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ER 2031

Ambrose, bishop of Milan (Italy) in a philosophical treatise about duties "De officiis" says that the clerics should lead virtuous life in order to give good advice to people. Milan, the late 380s.

Book 2

41. Et quia consiliorum usus maxime conciliat homines, ideo prudentia et iustitia in unoquoque desideratur, et eo exspectatur a pluribus ut in quo ea sint, illi deferatur fides quod possit utile consilium ac fidele desideranti dare. Quis enim ei se committat, quem non putet plus sapere quam ipse sapiat qui quaerit consilium? Necesse est igitur ut praestantior sit a quo consilium petitur quam ille est qui petit. Quid enim consulas hominem quem non arbitreris posse melius aliquid reperire quam ipse intellegis?

42. Quod si eum inueneris qui uiuacitate ingenii, mentis uigore atque auctoritate praestet et accedat eo ut exemplo et usu paratior sit, praesentia soluat pericula, prospiciat futura, denuntiet imminentia, argumentum expediat, remedium ferat in tempore, paratus sit non solum ad consulendum sed etiam ad subueniendum, huic ita fides habetur ut dicat qui consilium petit: Et si mala mihi euenerint per illum, sustineo.

In what follows (c. 43–60) Ambrose gives Scriptural examples of those who gave good advices – Solomon, Joseph, and David.

61. Quis uero quamuis instructum ad consilii opem, difficili tamen accessu, ambiat; in quo sit illud tamquam si qui aquae fontem praecludat? Quid enim prodest habere sapientiam, si consilium neges? Si consulendi intercludas copiam, clausisti fontem ut nec aliis influat nec tibi prosit.

62. Pulchre autem et de illo conuenit qui habens prudentiam, commaculat eam uitiorum sordibus, eo quod aquae exitum contaminet. Degeneres animos uita arguit. Quomodo enim potes eum iudicare consilio superiorem quem uideas inferiorem moribus? Quis enim in caeno fontem requirat? Quis e turbida aqua potum petat? Itaque ubi luxuria est, ubi intemperantia, ubi uitiorum confusio, quis inde sibi aliquid hauriendum existimet? Quis non despiciat morum colluuionem? Quis utilem causae alienae iudicet quem uidet inutilem suae uitae? Quis iterum improbum, maleuolum, contumeliosum non fugiat et, ad nocendum paratum, quis non eum omni studio declinet?

(ed. Testard 2000: 111-119)

Book 2

41. Since one particularly good way of winning people over is by giving them good advice, prudence and justice are desirable in every situation. Indeed, this is just what most people are looking for: they want to place their confidence in someone who possesses these virtues, for they know that he is in a position to give useful and reliable advice to anyone desiring it. Who is likely to entrust himself to someone whose wisdom, so far as he can see, is no greater than his own, when he is the one wanting the advice? It is essential that the person from whom the advice is being sought is abler than the person who is doing the seeking! What would be the point in consulting a man if you thought he was incapable of seeing into something any better than you could understand it yourself?

42. Now if you find a person who shows a lively intellect and a real strength of mind and authority—someone who is, in addition, well–qualified to help you by virtue of his practical experience, capable of delivering you from present dangers, anticipating your future circumstances, warning you of problems which lie on the horizon, explaining the meaning of things, and bringing the kind of relief that is right for the situation in which you find yourself; someone who is qualified not just to offer you advice but to give you real help—this is the type of individual in whom you will feel confidence. Indeed, anyone who seeks advice from such a man might put it like this: "And if dreadful things befall me on his account, I bear them." (Eccl 22: 26)

In what follows (c. 43–60) Ambrose gives Scriptural examples of those who gave good advices – Solomon, Joseph, and David.

61. But then again, who would ask assistance from an individual if, however well–equipped he might be to give advice, he remained difficult to approach? Someone like that is like a spring of water with its channels all sealed up. What advantage is there in possessing wisdom, if you refuse to give advice? If you shut off every opportunity for anyone to get your advice, you have closed off a spring, so that it neither flows to others nor does you any good yourself.

62. The same could equally well be said of a person who possesses prudence but pollutes it with the filth of various vices, and so contaminates the water at its source. It is people's lives that provide evidence that their hearts are degenerate. How can you consider a man to be better than you when it comes to giving advice if you see that he is worse than you when it comes to morality? If I am going to entrust myself to someone, he has to be a better man than I am. Am I really to think that someone is fit to give advice to me when he evidently does not give it to himself, and am I really to believe that he has time for me when he evidently does not have time for himself—when it is quite clear that his mind is taken up with sensual pleasures, or controlled by desire, or a slave to greed, or driven mad with desire, or shaken rigid by fear? How can there be any place for the giving of advice where there is none for calmness of spirit?

(trans. Davidson 2001: 299-303)

Place of event:

Region

Italy north of Rome with Corsica and Sardinia

City

Milan

About the source:

Author: Ambrose of Milan
Title: De officiis, On duties
Origin: Milan (Italy north of Rome with Corsica and Sardinia)
Denomination: Catholic/Nicene/Chalcedonian

Ambrose of Milan most probably wrote "De officiis" in the late 380s. With some probability, we can identify Ambrose`s allusion to "the times of Arian onslaught" to his confrontation with the Arians over the basilicas in Milan in 385-386 (see [1947] and [1951]). Similarly, the story about a certain urban prefect of Rome who failed to cope with the food shortage in the city may refer to Q. Aurelius Symmachus who was the prefect in 384. For the more detailed discussion on dating and references to the secondary literature see Davidson 2001: 3-5.

Ambrose to some extent modelled his work on the famous treatise by Cicero also titled De officiis. Ambrose follows Cicero in dividing his work into three books and he refers to Cicero`s considerations about what is virtuous, what is practical and about the opposition between the virtuous and practical. Ambrosian De officiis, however, is neither a Christian rendering of the classical pagan philosophical treatise nor the consistent refutation of Cicero, though he is evoked critically in several places. As Ivor Davidson proposed, De officiis is rather "designed to be a sign of Ambrose`s church`s relationship to the saeculum." (Davidson 2001: 59; see also McLynn 1994: 255-256). It is not devised to systematically respond to Cicero (and pagans in general) on philosophical grounds, and therefore much of the argument relies on the Scriptural exempla. These show that new Christian and clerical officialdom is superior to any former pagan elites because of its higher purposes and responsibility toward God. For this interpretation see Davidson 2001: 45-64.

The immediate addressees of the treatise are Ambrose`s clerics, especially the young ones as he frequently addresses them in a fatherly manner and makes allusions to their young age and lack of experience (e.g. I.65-66, 81, 87, 212, 217-218, II.97-101). It seems, however, also very probable that Ambrose`s had also in mind a wider readership of literary secular elites (Davidson 2001: 63-64).

Two primary families of the manuscript tradition name the treatise "De officiis". In the third, the longer version appears - "De officiis ministrorum". Although this is most possibly a corrective gloss, as Davidson notices (2001: 1), the longer title is more frequently used in modern scholarship. Ancient allusions to the treatise give the shorter version (Augustine, Letter 82.21; Cassiodorus, Institutiones 1.16.4).

Edition:

M. Testard ed., Ambroise de Milan, Les devoirs, 2 vols., Paris 1984-1992 (with French translation)

M. Testard ed., Ambrosii Mediolanensis De officiis, Corpus Christianorum Series Latina 15, Turnhout 2000

English translation with commentary:

I. Davidson ed., Ambrose, De officiis, 2 vols., Oxford 2001

Bibliography:

N. McLynn, Ambrose of Milan. Church and Court in Christian Capital, Oxford 1994

Categories:

Theoretical considerations - On priesthood

Pastoral activity - Spiritual direction

Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL: M. Szada, Presbyters in the Late Antique West, ER2031, http://www.presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=2031