore, » Amerb. et mss., « quieti corpore ; » ibi major numerus mss. tantum exhibet, « velut sepulti ad altiora. »
The Roman edition alone: "Which example." But below, where the same edition with the old ones and some manuscripts has "as with the body buried in rest," Amerbach and manuscripts "at rest in body," there the greater number of manuscripts gives only "as buried, to higher things."
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(14) ‹anchor: dominæ petulantiam› · call in col 1378
Mss. non pauci, « reginæ petulantiam, regis inscitiam. »
Not a few manuscripts: "the queen's wantonness, the king's ignorance."
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Pauci mss., « sapientis incidium. »
A few manuscripts: "sapientis incidium" [incidium as printed; the sense is unclear].
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Omnes edit. ac mss. nonnulli, « et vindex meus ; » alii mss. aliquot, quibus accedit Psalt. Rom. Quinc., « et judex meus ; » Remig. cum Vulg., « et castigatio mea, » in quo non discrepat ab Hebr. ubi legitur, « et increpatio mea ; » cæteri denique mss. cum Rom. psalt. comm. : et index meus, καὶ ὁ ἔλεγχός μου. Quod autem Rom. edit. cum paucis mss. pro « in matutinum, » posuit « in matutinis, » illic a mss. longe pluribus, ab ant. edit. nec non etiam ab Aug. lectione aberravit.
All the editions and some manuscripts: "and my avenger"; some other manuscripts, joined by the Roman Psalter of the Quincuplex: "and my judge"; the St. Remi codex with the Vulgate: "and my chastisement," in which it does not differ from the Hebrew, where one reads "and my rebuke"; finally, the rest of the manuscripts with the common Roman Psalter: et index meus (and my exposer), καὶ ὁ ἔλεγχός μου. As for the Roman edition, with a few manuscripts, putting "in matutinis" (in the mornings) for "in matutinum" (unto the morning), there it departed from by far the most manuscripts, from the old editions, and also from Augustine's reading.
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Augustinus lib. IV, contra Jul., cap. 12, eadem propemodum citat e lib. III, Ciceronis de Republ. unde Ambrosius etiam hunc locum videtur imitatus.
Augustine, Against Julian book IV, ch. 12, quotes almost the same words from book III of Cicero's On the Republic, from which Ambrose too seems to have imitated this passage.
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Ita edit. mss., exceptis quibusdam Paris. edit. in quibus, « nobis posterior » et mss. nonnullis, qui legunt, « nostri posterior » Remig., « non posterior fuit. » Haud incommode potest nihilominus communis lectionis hic sensus esse, ut Salomon qui dicitur profanis sapientibus antiquior, idem tamen multis nostrorum posterior sit, ut puta Job, Moyse et aliis. Quod autem ad auctorem cui ab ethnicis memorata sententia tribuitur, Aristoteles Plutarcho teste, eam, in Eudemo sive lib. de Anima, Sileno adjudicat. Idem quoque tradit Cicero lib. I Tuscul. Quæst. et in lib. de Consolatione. Vide quoque Theognidis in hanc rem epigramma ; Sophoclem in Œdip. Colon ; Lactantium lib. III, cap. 18, et Ausonium Ecloga de Vita humana.
So the editions [and] manuscripts, except certain Paris editions, in which "later than us," and some manuscripts, which read "later than ours"; the St. Remi codex: "was not later." The sense of the common reading can nonetheless quite fittingly be that Solomon, who is said to be older than the profane sages, is nevertheless later than many of ours, for instance Job, Moses and others. As for the author to whom the pagans attribute the saying mentioned, Aristotle, on Plutarch's testimony, assigns it to Silenus, in the Eudemus or the book On the Soul. Cicero reports the same in Tusculan Disputations book I and in the book On Consolation. See also Theognis's epigram on this matter; Sophocles in Oedipus at Colonus; Lactantius book III, ch. 18; and Ausonius, the Eclogue on Human Life.
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Rom. edit. cum paucis mss., « et substantia mea » vet. edit. ac mss. multo plures, « et habitudo mea. » Græce, καὶ ὑπόστασίς μου, id est, natura, constitutio, etc.
The Roman edition with a few manuscripts: "and my substance"; the old editions and many more manuscripts: "and my condition." In Greek, καὶ ὑπόστασίς μου, that is, nature, constitution, etc.
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(20) ‹anchor: remigrandum› · call in col 1381
Nonnulli mss., remigandum ; melius alii, atque edit., remigrandum.
Some manuscripts: remigandum (we must row back); better, others and the editions: remigrandum (we must move back home).
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Mss. complures, « neque profuit mihi quidquam ; » alii, et omnes edit. proprius ad prophetæ verba,... « mihi quisquam. » Totum vero locum nonnihil diverse citat Philo Judæus lib. de Confus. Ling. in hunc modum Ὦ μῆτερ, οἷόν με ἔτεκες ; ἄνθρωπον μάχης, καὶ ἄνθρωπον ἀηδίας πάσης τῆς γῆς ; οὐκ ὠφέλησα, οὐδὲ ὠφέλησάν με.
Many manuscripts: "nor has anything profited me"; others, and all the editions, nearer [printed proprius, for propius] to the prophet's words,... "[nor has] anyone [profited] me." Philo the Jew, however, quotes the whole passage somewhat differently, in the book On the Confusion of Tongues, in this way: "O mother, what a man you bore me, a man of strife and a man of displeasure to all the earth! I did not profit, nor did they profit me."
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Cicero Tusc. Quæst. sententiam hanc Platoni acceptam refert, et revera in hujus Phædono illa reperias, quæ in Tusculana citantur ab Oratore. Attamen non primum auctorem istius effati Platonem esse, sed Pythagoram discimus ex Hieronymi Apologia adv. Rufin. lib. III.
Cicero, in the Tusculan Disputations, credits this thought to Plato, and indeed you will find in his Phaedo [printed Phædono] the words the Orator quotes in the Tusculan. Yet we learn from Jerome's Apology against Rufinus, book III, that the first author of that saying was not Plato but Pythagoras.
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Mss. aliquot, « corporis atque animæ successio, » quidam succisio, meliuscule : at aliorum, et omnium edit. vera lectio est, quam retinemus. Mortis autem definitio, quam indicat sanctus antistes, ita proponitur in Platonis Gorgia : Ὁ θάνατος τυγχάνει ὤν, ὡς ἐμοὶ δοκεῖ, οὐδὲν ἄλλο ἢ δυοῖν πραγμάτοιν διάλυσις, τῆς ψυχῆς καὶ τοῦ σώματος. Cui definitioni haud absimiles in Phædonis pluribus locis inveniuntur.
Some manuscripts: "the succession of body and soul"; some, succisio (cutting apart), a little better; but the true reading, that of the others and of all the editions, is the one we keep. The definition of death that the holy bishop points to is set out thus in Plato's Gorgias: "Death, as it seems to me, happens to be nothing other than the separation of two things, the soul and the body." Definitions not unlike this are found in many places of the Phaedo.
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Triplex mortis esse genus definierat Ambrosius noster lib. de Bono Mortis, cap. 9, nec non in Luc. lib. VII., num. 35, quibus cum locis et hunc componere lectori non erit injucundum.
Our Ambrose had defined death as of three kinds in the book On the Good of Death, ch. 9, and also in On Luke book VII, no. 35; it will not be unpleasant for the reader to compare this passage with those.
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(25) ‹anchor: hujus est vitæ› · call in col 1382
Nonnulli mss., « non perfunctoria hujus est vitæ. »
Some manuscripts: "is not a perfunctory [thing] of this life."
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(26) ‹anchor: legi mentis› · call in col 1383
Nonnulli mss., « legi Dei. »
Some manuscripts: "to the law of God."
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(27) ‹anchor: jura naturae› · call in col 1384
Mss. aliquot, « non desideremus jura naturæ. »
Some manuscripts: "let us not long for the rights of nature."
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(28) ‹anchor: sicut semen istorum› · call in col 1384
Vet. edit. ac plures mss., « sicut semen justorum ; » rectius tamen edit. Rom. et alii mss., ut in contextu. Etenim ubi Hebr. et Vulg., » et fiant novissima mea eorum similia ; » LXX interpr. efferunt, καὶ γένοιτο τὸ σπέρμα μου ὡς σπέρμα τούτων.
The old editions and most manuscripts: "like the seed of the just"; more correctly, however, the Roman edition and other manuscripts, as in the text. For where the Hebrew and the Vulgate have "and let my last end be like theirs," the Seventy translators [printed interpr.] render: "and may my seed be as the seed of these."
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(29) ‹anchor: recipiat› · call in col 1384
Mss. aliquot, « neque peccati in se recipiat iniquitatem. »
Some manuscripts: "nor take into itself the iniquity of sin."
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(39) [so printed; the call in the text is (30)] ‹anchor: gravior divitibus› · call in col 1384
Omnes edit. ac mss. non pauci, « nec gratiosa divitibus, » quod quidem licet per se verum sit, ab hoc tamen loco prorsus alienum. Optime igitur Benign., Remig. et alii codices, quanquam non multi, « nec gravior divitibus. »
All the editions and not a few manuscripts: "nor pleasing to the rich," which, though true in itself, is altogether foreign to this passage. Best, then, the codices of St. Bénigne, St. Remi and others, though not many: "nor heavier for the rich."
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(31) ‹anchor: improvisa sapientibus› · call in col 1384
Nannius in eorum numerum, qui vitæ suæ turpitudinem honesta morte velaverunt, Catonis filium et Othonem imperatorem refert : de quorum etiam posteriore Ausonii versus, ac Suetonii testimonium promit. Sed alios addere potuisset haud paucos, qui sibi, ut Ambrosius indicat, famam facti sanguine redemerunt, quosque passim in litterarum monimentis offendas. Quod autem subjicitur de populis unius morte liberatis, adire licet, Exposit. in Luc. lib. VI, num. 108, et nostram ad eum locum notationem.
Nannius counts among those who veiled the shame of their life by an honourable death the son of Cato and the emperor Otho; for the latter of whom he also brings forward verses of Ausonius and the testimony of Suetonius. But he could have added not a few others who, as Ambrose indicates, bought themselves fame with blood shed by their own deed, and whom you may meet everywhere in the records of literature. As for what follows about peoples freed by the death of one man, one may consult the Exposition of Luke book VI, no. 108, and our note on that passage.
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Hoc loco et usum frontis ac pectoris cruce consignandorum indicatum voluit, et a precibus sacrificium non ambigue distinxit. Sed utrumque frequens esse apud Ambrosium saepius ante observavimus.
In this place he meant to indicate the custom of signing the forehead and breast with the cross, and he plainly distinguished the sacrifice from the prayers. But we have often observed before that both are frequent in Ambrose.
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Alludere videtur ad fabulam Tithoni, qui [?] cum ei Tethyos beneficio concessum esset immortalitatis donum, vitae tantum fastidium cepit, ut mallet in vile animaculum transformari, quam diutius humanis molestiis; atque aerumnis esse obnoxium.
He seems to allude to the fable of Tithonus, who, when the gift of immortality had been granted him by the kindness of Tethys, conceived such a weariness of life that he preferred to be changed into a lowly little creature rather than be any longer subject to human troubles and hardships.
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In psal. CXVIII, serm. 20, num. 12, quosdam de [d…, illegible] morte dubitasse ita memorat, ut se de illa certum fuisse liquido prodat.
In his exposition of Psalm 118, sermon 20, number 12, he records that some had doubted about the [illegible] death in such a way as to make it clear that he himself had been certain of it.
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Hic paucis contrahitur, quidquid profani auctores de mortis expetendae [?] ferendaeve causis tradidere. Qua de re consuli possunt Cicero lib. I Tusc. Quaest. et in Consolatione super obitu filiae; Plutarchus de Consol. ad Apoll., aliique.
Here is drawn together in a few words whatever the pagan authors handed down on the reasons for seeking or bearing death. On this matter one may consult Cicero, Tusculan Disputations book I and the Consolation on the death of his daughter; Plutarch, Consolation to Apollonius; and others.
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Mss. aliquot, « quia supra nostrum meritum Dei munus est. »
Some manuscripts: "because the gift of God is above our merit."
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Vet. edit. « occata soli ; Rom., « occata et mortua » soli; omnes mss. e contrario, occaecata, etc. Minime male: fit enim frumenti occasione, ut ipsum quasi tenebris occaecatum atque oppressum, sub gleba moriatur. Infra vero pro « herbae viridantis, » quod est in cunctis edit. ac mss. quibusdam, alii mss. multo plures efferunt, « herbae viridantes, » quidam, virides. Caeterum hujus loci cum iis, quae lib. III Hexaem. cap. 8, num. 34, traduntur de germinatione herbarum, studiosis non erit ingrata comparatio.
The old edition: "harrowed (into the soil)"; the Roman: "harrowed and dead" in the soil; all the manuscripts, on the contrary, "blinded," etc. Not at all badly: for it comes about by the occasion [harrowing?] of the grain that, as though blinded and overwhelmed by darkness, it dies under the clod. Below, however, instead of "of the greening grass," which is in all the editions and some manuscripts, other manuscripts, far more numerous, give "the greening grasses," and some, "green." For the rest, students will not find unwelcome a comparison of this passage with what is taught in Hexaemeron book III, chapter 8, number 34, on the sprouting of plants.
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Allusio fit ad Virgilii versum e lib. II Georg. : Pars autem posito surgunt de semine, etc.
The allusion is to Virgil's line from Georgics book II:
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Mss. aliquot, « exemplo sumendum arbi- (continues)
Some manuscripts: "I think it is to be taken by example." (continues)
(continued) tror. »
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Ita vet. edit. ac plures mss., Rom. autem edit. ac mss. nonnulli, « humo arido, arenosoque, » quomodo etiam legendum contendit Nannius, adducta Prisciani auctoritate. At contra Latinius reponendum censebat, « humi arido arenosoque, » cui lectioni ms. nullus suffragatur, licet habeatur in quibusdam, « humi arida, arenosaque. »
So the old edition and several manuscripts; but the Roman edition and some manuscripts read "on dry and sandy ground (humo arido, arenosoque)," which Nannius also argues is the reading, citing the authority of Priscian. Latinius, on the other hand, thought one should restore "humi arido arenosoque," a reading no manuscript supports, though some have "humi arida, arenosaque."
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Mss. non pauci, « Non igitur id hominibus terra denegat; » quidam, denegaret.
Not a few manuscripts: "The earth therefore does not deny this to men"; some, "would deny."
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Codex Remig., « aves dilaceraverint. » Et non multo post idem ms. cum aliis aliquot, « quod ita demum inveniatur. »
The Remigius codex: "birds have torn apart." And a little after, the same manuscript with some others: "which is thus at length found."
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Haud pauci mss., « non resurgant, caeterum nec resurrectio destruitur, » commodo sensu.
Not a few manuscripts: "do not rise again, yet the resurrection is not destroyed," with a fitting sense.
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Quidam mss., « difficile Deo non foret. »
Some manuscripts: "it would not be difficult for God."
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Rom. edit., « et scriptorum auctoritate ; » caeterae, ac mss. omnes, « et scripturarum auctoritate. » Non tamen existimandum est Ambrosium « quae apud auctores vel ethnicos vel certe ecclesiasticos de phoenice legerat, ea Scripturis sacris imputare, » quemadmodum cavillatur Dallaeus lib. II de Usu Patrum cap. 3. Nam cum lib. V Hexaem. cap. 23, num. 79, phoenicem declarans figuram esse resurrectionis, de Scriptura nihil plane dicat; quod tamen apud christianos, quibus scribebat, maximum habuisset momentum : hic ubi agit adversus ethnicos, cur Scripturae divinae mentionem faceret apud eos nullam auctoritatem habiturae? Scripturarum igitur vocem adhibet, ut auctorum sive profanorum, sive ecclesiasticorum designet scripta, eaque cum relatione crebra, id est, vocali sermocinatione componat. Neque vero mirum videri debet, si phoenicis exemplo ad probandam corporum resurrectionem usi fuerint veteres Patres, Tertullianus lib. de Resurr. cap. 13, Cyrillus Hier. catech. 18, Clemens Rom. Epist. I ad Corinth., Basilius hom. 8 in Hexaem., Epiphanius in Ancorat. num. 85 et in Phisiolog. cap. 11, pluresque alii; nam cum de eadem ave, ut poetas omittamus, historici catervatim scripserint, ut puta Herodotus in Euterpe, Corn. Tacitus Annal. lib. VI, Plinius lib. II Nat. Hist. cap. 2, et alii, quorum nonnulli visam etiam signato tempore et loco esse testati sunt; prudenter sane pii illi viri ad explicandam asserendamque resurrectionem, rem captu in primis difficilem, communi persuasione uti voluerunt. Caeterum jam in fabularum numerum phoenix reponitur, ut videre est apud recentiores scriptores Ornithologiae. Sed illud apud eos a debita sanctis Patribus veneratione plane alienum, quod eos qui credant phoenicem exsistere, contra Scripturae auctoritatem sentire pronuntiant.
The Roman edition: "and by the authority of writers"; the others, and all the manuscripts: "and by the authority of the scriptures." Yet it must not be thought that Ambrose "attributes to the sacred Scriptures what he had read about the phoenix in authors either pagan or at any rate ecclesiastical," as Daillé carps in book II of On the Use of the Fathers, chapter 3. For since in Hexaemeron book V, chapter 23, number 79, where he declares the phoenix a figure of the resurrection, he says nothing whatever about Scripture, though that would have carried the greatest weight with the Christians for whom he was writing, why here, where he is dealing with pagans, would he mention divine Scripture, which would have no authority with them? He uses the word "scriptures," then, to denote the writings of authors, whether profane or ecclesiastical, and sets them beside "frequent report," that is, spoken conversation. Nor should it seem strange that the ancient Fathers used the example of the phoenix to prove the resurrection of bodies: Tertullian, On the Resurrection chapter 13; Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechesis 18; Clement of Rome, First Epistle to the Corinthians; Basil, Homily 8 on the Hexaemeron; Epiphanius in the Ancoratus number 85 and in the Physiologus chapter 11; and many others. For since historians, to say nothing of the poets, wrote of this bird in crowds, for example Herodotus in Euterpe, Cornelius Tacitus Annals book VI, Pliny Natural History book II [sic] chapter 2, and others, some of whom even testified that it had been seen at a stated time and place, those holy men very prudently chose to use a common belief to explain and affirm the resurrection, a thing above all hard to grasp. For the rest, the phoenix is now placed among the fables, as may be seen in the more recent writers on ornithology. But it is plainly foreign to the reverence due to the holy Fathers that those writers declare that whoever believes the phoenix exists thinks against the authority of Scripture.
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Rom. edit. et mss. aliquot, « cum ex parvo tanti exsurgamus. »
The Roman edition and some manuscripts: "since from something small we rise up so great."
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Eodem sensu hic loqui videtur Ambrosius noster, quo scripsit Augustinus, lib. XX de Civit. Dei, cap. 7, « aut certe mille annos pro annis omnibus hujus saeculi posuit, ut perfecto numero notaretur ipsa temporis plenitudo. » Favet quidem huic expositioni, quod infra num. 63 [?] subjicitur, « Mundi tempora annus unus est, » etc. Si quis tamen malit in opinione Chiliastarum haec dicta esse, adeat quae nos priore tomo in Exposit. Psal. I, num. 54 [?], annotavimus.
Our Ambrose seems to speak here in the same sense in which Augustine wrote, City of God book XX, chapter 7: "or else he put a thousand years for all the years of this age, so that the very fullness of time might be marked by a perfect number." This interpretation is indeed supported by what is added below at number 63: "The times of the world are one year," etc. If anyone nevertheless prefers to think these words were said in the opinion of the Chiliasts, let him consult what we noted in the previous volume on the Exposition of Psalm I, number 54.
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Non pauci mss., « sed nota mysteria. »
Not a few manuscripts: "but known mysteries."
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Nonnulli mss., « onustate [?] curvescit. »
Some manuscripts: "is bowed down with its load [?]."
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Iidem mss., « nunc informem situ, nunc fecundam; nunc virentem floribus, nunc carentem. »
The same manuscripts: "now shapeless with neglect, now fruitful; now green with flowers, now without them."
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Duo sunt quam diversissima immortalitatem animarum credere, et corporum resurrectionem. Primam partem multi philosophi tenuerunt, quorum omnium ducem exsitisse Pherecydem, a quo eam sententiam Pythagoras, Plato, aliique hauserint, litteris prodidere Tullius lib. I Tusc. Quaest. non longe ab initio, Lactantius lib. VII de Vita Beata, num. 8, Augustinus epist. 137, ad Volus., nume. 11, et multi alii. Quod autem ad secundam veritatem, cum illam ii soli haberent cognitam, qui verum Deum non ignorabant, ethnici philosophi de animae a corporeis vinculis absolutae statu gravissime inter se dissidebant. Celeberrima eorum fuit opinio, qui e corporibus in alia corpora demigrare animas existimabant. Hanc edoctum ab Aegyptiis Pythagoram fuisse auctor est Herodptus in Euterpe : Platonem vero eidem quoque amentiae nomen dedisse Ambrosius hoc libro, et Augustinus lib. X de Civit. Dei, cap. 30, testificantur. Multi tamen nobiliorem animae post solutionem corporis conditionem attribuerunt, qua de re consule Ciceronem lib. de Somnio Scip., atque alibi, Plutarchum lib. V de Placitis Philosoph. cap. 7, imo Platonem ipsum in Phaedone, et alibi.
To believe in the immortality of souls and to believe in the resurrection of bodies are two things as different as can be. Many philosophers held the first, and that the leader of them all was Pherecydes, from whom Pythagoras, Plato and others drew that opinion, is recorded in writing by Tully, Tusculan Disputations book I not far from the beginning, by Lactantius, book VII On the Blessed Life, number 8, by Augustine, letter 137 to Volusianus, number 11, and by many others. As for the second truth, since it was known only to those who were not ignorant of the true God, the pagan philosophers disagreed most sharply among themselves about the state of the soul released from the bonds of the body. The most celebrated opinion was that of those who held that souls migrate from bodies into other bodies. Herodotus, in Euterpe, is the authority that Pythagoras was taught this by the Egyptians; and that Plato too lent his name to the same madness is attested by Ambrose in this book and by Augustine, City of God book X, chapter 30. Many, however, assigned the soul a nobler condition after its release from the body; on which consult Cicero, On the Dream of Scipio and elsewhere, Plutarch, On the Opinions of the Philosophers book V, chapter 7, and indeed Plato himself in the Phaedo and elsewhere.
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Ita Gill. Rom. edit. et pars una mss., pars autem alia habent, « in terris defossi, » cujus loco Amerb. atque Eras. legunt, « in terrae fossus. » quod nove dictum non monuisset Nannius, si mss. consulere non neglexisset.
So Gillot, the Roman edition and one part of the manuscripts; the other part has "buried in the earth," in place of which Amerbach and Erasmus read "dug into the earth," which Nannius would not have remarked on as a novel expression had he not neglected to consult the manuscripts.
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Rom. edit. sola, « patientiae virtute exsuperans. »
The Roman edition alone: "surpassing by the virtue of patience."
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« Visceribus » carnem significari alibi jam diximus, quo sensu eadem vox hic et infra semel atque iterum usurpatur.
We have already said elsewhere that "viscera" signifies the flesh, and in that sense the same word is used here and below more than once.
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Non obscura allusio est ad haec Virg. carmina ex lib. II Georg. : Haec loca non tauri spirantes naribus ignem Invertere, satis immanis dentibus hydri, Nec galeis, densisque virum seges horruit hastis. Innuit porro Ambrosius ea quae a poetis memorantur de Cadmo Thebarum conditore, de quo [illegible] Ovid. lib. III Metamorph., fab. 1, et Nat. Comitem lib. VIII Mythol. cap. 23, et lib. IX, cap. 14. Paria quoque de Jasone canit Ovidius lib. VII, fab. 1, et alii, a quibus sermo [?] est de Argonautis, quibus additur Nat. Comes lib. VI, cap. 8.
There is a plain allusion to these lines of Virgil from Georgics book II:
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Plerique mss., « alterius salus, alterius obitus comprobatur. » Non bene, nisi ante duas voces pro quod legere voluerimus quo, ubi facilis error librariorum esse potuit.
Most manuscripts: "the safety of the one, the death of the other, is proved." Not well, unless two words earlier we choose to read "quo" for "quod," where the copyists could easily have erred.
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Mss. non pauci, « ut alios alliderent, » nonnulli, « laederent .. Nonne tibi probavit, » etc.
Not a few manuscripts: "so as to dash some down"; some: "harm . . . Did he not prove to you," etc.
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Ita mss. longe plurimi cum LXX interpr.; alii vero cod. et cunctae edit. cum Vulg., « quod ego Dominus locutus sum, et faciam. » Sequenti autem sensu pro « in artus resumatur, » quod exstabat in ant. edit., duo mss. legunt, « commercia reparentur, « caeteri, ac Rom. edit. ut in contextu.
So by far the most manuscripts, with the Septuagint translators; but other codices and all the editions, with the Vulgate: "that I the Lord have spoken, and will do it." In the following sentence, instead of "be taken up again into limbs," which stood in the old editions, two manuscripts read "the exchanges be restored"; the rest, and the Roman edition, as in the text.
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Mss. quidam « vitales spiritus commercia rimentur. »
Some manuscripts: "the vital spirits search out their exchanges."
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Omnes edit., « qui crediderit quia... in novissima tuba mortui resurgent, cum primis rapietur ; » mss. vero nobiscum faciunt, nisi quod in quibusdam omittitur, « canet enim tuba, » et habetur, « mortui resurgent primi, rapientur. » Non satis recte. At infra ubi Rom. edit., « et perfidiae subdet, » vet. ac mss. aliquot, « et perfidiae suae subdet ; » melius reliqui mss., « et perfidia sua, » etc.
All the editions: "who believes that ... at the last trumpet the dead shall rise, shall be caught up with the first"; but the manuscripts agree with us, except that in some "for the trumpet shall sound" is omitted, and there is "the dead shall rise first, they shall be caught up." Not quite rightly. Below, however, where the Roman edition has "and will subject to unbelief," the old edition and some manuscripts have "and will subject to his own unbelief"; better the remaining manuscripts: "and by his own unbelief," etc.
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Amerb. et mss. aliquot, « speciem praestaret ; » Remig. et Benign. « spem praestaret. »
Amerbach and some manuscripts: "should furnish an appearance"; the Remigius and Benignus manuscripts: "should furnish a hope."
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Pauci mss., « non soleat imperari. »
A few manuscripts: "is not wont to be commanded."
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Mss. nonnulli, « resurgent in incorruptione ; tubarum enim strepitus. »
Some manuscripts: "shall rise in incorruption; for the din of the trumpets."
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Institae hoc loco fasciae sepulcrales sunt, quae dicuntur a Joanne κειρίαι, aut melius κηρίαι a nomine κὴρ mors sive factum. Ad eas a Divide allusum Nannius putat, ubi legimus : « Praevenerunt me laquei mortis : funes inferi circumdederunt me ; » his enim cadavera unguentis delibuta, ne corruptione solverentur, Judaei obligabant. Attamen per institas etiam communes fasciae intelliguntur ; imo et genus quoque vestis muliebris hujusmodi fascia seu limbo praetextum, sicuti observat idem Nannius, nec non Vossius ad eamdem vocem.
"Institae" here are grave-bands, which John calls keiriai, or better kēriai, from the noun kēr, death or fate. Nannius thinks David [printed "Divide"] alluded to them where we read: "The snares of death came upon me: the cords of hell compassed me about"; for with these the Jews bound up corpses anointed with ointments, so that they would not be dissolved by corruption. Yet "institae" can also mean ordinary bands; indeed also a kind of woman's garment bordered with such a band or hem, as the same Nannius observes, and Vossius too on the same word.
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Pauci mss. « separet gressum. » Verum in recepta lectione non vitii quidquam, inquit Nannius, sed obscuritas magna. Est autem sensus : Quomodo vinctis pedibus iter dirigat, cruribus inter se revinctis, tamen quasi divaricatis, alterno motu pedum incedens. Ita ille.
A few manuscripts: "should part his step." But in the received reading, says Nannius, there is no fault, only great obscurity. The sense is: how with bound feet he could make his way, his legs tied together yet, as it were, spread apart, advancing by an alternate motion of the feet. So he.
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Ita omnes edit. et mss. aliquot : alii vero plures. « via lux... via gressum extulit. »
So all the editions and some manuscripts; but more others: "the way, the light ... the way brought forth his step."
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Hunc locum plerique mss. contractum efferunt in hanc formam, « non credimus? Ipse etiam Dominus noster Jesus Christus seriem ipsam resurrectionis exercuit. Melius tamen alii, et cunctae edit. ut in textu.
Most manuscripts give this passage shortened into this form: "do we not believe? Our Lord Jesus Christ himself also carried out the very sequence of the resurrection." Better, however, the others and all the editions, as in the text.
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Omnes edit. ac pauci mss., « humanis divina mysteria ; reliqui mss., « humanis divina ministeriis, » quod cum sequentibus aptius cohaerere manifestum est.
All the editions and a few manuscripts: "divine mysteries [have no need] of human things"; the remaining manuscripts: "divine things have no need of human services," which plainly fits better with what follows.
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Mss. complures, « cui applaudebat ; » nonnulli et edit. adgaudebat.
Several manuscripts: "whom he applauded"; some, and the editions: "in whom he rejoiced."
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« Subdatur injuriae, » hoc est, poenis ac suppliciis.
"Be subjected to injury," that is, to penalties and punishments.
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Nonnulli mss., « gloriae militavit. »
Some manuscripts: "served as a soldier for glory."
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Omnes edit., « repetita expressione firmavit ; » omnes mss., signavit.
All the editions: "he confirmed it by a repeated expression"; all the manuscripts: "sealed."
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Vet. edit. ac mss. aliquot, « quoniam Dei mori non poterat sapientia. ; » Rom. edit. cum reliqui mss. ut in corpore.
The old edition and some manuscripts: "since the Wisdom of God could not die"; the Roman edition with the remaining manuscripts, as in the body of the text.
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Mss. aliquot, « quorum prolixiore proventu.
Some manuscripts: "for whose more abundant yield."
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« Quies et vita, poenarum immunitas et thronus in regno » ubique apud Ambrosium eodem sensu intelligenda sunt, quo accipi debere in epist. 71, ad Horont., admonuimus. Et certe frustra sunt, qui ex hujuscemodi locutionibus opinionem de medio inter gloriam ac poenas statu affingunt sancto Antistiti : namque infinitis locis immortalitatem suppliciis ἀμέσως [?] opponit, ut in hac ipsa oratione num. 8 « poenae addictis immortalitati debitos. » Quod quidem si Joan. Dallaeus attentius considerasset, easdem loquendi formulas minore invidia traduxisset lib. II de Usu Patrum, cap. 4.
"Rest and life, freedom from punishment and a throne in the kingdom" are everywhere in Ambrose to be understood in the same sense in which, as we pointed out on letter 71, to Horontianus, they must be taken. And those are certainly mistaken who from expressions of this kind fasten on the holy bishop an opinion of a middle state between glory and punishment: for in countless places he sets immortality directly against punishments, as in this very oration, number 8: "owed to immortality, though they had been consigned to punishment." Had Jean Daillé considered this more attentively, he would have censured these same forms of speech with less ill will in book II of On the Use of the Fathers, chapter 4.
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Nonnulli mss., « Ostendit sapientia, nostri cordis oculos illuminet ejusdem sapientiae vera cognitio, »
Some manuscripts: "Wisdom has shown; may the true knowledge of that same wisdom enlighten the eyes of our heart."
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Ita omnes edit. ac plures mss.; alii vero exhibent, « trinum munus : unam hostiam trium gratiarum. » At post paucos versus, ubi nos cum Rom. edit. cunctisque mss., « abstemius in triumpho, » unum tamen excipimus in quo, « ac strenuus [?] in triumpho, » in ant. edit. habebatur, « abstinens in triumpho. »
So all the editions and more manuscripts; but others give: "a threefold gift: one victim of three graces." A few lines later, where we, with the Roman edition and all the manuscripts, read "abstemious in triumph" (except one, in which "and vigorous [?] in triumph"), the old edition had "abstaining in triumph."
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Rom. edit., « sed ampliora praecepta ; reliquae, ac mss., sed amabiliora praecepta ; » Benig., « Dei praecepta. »
The Roman edition: "but the commandments are greater"; the others, and the manuscripts: "but the commandments are more lovable"; the Benignus manuscript: "the commandments of God."
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Nonnulli mss., « et patrio percussus affectu, pene trepidavit, » etc.
Some manuscripts: "and struck by a father's love, he almost trembled," etc.
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Eadem Rom. edit., « ut posset nobis servari dilectus ; » vet. autem, ac mss. invicem consentiunt, nisi quod illae praeferunt, « nos servari, » ubi nos cum mss., « nobis servari. »
The same Roman edition: "so that the beloved could be kept for us"; the old editions and the manuscripts agree with each other, except that the editions show "that we be kept," where we, with the manuscripts, read "be kept for us."
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Haud absimili modo quod per Abrahae sinum (continues)
In a not dissimilar way, that by Abraham's bosom (continues)
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(81) (continued) intelligere nos oporteat, Exposit. in psal. XXXVIII, num. 11, explicatum reperies, si locum adire non te pigeat.
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Rom. edit. resecaverat « secundum Joannem sanctum, » quas voces ex aliis edit. ac mss. restituimus.
The Roman edition had cut out "according to Saint John," words we have restored from the other editions and the manuscripts.
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Ita vet. edit. ac mss. prope ad unum : at Rom. edit. cum uno vel altero mss. ; « numerus vindicandus sit. »
So the old edition and the manuscripts almost to a man; but the Roman edition, with one or two manuscripts: "the number is to be upheld."
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Origenes Tract. 30 in Matth. de Scripturae tubis disserit, sed contractius ; tametsi locum e Numeris ab Ambrosio infra subjectum integrum referat. Potuit ergo Doctor noster, quae hic disputat, ex eo fonte derivata more suo amplificasse.
Origen, Tractate 30 on Matthew, discusses the trumpets of Scripture, but more briefly, although he quotes in full the passage from Numbers that Ambrose adds below. Our Doctor, then, may have drawn what he argues here from that source and enlarged it in his usual way.
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Tuba Romani utebantur in militia, quemadmodum tympanis ac tibiis barbari : qua de re consule Just. Lipsium de Mil. Rom. lib. II, dial. 10.
The Romans used the trumpet in war, as the barbarians used drums and pipes; on this consult Justus Lipsius, On the Roman Army book II, dialogue 10.
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Omnes edit., « scientes eas ; » mss. vero alii « conjicientes eas ; » alii « conscientes eas, » alii demum » consentientes eas ; » quae lectio videtur praeferenda.
All the editions: "knowing them"; but some manuscripts: "throwing them together"; others: "conscious of them"; others finally: "agreeing with them," which reading seems preferable.
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Rom. edit., « in memoriale tubarum, vocata sancta Domino, » vet. autem edit. non discrepant a mss. ac a sacris cod. nisi quod virgulam transponunt post vocem vocata, sed incongrue.
The Roman edition: "for a memorial of trumpets, called holy to the Lord"; the old editions do not differ from the manuscripts and the sacred codices, except that they move the comma to after the word "called," but inappropriately.
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Eras. et Gill. edit., ad liba ; Rom., ad Austrum. Et utrique suffragantur sacri codices, quorum alii legunt παρεμβάλλουσαι λίβα, alii νότον. Non dubium tamen est quin lectio Amerb. et mss. bona sit nempe ad Libanum, infra enim. num. 115 eadem lectio habetur, et num. 119. Sponsus a Libano sponsam invitat. Rursus vero ubi nos cum vet. edit. et cunctis mss. « ad Boream ; » reposuerat, edit. « ad mare. » In hoc autem non tantum LXX ei patrocinantur, sed ipsemet Ambrosius infra num. 115, ubi tertiam tubae significationem mari accommodat. Verum tamen ab omnibus mss. et ant. edit. piget discedere. Adverte porro nec in Hebraeo, nec in ullis versionibus praeter LXX haberi quidquam de tertio et quarto tubarum signo, et pro eo quod est ubique in sacris litteris, « castra quae constituta sunt : » Ambrosium legisse, « castra quae constituentur. »
The editions of Erasmus and Gillot: "to the south-west wind (liba)"; the Roman: "to the south." Both have the support of sacred codices, some of which read "encamping towards the south-west (liba)," others "towards the south (noton)." There is no doubt, however, that the reading of Amerbach and the manuscripts is good, namely "to Lebanon"; for the same reading is found below at number 115, and at number 119: the Bridegroom invites the bride from Lebanon. Again, where we, with the old edition and all the manuscripts, read "to the north," the [Roman?] edition had substituted "to the sea." In this not only the Septuagint supports it, but Ambrose himself below at number 115, where he applies the third signal of the trumpet to the sea. Yet one is loath to depart from all the manuscripts and the old edition. Note further that neither in the Hebrew nor in any version except the Septuagint is there anything about the third and fourth trumpet signals, and that where the sacred text everywhere has "the camps that have been pitched," Ambrose read "the camps that shall be pitched."
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Mss. nonnulli, « tuba canente, pro motu eorum... Aaron sacerdotis tuba canent. »
Some manuscripts: "with the trumpet sounding, for their moving ... [the sons] of Aaron the priest shall sound with the trumpet."
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Rom. edit. sola, « et liberationem habebitis ab inimicis vestris ; » quod quidem ex Scripturis putavit emendandum, sed jam saepius observavimus exemplar quo utebatur sanctus Doctor, ab iis quae circumferuntur, in multis discrepasse.
The Roman edition alone: "and you shall have deliverance from your enemies," which it thought should be corrected from the Scriptures; but we have often observed that the copy the holy Doctor used differed in many places from those in circulation.
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Mss. aliquot, « futurorum corpus autem Christi requiramus. » Infra vero ubi vet. edit. ac plures mss., « factum est illi : corpus Christi, » quidam mss., « factum est. Illic, unus, illud, corpus Christi ; » Rom. edit. e mss. quibusdam ita reposuit, « factum est illis, quia tonitruum factum est illis corpus Christi. »
Some manuscripts: "of things to come; but let us seek the body of Christ." Below, where the old edition and more manuscripts have "it was done to him: the body of Christ," some manuscripts have "it was done. There," one has "that," "the body of Christ"; the Roman edition, from certain manuscripts, restored it thus: "it was done to them, because the thunder became for them the body of Christ."
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Nonnulli mss., « liberum innocentia faciat, culpa vernaculum ; » unus venalem. Est autem vernaculus servus domi natus.
Some manuscripts: "innocence makes him free, guilt a home-born slave"; one has "a slave for sale." A vernaculus is a slave born in the house.
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Mss. non pauci, « carnalibus et imago, nobis veritas resurrecturis ; » melius tamen alii, et omnes edit. ut in textu ; quibus etiam verbis eamdem sententiam expressam reperies Enarr. in psal. XXXVIII, num. 25, et lib. I Offic. cap. 48, num. 248.
Not a few manuscripts: "for the carnal there is also an image, for us who are to rise, the truth"; better, however, the others and all the editions, as in the text; and you will find the same thought expressed in these very words in the Exposition of Psalm 38, number 25, and On the Duties book I, chapter 48, number 248.
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Mss. aliquot, « et secutus eos fuerit, » non satis recte.
Some manuscripts: "and shall have followed them," not quite rightly.
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Vet. edit. ac plures mss., « ut ad superiora festines in locum tabernaculi admirabilis ; » Gill. unde lacuna suppleretur, in variis lectionibus indicavit, indeque locum Rom. edit. restituit, quam restitutionem e mss. nostris multi confirmant.
The old edition and more manuscripts: "that you may hasten to higher things, into the place of the wonderful tabernacle"; Gillot indicated in his variant readings where the gap could be filled from, and from there the Roman edition restored the passage, a restoration many of our manuscripts confirm.
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Ita Rom. edit. et plerique mss., vet. autem edit., cum aliis mss., « anima mereatur a Christo. »
So the Roman edition and most manuscripts; but the old edition, with other manuscripts: "the soul may merit from Christ."
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Rom. edit. sola, « secundum austrum siti. At infra eadem edit. cum vet. ac mss. aliquot, « istius flatu mundi ; » ubi mss. plures potioresque, « istius freto mundi. »
The Roman edition alone: "situated towards the south." Below, the same edition with the old edition and some manuscripts: "by the blast of this world"; where more and better manuscripts have "by the strait (sea) of this world."
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Omnes edit. ac plerique mss., « Tertii suscitantur, qui ab austro : » magis concinne. Remig. cod. Corb. et Benign. ut in contextu.
All the editions and most manuscripts: "Third are raised those who are from the south," more neatly. The Remigius, Corbie and Benignus codices, as in the text.
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Rom. edit., « Et ideo eos in Evangelio Christus invitat. » Et infra, « vocem invitantis in Canticis canticorum agnosce. » Vet. autem edit. et cuncti mss. nobiscum faciunt, nisi quod pro agnosce in quibusdam legitur, vide.
The Roman edition: "And so Christ invites them in the Gospel." And below: "recognize the voice of the one who invites in the Song of Songs." But the old edition and all the manuscripts agree with us, except that in some "see" is read for "recognize."
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Mss. aliquot, « et ad fructum » minus commode.
Some manuscripts: "and to the fruit," less fittingly.
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Plerique mss. « mortui descripti in libris » alii nonnulli, ac vet. edit., « mortui de scriptis in libris » Graece, ἐκ τῶν γεγραμμένων ἐν τοῖς βιβλίοις, quod eleganter edit. Rom. ex Vers. Vulg. reddidit, « ex his quae scripta erant in libris. »
Most manuscripts: "the dead written down in the books"; some others, and the old edition: "the dead from the things written in the books"; in Greek, "out of the things written in the books," which the Roman edition elegantly rendered from the Vulgate version: "from those things which were written in the books."
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Irrepserat in mss. nonnullos, et inde in omnes edit. sequens lacinia, « contra sectas philosophorum, qui vel animam solam durare dicunt post corporis mortem, vel μετεμψύχωσιν credant. » Sed praeterquam quod in mss. multo pluribus ac potioribus non invenitur, ipsa series orationis hoc assutamentum aperte respuit. Consequenter autem pro, « quia ejus nos quod sumus, » codex Thuan. praefert, « quia ejus scimus. » Non satis recte.
The following patch had crept into some manuscripts, and from them into all the editions: "against the sects of the philosophers, who either say that the soul alone endures after the death of the body, or believe in metempsychosis." But besides not being found in far more and better manuscripts, the very sequence of the speech plainly rejects this sewn-on piece. Next, for "since what we are is his," the Thuanus codex has "since we know of him." Not quite rightly.
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Mss. aliquot : Si sapientes creduntur et hi... si reliquorum judicio suscitamur, unus, suscitentur. »
Some manuscripts: "If the wise are believed, and these ... if we are roused by the judgement of the rest"; one: "be roused."
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Per naturae finem intellige compositi naturalis dissolutionem, non autem ambarum quibus constat, partium interitum ; quandoquidem in eos philosophos disputat, a quibus animae immortalitas admittebatur, hoc est, in platonicos. Sed maxime ad Ciceronem videtur respicere, qui Tusc. Quaest. I explosis poetarum de suppliciis inferorum commentis, mortem timendam esse nemini hoc dilemmate colligit : « Quomodo igitur, aut cur mortem malum tibi videri dicis, quae aut beatos nos efficiet animis manentibus, aut non miseros sensu carentes ? »
By "the end of nature" understand the dissolution of the natural compound, not the destruction of both the parts of which it consists; for he is arguing against those philosophers who admitted the immortality of the soul, that is, against the Platonists. But he seems above all to have Cicero in view, who in Tusculan Disputations I, having exploded the poets' fictions about the punishments of the underworld, concludes by this dilemma that death is to be feared by no one: "How, then, or why do you say death seems to you an evil, when it will either make us happy if our souls survive, or not wretched if we lack sensation?"
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Argumentum illud tanquam probandae animarum immortalitati efficacissimum Plato venditat in Phaedone, unde hoc ipsum Cicero in VI suum lib. de Repub. translatum a se commemorat Tuscul. I. Sanctus quoque Athanasius idem illud in Orat. cont. Idola proponit atque explicat.
Plato commends that argument in the Phaedo as most effective for proving the immortality of souls; and Cicero records in Tusculans I that he carried this very argument over into his own sixth book On the Republic. Saint Athanasius too sets out and explains the same argument in his Oration against the Idols.
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Irenaeus lib. II adv. Haeres. cap. 59, primum auctorem hujus erroris Platonem facit. Et quidem negari nequit hunc philosophum in Phaedone, in Timaeo, et lib. X de Republ. secutum esse hanc opinionem, sed ab ipso eam ortum duxisse quae supra ad num. 55 observabamus, prorsus refellunt.
Irenaeus, Against Heresies book II, chapter 59, makes Plato the first author of this error. And indeed it cannot be denied that this philosopher followed this opinion in the Phaedo, in the Timaeus, and in book X of the Republic; but that it originated with him is flatly refuted by what we observed above at number 55.
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Vet. edit., « velut Circeos populos ; » melius Rom. et mss. « velut circeo poculo. » Celebris porro fabula est de Circes filiae Solis beneficiis, de qua Homerus Odyss., M. ; Ovidius lib. XIV Metamorph. fab. 1 ; Augustinus lib. XVIII de Civit. Dei cap. 17, et alii.
The old edition: "like the peoples of Circe"; better the Roman edition and the manuscripts: "as by Circe's cup." The fable of the favours of Circe, daughter of the Sun, is well known: on it see Homer, Odyssey book M [12]; Ovid, Metamorphoses book XIV, fable 1; Augustine, City of God book XVIII, chapter 17; and others.
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Levi, ait Nannius, cui contrarium est asperum. Virg. de Proeti filiabus : Et saepe in levi quaesisset cornua fonte.
"Levi" (smooth), says Nannius, the opposite of which is "rough." Virgil on the daughters of Proetus:
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Omnes edit. ac mss. nonnulli, « ut gravi immorentur dolori ; duo... « morerentur dolore ; » reliqui concinnius ut nos in textu. Porro per cygneas fabulas indicat Cygni propter Phaetontis consanguinei sui casum dolore confecti conversionem in avem sui nominis, de qua vide Ovidii lib. II Metamorph., fab. 4, non secus ac de Icari casu lib. VIII ejusdem, fab. 3.
All the editions and some manuscripts: "that they might linger in heavy grief"; two: "would die of grief"; the rest, more neatly, as we have it in the text. By "the swan fables" he means the change of Cycnus, worn out with grief at the fall of his kinsman Phaethon, into the bird that bears his name; on which see Ovid, Metamorphoses book II, fable 4, as also on the fall of Icarus, book VIII of the same, fable 3.
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Ita vet. edit. ac mss. frequentissimi : at Rom. edit. et quidam alii mss., « sed ratio. »
So the old edition and very many manuscripts; but the Roman edition and some other manuscripts: "but reason."
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Rom. edit. et pauci mss., « Sed video, » vet. edit. cum mss. longe plurimis et probatissimis, « Sed videro. »
The Roman edition and a few manuscripts: "But I see"; the old edition with by far the most and best-approved manuscripts: "But I shall see."
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Vet. edit. « credatis futuros, et animos ex hoc jam vitae anfractu... contendere. Et sic sanctorum sit pervenire, » Rom. edit. ultimam hanc (continues)
The old edition: "believe that you will be, and [your] souls from this winding of life now ... to strive. And so it is [the part] of the saints to arrive"; the Roman edition [removed?] this last (continues)
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