[Aurelius Ambrosius, “De obitu Valentiniani”, 392 AD.]
1. Although it may mean an increase of grief to write about a subject over which we grieve, yet, because we often find solace in recalling the one over whose loss we grieve for the reason that he seems to live again in our discourse, while, as we write, we direct our minds to him and fix our attention on him, it has been a task of love to make known something of the last moments of Valentinian the Younger. It has been such, moreover, lest we should seem by our silence either to have blotted out the memory of a loved one who merited well of us and to have left it unhonored, or to have avoided an incentive to grief, since to grieve is often a consolation to him who grieves. Furthermore, when I speak about him or to him, let my discourse be about a man who, as it were, is present to me, or even before me.
2. What, then, shall I lament first? What shall I first deplore with bitter complaint? The days of our desires have been turned into tears for us, since Valentinian has come to us, but not as he was hoped for. Yet even by his death he wished to fulfill his promise, but most bitter has become his presence, which was so desired. Would that he were still absent from us, that for his own sake he might still be living! But he could not endure to be inactive when he heard that the Italian Alps were infested by a barbarian foe, and he preferred to encounter danger by wholly forsaking Gaul than to fail us in our peril. A grave crime on the part of the emperor do we acknowledge this to be, that he wished to come to the rescue of the Roman Empire! This was the cause of his death, a cause full of glory. Let us pay the noble prince a tribute of tears, since he has paid us the tribute even of his death.
3. Yet the exhortation to weep is not necessary. All are weeping: they weep who did not know him, even they weep who feared him, even they weep who do not wish to weep, even barbarians weep, even they weep who seemed to be his enemies. What great lamentations among the peoples were caused by the course of his entire journey from Gaul hither? For all lament, not so much that their emperor is dead, but with a family grief, as it were, that 'a common parent has died, and all bewail his death as a death of one of their own. For we have lost an emperor whom we lament bitterly for two reasons: for immaturity of years and ripeness of age in counsels. For these things, then, do I weep, as the Prophet has said: 'My eyes are clouded by weeping, because he who consoled me has departed from me.' The eyes, not only of my body but also of my mind, have been dimmed, and every sense has been enveloped by a land of blindness, because he has been snatched from me who turned my soul and recalled it from the depths of despair to the highest hope.
4. 'Hear all ye people and see my sorrow. My virgins, and my young men are gone into captivity'; but once it was known that they were from the regions governed by Valentinian, they returned free. A barbarian foe made war on the youthful emperor, and the foe, forgetting his own victory, was mindful of the imperial dignity. Of his own accord he freed those whom he had captured, giving as an excuse that he did not know that they were Italians. We were preparing even to add a rampart to the Alps, but the majesty of Valentinian did not wait for a palisade of the Alps, for flooding rivers, for deep banks of snow, but, crossing over Alps and rivers, he protected us by the rampart of his imperial power. Therefore it seems that I should use the exordium of the Prophet's lamentation: How does Italy mourn, who hath abounded in joys? 'Weeping she hath wept in the night, and her tears are on her cheeks. There is none to comfort her among all them who love her. All they who love her have despised her. All her people sigh.'
5. And because it has been said of Jerusalem 'she hath wept,' our Jerusalem, that is, the Church, also 'hath wept in the night,' because he who was making her more resplendent by his faith and devotion has died. Fittingly, therefore, 'weeping she hath wept, and her tears are still on her cheeks.' Truly, the suffusion of a tear-stained countenance is wont to show the abundance of weeping, when the cheeks are bedewed with tears, but because it is written: 'Her cheeks are as vials of aromatical spices begetting perfume, her lips lilies dropping full myrrh,' the mystical grace of the weeping Church is meant, which at the death of Valentinian has poured forth the good ointment of her sorrow and honors his life by praising it. To her his death could not have been an affliction, since the fragrance of his praise, worthy to be proclaimed by the lips of all, has taken away all stench of death.
6. The Church therefore mourns her beloved one and 'her tears are on her cheeks.' Hear what is meant by the cheek: 'To him who strikes thee on the one cheek, offer the other also, because she is patient under pain, that the one who strikes may repent. You were struck, O Church, on your cheek when you lost Gratian; you offered the other also when Valentinian was snatched from you. Rightly have you tears, not on one cheek but on both, because you piously bemoan both brothers. You mourn, therefore, O Church, and from weeping your cheeks are flooded, as it were, with flowing tears of affection. What are the cheeks of the Church of which the Scripture elsewhere says: 'Thy cheeks are as the bark of pomegranates'? They are the cheeks on which modesty is wont to shine, beauty to sparkle, on which there is either the flower of youth or the distinguished mark of perfect age. Therefore, at the death of her faithful emperors faith experiences a feeling of shame, the Church blushes, as it were; and at such untimely deaths of her pious princes the whole beauty of the Church becomes sorrowful.
7. The Church mourns in her wise men, who are, as it were, the head of the Church: Tor the eyes of a wise man are in his head.' She mourns in her eyes, that is, in her faithful, because it is written: 'Thy eyes are as doves apart from thy reticence,' because they see spiritually and know how to keep silent about the mysteries which they have seen. She mourns in her priests, who are as the cheeks of the Church, on which is the beard of Aaron, that is, the beard of the priesthood upon which the ointment descends from the head. These are the ones in whom the beauty of the Church exists, in whom her flower is more pleasing, in whom age is more perfect, who, like the pomegranates, display beauty outwardly by their bodily abnegation, but inwardly with spiritual wisdom nourish the people of every age and sex who have been committed to them, subjected indeed by the world to injuries, but dispensing inner mysteries. She mourns in her virgins who are as lilies and lilies full of myrrh, exhibiting the whiteness of purity and the glory of the mortified pleasures of the body.
8. In these, therefore, she weeps, as it is written: 'The ways of Sion mourn, her priests mourn, her priests sigh, her virgins are taken away, and she herself is indignant within herself.' And within herself she is indeed indignant, and to Valentinian she says: 'I will take you up and bring you into my mother's house, into the chamber of her who conceived me. I will give you to drink of a wine made with much labor of spices,' that is, made with much labor of spices of strong odor from the juice of my pomegranates, that he may drink the wine which 'cheers the heart of man' and that there may flow over him the juice of the pomegranates in which there is much and varied fruitfulness. For discourse of many meanings and abounding in various texts of Scripture, the discourse of angels, the discourse of Apostles and of Prophets, whom the holy Church envelops as by a single bark, is the juice of the pomegranates.
9. Valentinian, seeing these things filled with perfect grace, replies: 'The mercies of the Lord that we are not consumed; because His mercies have not been consummated, I have renewed them like the morning light.' 'Many are my groanings and my heart has failed.' The Lord is my lot, I said, therefore will I wait upon Him. The Lord is good to those that wait upon Him, to the soul that seeketh Him. It is good to hope in the salvation of God. It is good for a man when he hath borne the heavy yoke in his youth; he shall sit solitary and hold his peace, because he hath borne a heavy yoke. And he surely is consoling himself with the reward of his virtues, because in his youth he endured labors, bore many trials; he preferred to carry on the proud neck of the mind the heavy yoke of the purpose of amendment rather than that soft yoke full of pleasures.
10. Blessed, indeed, is he who even in his old age has corrected his error; blessed he who even at the point of death turns away his mind from vice. For 'blessed are those whose sins are covered, because it is written: 'Cease from evil and do good, and dwell forever and forever.' Whoever, therefore, shall turn away from sins, and shall be converted to better things at whatever age, shall obtain forgiveness of his past sins, which he has either confessed with a penitent disposition or from which he has turned with a purpose of amendment. But in meriting this forgiveness he shares the companionship of many; for there are many who have been able to recall themselves from sin both in the slippery path of youth and in old age, but rare is he who in his youth has borne the heavy yoke with earnest sobriety. This is the yoke of which the Lord speaks in the Gospel: 'Come to Me all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest; take My yoke upon you.' If anyone, therefore, before he is burdened with a heavy load of sins, has borne the yoke in his youth, he shall sit alone; he is not to be compared with the many, but with him who can say : Tor Thou hast singularly settled me in hope.'
11. But perhaps you may say: How does Jeremias call the yoke heavy, when the Lord in the Gospel has said: 'For My yoke is sweet, and My burden light'? Now, first understand that the Greek has 'yoke' only, and has not added 'heavy.' Notice this, also, that, although it was so in Lamentations, in the Gospel He said 'sweet yoke and 'light burden,' not 'light yoke.' For the yoke of the Word can be heavy, yet sweet; heavy to the youth, heavy to the young man whose age is in fuller flower, so that he is unwilling to offer the neck of his mind in subjection to the yoke of the Word. The yoke of the Word can seem heavy because of the burdens of discipline, the rigor of amendment, the weight of abstinence, and the curbing of lust, yet it is sweet because of the fruitfulness of grace, the hope of eternal reward, the sweetness of a purer conscience. Still, He called the yoke of the Word 'sweet' and the burden of conscience 'light,' because for him who has taken up the yoke of the Word with a patient neck the burden of discipline cannot be heavy.
12. He, therefore, who has borne the yoke in his youth will sit alone and will hold his peace, rejoicing in the eternal mysteries of divine recompense which have been revealed to him. Or, surely, he will hold his peace, having no need of obtaining a pardon for sin, when he has anticipated this need by a timely confession and has removed it by a speedy amendment. For it will not be said to him: 'The things that thou hast not gathered in thy youth how shalt thou find them in thy old age?' But it can also be understood thus, that he who has borne the yoke of the Word early, that is, from his youth, will not mingle with young men, but will sit apart and will hold his peace until he trains himself in the full perfection of virtue; and he will put upon his mind the cloak of great patience, and he will give his cheek to the persecutor, even content with the outrage, that he may obey heavenly commands.
13. For it is a great thing either to abstain from the vices of youth or to leave them at the very threshold of youth and to turn to more serious things, for the ways of youth are treacherous and confusing. Therefore, Solomon says: 'Three things are impossible for me to understand, and a fourth which I do not know: the footprints of an eagle in flight and the tracks of a serpent on a rock and the paths of a ship that is sailing, and the ways of a man in his youth.' And David says: 'The sins of my youth and of my ignorance do not remember.' For a young man not only falls because of the frailty of his unstable age, but he also fails frequently because of his ignorance of heavenly commands; he quickly wins pardon, however, who offers ignorance as an excuse. And so the Prophet says: 'The sins of my youth and of my ignorance do not remember.' He does not say: 'The sins of my old age and of my wisdom do not remember.' But like the Prophet, who has quickly corrected and amended the vices of his youth, he offers age and ignorance as an excuse.
14. Valentinian, also, like the Prophet even in sin, says: 'The sins of my youth and of my ignorance do not remember.' He not only said this, but also corrected his error before he learned that there was a fall into any error. And so he says: 'The amendment of my youth do not remember.' Error is in many; in few, correction.
15. And what shall I say further of one who thought that he ought to abstain even from the sports of youth, that the joyfulness of this age ought to be restricted, that the harshness of official severity ought to be softened, that the leniency of old age, out of keeping with his years, ought to be granted to one who was summoned to render judgment for a proven crime? It was rumored at first that he took delight in the games of the circus. He removed this charge so completely that not even on the publicly observed birthdays of princes nor in honor of the imperial dignity did he think that the games of the circus should be celebrated. Some said that he was engaged in the hunt of wild beasts and that his attention was distracted from the affairs of state; immediately he ordered all the beasts to be slain.
16. You could have seen the young man listening to the business of the consistory and truly in the spirit of Daniel rendering a just and mature decision where old men might have hesitated or been influenced by consideration of some person. The envious taunted him because he sought dinner early. He then began to make such a practice of fasting that often he gave his courtiers an elaborate banquet though he himself ate nothing, so that in this way he might satisfy both the obligations of religion and the good manners of a prince.
17. Word was brought that the young nobles of Rome were desperately in love with the beauty and charm of a certain actress. He ordered her to come to court. The messenger, seduced by a bribe, returned without having executed the command. He sent a second, lest he might seem to have wished to amend the vices of the youths yet could not. An occasion for calumny was given to some; yet when she was brought to court, he never gazed or looked upon her. Afterwards, he ordered her to leave, so that all might know that his command was not without effect and that he might teach the youths to refrain from the love of a woman whom he himself, who could have had her in his power, had spurned. And this he did when he was still without a wife, yet he gave proof of his chastity as though bound by wedlock. Who is so much a master of a servant as he was of his own body? Who so much a judge of others as he was the censor of his own age?
18. What shall I say of his piety? When an informer accused men born of noble ancestry and wealthy by inheritance—things which easily arouse envy—of desiring the throne, and when the prefect prosecuted them, he replied: No sentence of capital punishment would be imposed, especially on holy days. And when some days later the charge of the informer was being read, he pronounced it a calumny and gave orders to regard the accused as free until the prefect should hear the case. Neither before nor afterwards did anyone, as long as the young man was emperor, fear the envy of so serious a charge. The young man smiled at what strong emperors fear.
19. Rome had sent legates to recover the rights of the temples, the unholy prerogatives of the priests, and of their sacred cults; and, what is more serious, the legates were making their representations in the name of the Senate. And when all who were present in the consistory, Christians and pagans alike, said that these privileges should be restored, he alone, like Daniel, with the Spirit of God aroused within him, denounced the Christians for lack of faith and resisted the pagans by saying: 'How can you think that what my pious brother took away should be restored by me?' since thereby both his religion and his brother, by whom he was unwilling to be surpassed in piety, would be offended.
20. And when he was confronted with the example of his father, that during his father's regime no one had taken away these rights and privileges, he replied: 'You praise my father because he did not take them away; neither have I taken them away. Did my father restore them so that you might insist that I should restore them? Finally, even if my father had restored them, my brother took them away, and in this matter I should prefer to be an imitator of my brother. Or was my father Augustus, and my brother not? Equal respect is due to both, and equal was the good will of both toward the state. I shall imitate both, so that I will not restore what my father could not have restored, because no one had taken it away, and I am resolved to maintain what has been established by my brother. Let Mother Rome demand whatever else she may desire. I owe love to a parent, but still more I owe obedience to the Author of salvation.
21. What shall I say of the love of the provincials, either of that with which he himself embraced them, or of that which was paid in return to their protector by those upon whom he never permitted any imposition to be visited? 'Old taxes,' he said, 'they cannot pay; will they be able to endure new ones?' For this the provinces praise Julian. But the latter, indeed, was in the full vigor of life, in early manhood; the latter found much and exhausted all, the former found nothing and abounded in everything.
22. While stationed in the country beyond the Alps, he heard that the barbarians had advanced toward the boundaries of Italy. Anxious lest his kingdom be attacked by a foreign foe, he made haste to come, eager to put aside his leisure in Gaul and to assume our dangers.
23. All that is common knowledge, but this is personal, that he often summoned me when absent and declared that I especially must initiate him into the sacred Mysteries. Furthermore, in truth, when a rumor reached the city of Vienne that I was hastening thither to invite him to Italy, how he rejoiced, how pleased he was that I should be with him as he desired! The delay of my arrival seemed to him too prolonged. And would that no message of his coming had arrived first!
24. I had already promised that I would set out, replying both to the persons of high rank and to the prefect, as they begged me to consult the interests of the peace of Italy, that, although I could not with propriety intrude without need, I would not fail them in their necessities. My journey was decided upon. Behold, after three days a letter on preparing stations was received, the royal accoutrements were brought in, and other things of this kind were done which indicated that the emperor was about to set out on a journey. For these reasons the mission was abandoned by the very ones by whom it had been demanded.
25. I seemed to myself to be responsible for my expected but unrealized appearance. But would that I owed this debt to you while still alive ! I would make excuse that I had heard nothing of your perils, had received none of your letters, that I could not have come to meet you with my own horses even if I had undertaken the journey. And so, sure of pardon, while I was subtracting the days and was picking the road of your arrival, behold I received a rescript that I should consider it necessary to set out without delay because you wished to have me as a surety of your fidelity with your count. Did I object? Did I delay? It was added that I should hasten quickly and that I should not consider as a reason for my journey a synod of Gallic bishops, because of whose repeated dissensions I had frequently excused myself for not going, but that he himself might be baptized.
26. At the very moment of my departure I could have perceived indications of what had already taken place, but because of my eager haste I was unable to notice anything. I was already crossing the peaks of the Alps, and behold there came a message, bitter for me and for all, of the death of so great an emperor. I retraced my journey and bathed myself in tears. With what prayers from all did I set out ! With what lamentation from all did I return! For they thought not an emperor, but security, had been snatched from them. How deeply was I torn with grief, above all, because so great a prince, because a dear friend of mine, because one so exceedingly fond of me had died! What emotions did I discover to have been his during those two days in which he survived the letter that he had sent me! In the evening a silentiary set out; on the morning of the third day he was already inquiring whether he had yet returned, whether I was coming. Thus did he think that some security would come to him.
27. O most noble youth, would that I could have found you still living, would that some delay had preserved you until my arrival! I make no promise about any power on my part, none as regards my ability and prudence, but with what great care and with what great zeal would I have restored concord and good feeling between you and your count! How I would have offered my very self as a pledge for your fidelity, how I would have pledged myself as a surety for those of whom the count said he was afraid! Surely, if the count were not unyielding, I would have remained with you. I took for granted on your part that you would hear me, if you should see that I was not heard in your behalf.
28. Much had I to keep; now I have nothing but tears and weeping. Daily are you greater unto my sorrow, you become greater unto my grief. All testify how much you have done for me; all declare that my absence was the cause of your death. But I am not Elias, I am not a prophet, that I could have known the future, but I am the voice of one crying in lamentation that I may be able thereby to bewail the past. For what better have I to do than to make return to you in tears for your great affection toward me? I took you up a mere child in my arms when as an envoy I went to your enemy; I embraced you when you were entrusted to me by the hands of your mother. As your envoy I went to Gaul a second time and sweet to me was that service in behalf of your safety first of all, and secondly in behalf of peace and the piety with which you were requesting the remains of your brother. Not yet were you without anxiety for yourself, but already were you anxious for the honorable burial of your brother.
29. But let us return to Lamentations and enter the very bowels of sorrow: 'What shall I testify to thee, he says, 'or what shall I liken to thee, O daughter of Jerusalem? Who shall save thee and who shall console thee, virgin daughter of Sion? For great destruction hath been wrought upon thee. Who shall heal thee? But who will console me from whom others seek the office of consolation? 'He hath filled me with bitterness, he hath inebriated me with gall. 'My bowels are in pain,' to use the words of the Prophet, because I have lost him whom I was about to beget in the Gospel.
30. But he has not lost the grace for which he asked, he who today has risen before us in the sermon which I preached to the people. For when in my treatment of the assigned lesson I happened upon this, that the poor people blessed God, I began to ask who this people was, and to distinguish between two peoples, the one rich, the other poor. The rich is the people of the Jews, the poor, that of the Church: the one, rich in the revelations entrusted to it; the other, poor and borrowing revelations from others. Rightly poor, because it was gathered by a poor Man, namely, by Him who, being rich, became poor that through His poverty we might be enriched, for 'he emptied Himself' that He might fill all.
31. But how is He poor who had the riches of eternity and 'the fullness of divinity'? Therefore, He was in the flesh, and He said: 'Hereafter you shall see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Power.' And elsewhere He says to Peter: 'To thee I will give the keys of the kingdom of heaven.' Was He, then, poor who was giving away the kingdom of heaven? But hear how He is poor: 'Take up,' He says, 'My yoke upon you, because I am meek and humble of heart.' Therefore, even His people, whom I see to be richer than the rich people mentioned, are poor, but not through want, for they have merited to have not only the revelations of the Prophets but also the precepts of the Apostles which were infused by the divine Spirit.
32. Not, then, through want is he poor, but poor in spirit, to whom it was said: 'Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Truly blessed are the poor who received what the rich did not have. Of this number is that poor Prophet of whom it is written: 'This poor man cried and the Lord heard him.' Of this people is he who says: 'Silver and gold I have none, but what I have I give thee; in the name of Jesus of Nazareth arise and walk.' Therefore, that poor Founder of a poor people says: 'O God, be not Thou silent in my praise, for the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of the deceitful man is opened against me. They have spoken against me with a deceitful tongue, and they have compassed me about with words of hatred, and have fought against me without cause. Instead of making me a return of love, they detracted me, but I gave myself to prayer.' Prayer is a good shield whereby all the fiery darts of the Adversary are repelled, Therefore, the Lord Jesus prayed, and His follower, Valentinian, prayed.
33. But perhaps it may be said: What did his prayer profit him? Behold, he died in the first stage of life's course. Of the suddenness of his death, not of its manner, do I speak, for I employ not the word of censure but of sorrow. But the Lord also prayed and was crucified; for He prayed further that He might take away the sin of the world. Let us hear, therefore, what the disciple of Christ prays for certainly, for what his Master taught him. Now He taught us to watch and pray that we enter not into temptation, that is, that we fall not into sin. For this is the temptation of a Christian, if he fall into danger to his soul, but to fear death is not a part of perfection.
34. But one should pray also for his enemies, pray even for his persecutors, as the Lord Himself prayed, saying: 'Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.' Behold His great clemency. They persecuted their own Author; He forgave even the grave sins of His adversaries; rather, He even excused their offenses by covering them with the cloak of ignorance, saying: 'For they know not what they do. For if they had known, they would not have persecuted their Lord on whose power and jurisdiction they believed that their salvation depended. And because the persecutors of Christ were not satisfied by His death alone, they added curses and insults. And He Himself says: 'They will curse and Thou wilt bless.' He taught us that we should not fear in the least curses of persecutors, since we possess the Author of blessing, and that insults should not move us when there is a Protector who can remove curses.
35. What of the fact that he did not fear to die? Nay, rather he offered himself up for all, saying that the innocent were subjected to hatred to no purpose, that to no purpose were others being endangered on his account. And he desired death for himself rather than that he himself should be a cause of death to others. Such is the Gospel teaching of our Lord, who at the very time of His arrest said: 'If you seek me, let these go their way. And so he died for all whom he loved, a man in whose behalf his friends thought it of little account if they should all perish.
36. We have noted his attitude of mind toward his friends. Let us consider the affection which he had for his sisters. In them he found repose, in them he obtained consolation, in them he found relaxation for the mind and soothing for his heart wearied by cares. He begged of them that if through some lapse of boyhood, if through some word, they seemed to have been offended by their brother, they should forgive and should beseech pardon for him of the Lord God. The hands and heads of his sisters he was wont to kiss, unmindful of his imperial dignity, but mindful of his kinship, and the more he stood above others by right of power, the more humble did he show himself to his sisters. He begged of them not to remember injury but to remember kindness.
37. It happened that he heard a case regarding a possession of theirs. For so great a man was he that even in the suit of his sisters he was thought by the provincials to be a just judge. Although from love he inclined toward his holy relatives, he tempered his piety with justice. He heard the case, not regarding a right, but regarding the possession of an estate. On the one hand, brotherly love struggled in behalf of his sisters; on the other, mercy for the cause of an orphan, so that he interceded with his own sisters for him. He remitted the case to a public judge, lest he might offend against justice or brotherly love. In secret, however, as we learn from the final disposition made by the noble maidens, he so impressed his pious love on his holy sisters that they were willing to relinquish the estate and to make this known. Sisters truly worthy of so great a brother, who preferred of their own accord to surrender what their mother had left them rather than subject their brother to shame on their account!
38. This inheritance of a brother's praise and glory is for you, holy souls, a more precious bequest, and by it a devoted brother has rendered you nobler and richer. For he adorned your head not with jewels but with kisses, and he did not so much encircle your hands with royal insignia as he caressed them with his imperial lips. In the enjoyment of your presence he placed all his solace, so that he did not even long exceedingly for a wife. Therefore he deferred marriage because he was sustained by the pious affection of your graciousness. Let all this, then, be more a source of pleasure than of grief to you, so that your brother's glory may refresh your minds more than sorrow torment them. Tears often both sustain and relieve the mind; weeping cools the heart and consoles a sorrowful affection.
39. You are indeed looking upon painful obsequies, but even blessed Mary stood by the cross of her Son, and the Virgin watched the passion of the Only-begotten. I read of her standing; I do not read of her weeping. Wherefore, her Son said to her: 'Women, behold thy son,' and to the disciple He said: 'Behold thy Mother,' leaving to them the heritage of His love and His grace. Hence I desire, devoted children, to show you fatherly affection, since because of my sins I was not worthy to save your brother. Your brother I behold in you, to your brother I cling, your brother I consider to be present to me; nay rather, both brothers, whom I regard as my plucked-out eyes. More happily do emperors persecute bishops than love them. How much more fortunately for me did Maximus threaten me! In his hatred there was praise, in the love of these brothers is the heritage of suffering caused by death. My sons, would that I might have been allowed to pour out this life of mine for you! A curtailment of sorrow would I have found, and more glorious would it have been for me to die for such dear friends!
40. But, holy daughters, let me return to consoling you, although the bitterness of what has happened takes away all the force of consolation. If consolation be brief, it offers nothing wherewith to soothe a sorrowing love, but, if it be too diffuse, it brings a longer remembrance of sorrow. For the more diffuse you are, the more, while in the very act of consoling, will you affect him whom you wish to console, and the longer will you make his sorrow.
41. Therefore, I shall not wipe away your tears by my discourse as with a sponge. I would not wish to do this even if I could. For pious affections find a kind of pleasure in weeping, and usually a heavy sorrow is dispelled by tears. But I make this request, that by your deep grief you do not pluck out the brother who has been implanted in your hearts, or turn him away by your lamentations, or disturb him as he rests. Let him remain in your hearts, let him live in your breasts, let him cling to your pious embraces as he used to, let him imprint his brotherly kisses, let him be always in your sight, always on your lips, always in your speech, always in your minds. His state is now such that you need not fear for him as before. Forget his misfortune, hold fast to his virtue. Hope in him as one who will help you, let him stand by as a protector at night, let not even sleep now exclude him from your presence. For his sake let repose delight you, that he may return to you more loved than ever. It is in your power, daughters, to prevent anyone now from taking your brother from you.
42. But you wish to keep his body. Throwing yourselves upon his tomb, you cling to it. Let that tomb be for you a brother's habitation, let it be the hall of his palace, in which the members dear to you will repose.
43. But if you again remind me of your grief because he departed so early from life, I certainly do not deny that he died at an untimely age, one whom we would have wished to support with time taken from our own life, that he might live out of our own years who could not complete his own.
44. But I ask whether or not there is any consciousness after death? If there is, he is alive; nay, rather, because there is, he now enjoys eternal life. For how does he not possess consciousness whose soul lives and flourishes and will return to the body, and will make that body live again when it has been reunited with it? The Apostle cries out: 'We would not, brethren, have you ignorant concerning those who are asleep, lest you should grieve, even as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, so with him God will bring those also who have fallen asleep through Jesus.' Life, therefore, awaits them for whom resurrection awaits.
45. But if the Gentiles, who have no hope of resurrection, are consoled by this alone, in that they say that after death the departed have no consciousness and because of this no sense of pain remains, how much the more should we receive consolation because death is not to be feared, since it is the end of sin, and because life is not to be despaired of which is restored by the resurrection? Job also says that death is not to be feared, but rather to be desired by the just, when he says: 'Would that Thou mayest protect me in hell and hide me until Thy wrath pass and appoint me a time when Thou wilt remember me. For if a man is dead, he shall live. Completing the days of my life I shall survive until I be made again. Then Thou shalt call and I shall obey Thee; and the works of Thy hands Thou wilt not despise.'
46. Granted that one should grieve that he died at an early age, nevertheless one should rejoice that he departed a veteran in the campaigns of virtue. For so great was the amendment of his life in the period of youth, which is perilous for all, so great the praise of his morals, that they overshadow every remembrance of grief. For, that he died is a mark of frailty; that his character was such, a mark of admiration. How happy would the State have been, if it could have kept him longer! But since the life of the saints is not this life on earth, but that in heaven for to the just 'to live is Christ, and to die is gain,' since 'to depart and be with Christ is a lot by far the better,' we should grieve that he was so suddenly snatched from us, but we should be consoled that he has passed on to better things.
47. Thus David wept for his son who was about to die; he did not grieve for him when dead. He wept that he might not be snatched from him, but he ceased to weep when he was snatched away, for he knew that he was with Christ. And that you may know that what I declare is true, he wept for his incestuous son Amnon when he was killed, and he mourned for the parricide Absalom when he perished, saying: 'My son Absalom, my son Absalom!' He did not think the innocent son should be mourned, because he believed that the others had perished for their crime but that the latter would live on account of his innocence.
48. Therefore, you have no reason for grieving excessively over your brother. He was born a man, he was subject to human frailty. No one redeems himself from death, neither the rich man, nor even kings; nay rather, they themselves are subject to more grievous death. Job said: 'The years of the mighty one are numbered, but fear is in his ears; when he seems to have peace, then will come his destruction.' As for you yourselves, you, too, should bear patiently that such trials have befallen you which you see you have in common with the saints. David also was left deserted when he lost his sons. He would have wished, then, to die as your brother was snatched from you; he bewailed the crimes, not the death of his sons.
49. But, granted that we must mourn. How long may the time of our grief be extended? You have finished a period of two months in the daily embracing of your brother's remains. The daughter of Jephte alone in the Scriptures demanded a definite time for her weeping, when she learned that her father as he was about to set out for battle had vowed that, if successful, he would offer to the Lord whatever should meet him first. As he returned home after the victory, his daughter, aware of his love, but unaware of his vow, ran to meet him. Her father saw her and groaned, saying: 'Woe is me, daughter, that thou hast ensnared me, thou hast become a goad of pain to me. For I have opened my mouth to the Lord concerning thee, and I shall be unable to retract.' She said to him: 'Father, if thou hast opened thy mouth against me, do with me as it hath gone forth from thy mouth.' And again she said: 'Grant me two months, and going I shall bewail my virginity in the mountains, I and my companions.' And so after the two months had elapsed, she returned and fulfilled the obligation of the sacrifice. By a decree of the people of Israel for four days every year she was lamented by the women of that nation.
50. Therefore, for bewailing the flower of her virginity the daughter of Jephte judged two months to be sufficient, and the resurrection had not yet come. And in that space of time she thought that she had been sufficiently bewailed by a few. With you all peoples have wept, all provinces mourned, and do you still think that this mourning of yours is too short? If you could redeem your brother by your death he still would be unwilling to be brought back to life by your affliction, for he believes that he lives better in you. He desired rather that he himself should die than that he should see any injury to you, he was ready to offer himself willingly for you, and on the very day of our sorrow he is said to have uttered these words only: 'Alas for my poor sisters! And so he grieved more for your bereavement than for his own death.
51. But I hear that you grieve because he did not receive the sacrament of baptism. Tell me: What else is in your power other than the desire, the request? But he even had this desire for a long time, that, when he should come into Italy, he would be initiated, and recently he signified a desire to be baptized by me, and for this reason above all others he thought that I ought to be summoned. Has he not, then, the grace which he desired; has he not the grace which he requested? And because he asked, he received, and therefore is it said: 'By whatsover death the just man shall be overtaken, his soul shall be at rest.'
52. Grant, therefore, O holy Father, to Thy servant the gift which Moses received, because he saw in spirit; the gift which David merited, because he knew from revelation. Grant, I pray, to Thy servant Valentinian the gift which he longed for, the gift which he requested while in health, vigor, and security. If, stricken with sickness, he had deferred it, he would not be entirely without Thy mercy who has been cheated by the swiftness of time, not by his own wish. Grant, therefore, to Thy servant the gift of Thy grace which he never rejected, who on the day before his death refused to restore the privileges of the temples although he was pressed by those whom he could well have feared. A crowd of pagans was present, the Senate entreated, but he was not afraid to displease men so long as he pleased Thee alone hi Christ. He who had Thy Spirit, how has he not received Thy grace?
53. Or if the fact disturbs you that the mysteries have not been solemnly celebrated, then you should realize that not even martyrs are crowned if they are catechumens, for they are not crowned if they are not initiated. But if they are washed in their own blood, his piety and his desire have washed him, also.
54. Do not, I beseech, O Lord, separate him from his brother, do not break the yoke of this pious relationship. Now Gratian, already Thine, and vindicated by Thy judgment, is in further peril, if he be separated from his brother, if he deserve not to be with him through whom he has deserved to be vindicated. What hands he now raises aloft to Thee, O Father ! What prayers does he pour forth for his brother! With what an embrace does he cling to him! How he does not suffer him to be snatched from him!
55. Your father also is present, who under Julian spurned imperial service and the honors of the tribunate out of his love for the faith. Give to the father his son, to the brother his brother, both of whom he imitated, the one by his faith, the other equally by his devotion and piety, in refusing to restore the privileges of the temples. What had been lacking in his father, he added; what his brother established, he preserved. And I also assume the role of intercessor for him for whom I anticipate reward!
56. Offer the holy mysteries with your hands, with devoted love let us ask for his repose. Offer the heavenly sacraments, let us accompany the soul of our son with our oblations. 'Lift up with me, O people, your hands to the holy place,' so that at least through this service we may repay him for his deserts. Not with flowers shall I sprinkle his grave, but I shall bedew his spirit with the odor of Christ. Let others scatter lilies in basketfuls. Christ is our lily, and with this lily I shall bless his remains, with this I shall recommend for his favor. Never shall I separate the names of the devoted brothers nor make a distinction in their merits. I know that this joint remembrance will conciliate, and that this union will delight, the Lord.
57. Let no one think that there has been any detraction from their merits because of their early deaths. Henoch was snatched away lest wickedness should alter his heart; Josias in the eighteenth year of his reign so celebrated the Pasch of the Lord that he surpassed all the princes of the past in devotion, and he did not survive longer through the merits of his faith. Nay, rather, because grievous destruction threatened the Israelite people, the just king was taken away before-hand. I fear that you, too, were snatched away from us because of some offense on our part, so that, as a just man, you might escape in the eighteenth year of your reign the bitterness of impending evil.
58. But now I shall embrace the remains that are dear to me, and shall deposit them in a fitting sepulchre, yet I shall gaze on each member. My Valentinian, 'my youth white and ruddy,' having in himself the image of Christ, for with such words the Church honors Christ in the Canticles. Do not think this an impropriety, for with the sign of their lord even servants are branded, and soldiers are marked with the name of their emperor. Therefore, the Lord Himself also says: 'Touch ye not My anointed,' and 'you are the light of the world.' And Jacob has said: 'Juda, thee let thy brethren praise.' To his own son he spoke and revealed the Lord. And of Joseph it was said: 'My son is grown, my son Joseph is grown,' and he signified Christ.
59. Therefore it is permitted me also to mark the servant with the sign of the Lord: 'My young man is white and ruddy, chosen from among ten thousand.' My son was chosen when, after the death of his father, as a mere child he attained imperial power. 'His head is a rock of gold, his eyes like doves upon a flood of waters.' For 'There we sat and wept, they said who came thence.
60. 'His belly is an ivory casket,' which had received the oracles of the Scriptures, so that he could say: 'My bowels are in pain,' as the Prophet has said. For he says this who is an imitator of Christ.
61. 'His cheeks are as vials of aromatic spices,' upon which the ointment of Christ poured.
62. 'His lips are as dripping lilies, full of myrrh. His hands are turned and as of gold, full of Tharsis,' because in his words justice shone forth, and in his works and deeds grace was resplendent. And in him speech was full of power and royal authority, and constancy was unchanged by any fear of death, and precious and faultless was his correction of actions, for every good laborer is the hand of Christ.
63. 'His throat is sweet and he is all desire.' For how sweetly have all his judgments clung to the throats of all men! With what great affection is his every word repeated! How greatly, my son, are you longed for by the multitudes! Upon me, certainly, you impressed those last words which I hold in my heart, the words in which you asked me to become your surety. You yourself sought of me the testimony of a glorious judgment. I was not able to present myself as a surety for you, as I was preparing to do. Yet, though absent, I declared my intention, and Christ heard me state that I was a surety in your behalf. My consent is binding in heaven, even though it is not binding on earth. I have put myself under an obligation to God, although I could not put myself under obligation to men.
64. I have spoken of your body. Now I shall address your soul, which is worthy of the adornments of the Prophet. I shall use, therefore, the Prophet's exordium: 'Who is she that looketh forth as the dawn, fair as the moon, bright as the sun?' I seem to see you in your splendor, I seem to hear you saying: The dawn is mine, O Father, the night of earth has passed, the day of heaven is at hand.' Therefore, you look forth on us, O holy soul, looking back from a region above, as it were, on things below. You have gone forth from the darkness of this world, and you shine like the moon, you are resplendent like the sun. And rightly as the moon, because even before, although in the shadow of this earthly body, you shone and illumined the darkness of earth, and now, borrowing light from the Sun of Justice, you enjoy bright day. Therefore, I seem to see you withdrawing, as it were, from the body, and, having thrust aside the darkness of night, rising at dawn like the sun, approaching God, and, in swift flight like an eagle, abandoning earthly things.
65. 'Turn, O Solamitess, turn, turn, and we shall look on thee.' Turn to us, O peaceful soul, that you may show your glory to your sisters and that they may begin to console themselves with the security of your repose and happiness. Turn to us once only, that we may see you, and turn again and hasten with all speed to that great Jerusalem, the city of the saints. Or indeed, since Christ says this to the pious soul, He commands it to turn for a little while, that its glory and its future repose with the saints may be manifest to us, and then He commands it to hasten to the company of the saints on high.
66. 'What will you see in the Solamitess,' he says, 'who comes like the companies of camps?' that is, in her who has fought much and against many in the flesh. For she fought against external foes, she fought against the treacherous changes of the world, she fought against the weaknesses of the body, against manifold passions. She heard from the Lord: 'Turn, O Solamitess.' She turned once to peace in the world, she turned, through renewed communion, to the favor of Christ; and thus beautiful is her turning in the world, most beautiful her stately departure and flight into heaven.
67. And therefore she deserves to hear: 'Beautiful are become thy steps in shoes, daughter of Aminadab,' that is, daughter of a prince. For beautiful was the progress which you made in the body, since you used this as a shoe, not as a cloak, so that, taller and higher, as it were, you might turn your steps wheresoever you wished without any stumbling; or, in truth, that you might put off the body like a shoe, as Moses did, to whom it was said: 'Put off the shoes from thy feet.'
68. Therefore, your father Aminadab, that prince of the people, now says to you: 'Hearken, O daughter, and see, because the king hath desired thy beauty.' 'Beautiful,' therefore, 'are become thy steps in shoes, O daughter of Aminadab. The joints of thy thighs are like crowns,' that is, a grace consistent with itself in all its acts and moderation equaled the insignia of great triumphs. Therefore, because of your moderation and peaceful serenity, not even Gaul experienced an enemy, and Italy repulsed an enemy who threatened her borders. Moreover, that crowns are the insignia of victory cannot be doubted, since those who have fought bravely in war are honored with crowns.
69. 'Thy navel is like a round bowl, not wanting tempered wine. Thy belly is like a heap of wheat, set about with lilies. Thy neck is like a tower of ivory. Thy eyes a pool in Esebon.' The good navel of the soul, capable of receiving all virtues, is like a bowl, fashioned by the Author of faith Himself. For in a bowl Wisdom has mixed her wine, saying: 'Come, eat my bread and drink the wine which I have mingled for you.' This navel, therefore, fashioned with all the beauty of the virtues does not lack mixed wine. His belly also was filled not only with the wheaten food of justice, as it were, but also with that of grace, and it bloomed with sweetness like a lily. His neck also was white and pure, subjected willingly to the yoke of Christ. Thoughts governed by reason, the glory of faith, and the mark of circumcision were the glorious adornment of his head, which was crowned not with royal diadems but with the insignia of the blood of the Lord.
70. Rightly like a king, victorious over sin, and with his head encircled with a heavenly crown, does he ascend, and to his soul God the Word says: 'How beautiful and sweet art thou become, my love, in thy delights!' Beautiful through the glory of virtue, sweet through grace, tall like a palm, which is the prize of the victor.
71. His brother Gratian runs to meet this soul as it ascends, and embracing it he says: 'I to my brother and his turning to me,' either because he desires him to cling closely to himself or because with brotherly love he stands at his side as an, advocate, saying that his turning is to be preferred even to his favor.
72. 'Come, my brother,' he says, 'let us go forth into the field, let us find rest in the villages, let us get up early to the vineyards,' that is, you have come here where the fruits of the different virtues are conferred according to the merits of each of us, where the rewards of merits abound. Let us go forth, then, into a field in which our labor is not in. vain, but where there is a rich harvest of graces. What you have sown on earth reap here; what you have scattered there gather here. Or at least come into the field which is the odor of Jacob, that is, come into the bosom of Jacob, so that, like poor Lazarus in Abraham's bosom, you also may find rest in the tranquility of Jacob the patriarch, for the bosom of the patriarchs is a kind of retreat of eternal rest. Fittingly, therefore, is Jacob a fruitful field, as the patriarch Isaac testified, when he said: 'Behold the fragrance of my son is as the fragrance of a plentiful field which the Lord has blessed.'
73. 'Let us find rest, he says, 'in the villages,' showing that repose there is more secure which, protected and walled about by the hedge of heaven's refuge, is not disturbed by the attacks of the beasts of the world.
74. 'In our gates,' he says, 'are all the fruits of the trees; the new and the old, my brother, I have kept for thee. Who shall give thee to me, my brother, for my brother, sucking the breasts of my mother. Finding thee without, I shall kiss thee; I shall take thee up and bring thee into my mother's house, and into the chamber of her who conceived me. I will give thee to drink wine scented with great labor from the juice of my pomegranates. His left hand under my head, and his right hand shall embrace me.' Gratian promises his brother of august memory that the fruits of the various virtues are at hand for him. For he himself was also faithful in the Lord, pious and meek and pure of heart; he was also chaste in body who knew not intercourse with any woman other than his wife.
75. Thus in the gates of his house he has fruits prepared, and not far to seek. He offers the new and the old which he has kept for his brother, that is, the mysteries of the Old Testament and of the Gospel, and says: 'Who shall give thee to me, O brother, for a brother, sucking the breasts of my mother?' that is, no ordinary person but Christ Himself enlightened you with spiritual grace. He baptized you, because the ministry of men was lacking you. Greater things have you gained, who believed that you had lost lesser. What are the breasts of the Church except the sacrament of baptism? And well does he say 'sucking,' as if the baptized were seeking Him as a draught of snowy milk. 'Finding thee without,' he says, 'I shall kiss thee,' that is, finding you outside the body, I embrace you with the kiss of mystical peace. No one shall despise you, no one shall shut you out, I will introduce you into the inner sanctuary and hidden places of Mother Church, and into all the secrets of mystery, so that you may drink the cup of spiritual grace.
76. After he had embraced his brother, therefore, he began to conduct him to his own mansion, and, since he had proceeded beyond the ordinary in his service, he began to ascend with his brother, praying that a greater increase of love might there be granted to his brother and to himself, because the human failings, envy and pride, which in most men are wont to make void the laws of fraternal love, had been absent from them.
77. Both the angels and other souls, on seeing them, inquire of those who by their company and office, as it were, were escorting the brothers, saying: 'Who is this that ascendeth shining, leaning on his brother?' We have indeed no doubt concerning the merits of Valentinian, but let us now believe the testimony at least of the angels, that, with the stain of sin wiped out, he ascended cleansed whom his faith had washed and his petition had sanctified. Let us believe also, as others hold, that 'he ascended from the desert,' that is, from this arid and uncultivated place to those flowery delights, where, united with his brother, he enjoys the bliss of eternal life.
78. Blessed are you both, if my prayers will avail aught! No day will pass you over in silence, no prayer of mine will pass you by unhonored, no night will hurry on its course without your receiving some participation in my prayers. I will repeatedly remember you in all by oblations. Who will prevent me from mentioning the innocent? Who will forbid my embracing you with continuous remembrance? 'If I forget thee, holy Jerusalem,' that is, holy soul, devoted and peaceful brethren, 'let my right hand forget me, let my tongue cleave to my jaws, if I do not remember thee, if I do not remember Jerusalem in the beginning of my joy.' I shall sooner forget myself than you; even if my speech ever becomes silent, my love will speak; even if my voice fails, the love which is implanted in my heart will not fail.
79. 'How are the mighty fallen!' How both are fallen by the rivers of Babylon! How much swifter for both men have been their courses of life than the waters of the Rhone itself! O Gratian and Valentinian, beautiful and most dear to me, in what a narrow limit you have enclosed your lives! How close have been the confines of your deaths! How near your burials! Gratian and Valentinian, I say, it is a pleasure to hang upon your names, and it is a delight to find rest in the remembrance of you. O Gratian and Valentinian, beautiful and most dear to all! Inseparable in life, and in death you are not separated. The tomb has not separated you whom love did not separate. The causes of your deaths have not parted you whom a single affection joined together. A diversity of virtues did not render you unlike whom a single religion fostered; you who were simpler than doves, swifter than eagles, meeker than lambs, more guileless than calves. The arrow of Gratian 'was not turned back' and the justice of Valentinian 'was not in vain' nor his authority empty. 'How' without battle 'are the mighty fallen!'
80. 'I grieve for you,' Gratian my son, most sweet to me. Many are the proofs you gave of your devotion. In the midst of your perils you sought me; in your last moments you called me by name; you grieved the more at my grief for you. 'I grieve for you,' also, Valentinian my son, 'most beautiful to me. Your love has come to me as the love' of a dear one. You thought that through me you were being rescued from peril; you not only loved me as a parent but you hoped in me as your redeemer and liberator. You said: 'Do you think I shall see my father?' Noble was your desire of me, but ineffectual your presumption. Woe to me for your vain hope in man! But you sought the Lord in His bishop. Woe to me that I did not know your wish before! Woe to me that you did not send for me secretly before! Woe to me for such dear ones as I have lost! 'How are the mighty fallen, and the weapons that were desired have perished!
81. O Lord, since no one can grant to another more than what he desires for himself, do not separate me after death from those whom in this life I have held most dear. O Lord, I pray that 'where I am, they also may be with me,' 119 that there at least I may enjoy their everlasting union, since here I was unable to enjoy their association longer. I beseech Thee, O highest God, that Thou mayest raise and revive these dearest youths by an early resurrection, 120 that Thou mayest compensate for their unduly short span of life in this world by an earlier restoration. Amen.
