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| She, on the Prohibition of Ambrose, Abstains from Honouring the Memory of the Martyrs. PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP
Chapter II.—She, on the
Prohibition of Ambrose, Abstains from Honouring the Memory of the
Martyrs.
2. When, therefore, my mother had at one
time—as was her custom in Africa—brought to the oratories built
in the memory of the saints438
438 That is, as is explained further on in the section,
the Martyrs. Tertullian gives us many indications of the
veneration in which the martyrs were held towards the close of the
second century. The anniversary of the martyr’s death was called
his natalitium, or natal day, as his martyrdom ushered him
into eternal life, and oblationes pro defunctis were then
offered. (De Exhor. Cast. c. 11; De Coro. c. 3). Many
extravagant things were said about the glory of martyrdom, with the
view, doubtless, of preventing apostasy in time of persecution. It
was described (De Bap. c. 16; and De Pat. c. 13.) as
a second baptism, and said to secure for a man immediate entrance
into heaven, and complete enjoyment of its happiness. These views
developed in Augustin’s time into all the wildness of Donatism.
Augustin gives us an insight into the customs prevailing in his
day, and their significance, which greatly illustrates the present
section. In his De Civ. Dei, viii. 27, we read: “But,
nevertheless, we do not build temples, and ordain priests, rites,
and sacrifices for these same martyrs; for they are not our gods,
but their God is our God. Certainly we honour their reliquaries, as
the memorials of holy men of God, who strove for the truth even to
the death of their bodies, that the true religion might be made
known, and false and fictitious religions exposed.…But who ever
heard a priest of the faithful, standing at an altar built for the
honour and worship of God over the holy body of some martyr, say in
the prayers, I offer to thee a sacrifice, O Peter, or O Paul, or O
Cyprian? For it is to God that sacrifices are offered at their
tombs,—the God who made them both men and martyrs, and associated
them with holy angels in celestial honour; and the reason why we
pay such honours to their memory is, that by so doing we may both
give thanks to the true God for their victories, and, by recalling
them afresh to remembrance, may stir ourselves up to imitate them
by seeking to obtain like crowns and palms, calling to our help
that same God on whom they called. Therefore, whatever honours the
religious may pay in the places of the martyrs, they are but
honours rendered to their memory [ornamenta memoriarum], not
sacred rites or sacrifices offered to dead men as to gods. And even
such as bring thither food—which, indeed, is not done by the
better Christians, and in most places of the world is not done at
all—do so in order that it may be sanctified to them through the
merits of the martyrs, in the name of the Lord of the martyrs,
first presenting the food and offering prayer, and thereafter
taking it away to be eaten, or to be in part bestowed upon the
needy. But he who knows the one sacrifice of Christians, which is
the sacrifice offered in those places, also knows that these are
not sacrifices offered to the martyrs.” He speaks to the same
effect in Book xxii. sec. 10; and in his Reply to Faustus
(xx. 21), who had charged the Christians with imitating the Pagans,
“and appeasing the ‘shades’ of the departed with wine and
food.” See v. sec. 17, note. | certain cakes, and bread, and wine,
and was forbidden by the door-keeper, so soon as she learnt that it
was the bishop who had forbidden it, she so piously and obediently
acceded to it, that I myself marvelled how readily she could bring
herself to accuse her own custom, rather than question his
prohibition. For wine-bibbing did not take possession of her
spirit, nor did the love of wine stimulate her to hatred of the
truth, as it doth too many, both male and female, who nauseate at a
song of sobriety, as men well drunk at a draught of water. But she,
when she had brought her basket with the festive meats, of which
she would taste herself first and give the rest away, would never
allow herself more than one little cup of wine, diluted according
to her own temperate palate, which, out of courtesy, she would
taste. And if there were many oratories of departed saints that
ought to be honoured in the same way, she still carried round with
her the selfsame cup, to be used everywhere; and this, which was
not only very much watered, but was also very tepid with carrying
about, she would distribute by small sips to those around; for she
sought their devotion, not pleasure. As soon, therefore, as she
found this custom to be forbidden by that famous preacher and most
pious prelate, even to those who would use it with moderation, lest
thereby an occasion of excess439
439 Following the example of Ambrose, Augustin used all
his influence and eloquence to correct such shocking abuses in the
churches. In his letter to Alypius, Bishop of Thagaste (when as yet
only a presbyter assisting the venerable Valerius), he gives an
account of his efforts to overcome them in the church of Hippo. The
following passage is instructive (Ep. xxix. 9):—“I
explained to them the circumstances out of which this custom seems
to have necessarily risen in the Church, namely, that when, in the
peace which came after such numerous and violent persecutions,
crowds of heathen who wished to assume the Christian religion were
kept back, because, having been accustomed to celebrate the feasts
connected with their worship of idols in revelling and drunkenness,
they could not easily refrain from pleasures so hurtful and so
habitual, it had seemed good to our ancestors, making for the time
a concession to this infirmity, to permit them to celebrate,
instead of the festivals which they renounced, other feasts in
honour of the holy martyrs, which were observed, not as before with
a profane design, but with similar self-indulgence.” | might be given to such as were
drunken, and because these, so to say, festivals in honour of the
dead were very like unto the superstition of the Gentiles, she most
willingly abstained from it. And in lieu of a basket filled with
fruits of the earth, she had learned to bring to the oratories of
the martyrs a heart full of more purified petitions, and to give
all that she could to the poor;440
440 See v. sec. 17, note 5, above. | that so the communion of the
Lord’s body might be rightly celebrated there, where, after the
example of His passion, the martyrs had been sacrificed and
crowned. But yet it seems to me, O Lord my God, and thus my heart
thinks of it in thy sight, that my mother perhaps would not so
easily have given way to the relinquishment of this custom had it
been forbidden by another whom she loved not as Ambrose,441
441 On another occasion, when Monica’s mind was
exercised as to non-essentials, Ambrose gave her advice which has
perhaps given origin to the proverb, “When at Rome, do as Rome
does.” It will be found in the letter to Casulanus (Ep.
xxxvi. 32), and is as follows:—“When my mother was with me in
that city, I, as being only a catechumen, felt no concern about
these questions; but it was to her a question causing anxiety,
whether she ought, after the custom of our own town, to fast on the
Saturday, or, after the custom of the church of Milan, not to fast.
To deliver her from perplexity, I put the question to the man of
God whom I have first named. He answered, ‘What else can I
recommend to others than what I do myself?’ When I thought that
by this he intended simply to prescribe to us that we should take
food on Saturdays,—for I knew this to be his own practice,—he,
following me, added these words: ‘When I am here I do not fast on
Saturday, but when I am at Rome I do; Whatever church you may come
to, conform to its custom, if you would avoid either receiving or
giving offence.’” We find the same incident referred to in
Ep. liv. 3. | whom, out of
regard for my salvation, she loved most dearly; and he loved her
truly, on account of her most religious conversation, whereby, in
good works so “fervent in spirit,”442 she frequented the church; so that
he would often, when he saw me, burst forth into her praises,
congratulating me that I had such a mother—little knowing what a
son she had in me, who was in doubt as to all these things,
and did not imagine the
way of life could be found out.
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