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| Chapter I. Statement of the reasons wherefore the matters, treated of shortly in the two former, are dealt with more at length in the three later books. Defence of the employment of fables, which is supported by the example of Holy Writ, wherein are found various figures of poetic fable, in particular the Sirens, which are figures of sensual pleasures, and which Christians ought to be taught to avoid, by the words of Paul and the deeds of Christ.
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Chapter I.
Statement of the reasons wherefore the matters, treated
of shortly in the two former, are dealt with more at length in the
three later books. Defence of the employment of fables, which is
supported by the example of Holy Writ, wherein are found various
figures of poetic fable, in particular the Sirens, which are figures of
sensual pleasures, and which Christians ought to be taught to avoid, by
the words of Paul and the deeds of Christ.
1. Forasmuch as
your most gracious Majesty had laid command upon me to write for your
own instruction some treatise concerning the Faith, and had yourself
called me to your presence and encouraged my timidity, I, being as one
on the eve of battle,2097
| 2097 Lat.
“In procinctu,” which is primarily a military
phrase, procinctus meaning “girding up” or
“girdle,” the expression having reference to the girding on
of armour for the battle. “Testamentum facere in
procinctu” means “to make one’s will on the eve
of battle.” The expression passed into a proverb for
readiness in general. E.g. “clementiam in
procinctu habere,” “to be ready to show
mercy.” Here, however, St. Ambrose uses the phrase more in
its original sense, with reference to the impending conflict of the
Goths and Romans, in which Gratian was expecting to take part, though,
as a matter of fact, the battle of Hadrianople had been fought, and
Valens was dead, before he arrived on the scene of action. | composed but two
books only, for the pointing out of certain ways and paths by which our
faith progresses.
2. Seeing, however, that certain malicious minds,
bent on sowing disputes, have not yet exhausted the force of their
assaults, whilst your gracious Majesty’s pious anxiety calls me
to further labours, inasmuch as you desire to try in more things him
whom you have proved in a few, I am resolved to deal somewhat more
particularly with the matters whereof I have already treated in a few
words, lest it should be thought, not that I have advanced those
propositions in quietness and confidence, but that I, having asserted
them, doubted and so abandoned their defence.
3. Again, seeing that we spoke of the Hydra and
Scylla (I. vi. 46), and brought them in by way of comparison, to show
how we must beware, whether of the ever-renewed outgrowths of
infidelity, or the ill-omened shipwrecks made upon its shallows, if any
one holds that such embellishments of an argument, borrowed from the
romances of poets, are unlawful, and, from lack of opportunity to speak
evil of my faith, assails something in my language, then let him know
that not only phrases but complete verses of poetry have been woven
into the text of Holy Writ.
4. Whence, for instance, came that verse,
“His offspring truly are we,”2098
whereof Paul, by prophetic
experience,2099
taught, makes
use? The course of prophetic speech avoids neither the
Giants2100
nor the Valley of
the Titans,2101
and Isaiah spake of
sirens and the
daughters of ostriches.2102
| 2102 Isa. xiii. 22—a passage referring to the
desolation of Babylon. In this verse of Isaiah the LXX. has
“ὀνοκένταυροι”
and “ἐχῖνοι”
(onocentaurs and hedgehogs), the “sirens” (σειρῆνες)
coming in ver. 21b, in combination with “demons”
(δαιμόνια).
The Vulgate has in 22 “ululæ” (screech-owls)
and “sirenes,” with “struthiones”
(ostriches) and “pilosi” (hairy men) in 21b.
A.V. has in 22 “wild beasts of the islands” and
“dragons;” in 21b, “owls” (marg.
“ostriches,” the Hebrew meaning “daughters of the
owl”) and “satyrs.” R.V. in 22,
“wolves” and “jackals;” in 21b,
“ostriches” and “satyrs” (marg.
“he-goats”). The “sirens” then appear to
be jackals—though the ground of the comparison is hard to
find—the “daughters of sparrows” are ostriches (the
Greek name for which means, literally,
“sparrow-camel”). | Jeremiah also hath prophesied
concerning Babylon, that the daughters of sirens shall dwell
therein,2103
| 2103 Jer. l. 39.—The LXX. (Jer. xxvii. 39) has “θυγατέρες
σειρήνων;”
the Vulg. “struthiones;” A.V.
“owls.” For the sirens, see Odyssey,
XII. 39–54, 165–200. | in order to show
that the snares of Babylon, that is, of the tumult of this world, are
to be likened to stories of old-time lust, that seemed upon this
life’s rocky shores to sing some tuneful song, but deadly withal,
to catch the souls of youth,—which the Greek poet himself tells
us that the wise man escaped through being bound, as it were, in the
chains of his own prudence.2104
| 2104 Odyssey, XII.
178–180, 192–197. | So hard a
thing, before Christ’s coming, was it esteemed, even for the
stronger, to save themselves from the deceitful shows and allurements
of pleasure.
5. But if the poet judged the enticement of
worldly pleasure and licence destructive of men’s minds and a
sure cause of shipwreck, what ought we to think, for whom it hath been
written: “Train not the flesh in
concupiscence”?2105
And
again: “I chastise my body and bring it into servitude,
lest whilst I preach to others, I myself become a
castaway.”2106
6. Truly, Christ won salvation for us, not
by luxury but by fasting. Moreover, it was not to obtain favour
for Himself, but to instruct us, that He fasted. Nor yet did He
hunger because He was overcome by the weakness of the body, but by His
hunger He proved that He had verily taken upon Himself a body; that so
He might teach us that He had taken not only our body, but also the
weaknesses of that body, even as it is written: “Surely He
hath taken our infirmities and borne our sicknesses.”2107
| 2107 Isa.
liii. 4. Cf. S. Matt. viii. 17. | E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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