65 Ps. lxxviii. [lxvii.] 17, Ps. lxxviii. [lxvii.] 18.
69 Isa. lxiii. 13, Isa. lxiii. 14.
77 S. John iii. 6. See below §63, n. 4.
78 "The charge is an admirable illustration of the groundlessness of such accusations of wilful corruption of Scripture. The words in question have no Greek authority at all, and are obviously a comment." Westcott on S. John v. 6.
79 Auxentius, a Cappadocian, was ordained priest a.d. 343 by Gregory, the violent opponent of St. Athanasius. After the synod of Milan a.d. 355, when the bishop of that see, Dionysius, having refused to renounce Athanasius andthe Nicene faith, was banished, Auxentius was forcibly intruded as bishop, and, in spite of the efforts of St. Hilary of Poitiers and other Catholics, maintained his position till his death in 374.
80 The reference must be to the synods of Sirmium. In one held a.d. 351, against Photinus, there was a great attempt to make the semi-Arians appear orthodox, and St. Hilary accepted, while St. Athanasius rejected, their formula. Another synod was held a.d. 357, when the aged Hosius was tormented into accepting a formula, called by St. Hilary the "Sirmian blasphemy." Another, no less injurious to the faith, was held in 358, by the desire of Constantius. During this time-but forgeries and the loss of some patristic writings make the history of the whole period somewhat uncertain-dates the weakness of Liberius, so that St. Ambrose may well speak of nutantibus sacerdotibus. See Hefele, Conc. Geschichte, I. on the Sirmian synods; Athanasius, Vol. IV. in this series, p. 464 ff.; Dict. Chr. Biog. III. 171, art. "Hosius;" Socrates, H. E., in this series, Vol. II. pp. 56, 57, 58.
84 S. John iii. 6. This is the full reading of the passage according to St. Ambrose, referred to above in §59.
85 S. John iii. 7, John iii. 8.
90 1 John v. 6, 1 John v. 7, 1 John v. 8.
92 S. John iv. 23, John iv. 24.
99 S. John xx. 17 John xx. 18.
104 St. Ambrose here argues against Apollinarianism, who separated the two natures in Christ and taught that He should not be adored except in His Godhead, giving to the orthodox the nickname of anqrwpolatrai. The Apollinarians held that Christ was Qeoj sarkoforoj, as Nestortans made Him anqrwpoj Qeoforoj, instead of the proper Qeanqrwpoj. Apollinaris said Christ is oute anqrwpoj aploj, oute Qeoj, alla Qeou kai anqrwpou micij. He denied the complete human nature of our Lord, saying that the Logos supplied the place of the anima rationalis. This stunted humanity could not be accepted by the Church, as it would involve a merely partial redemption. Christ must be a perfect man, in order to be a perfect Redeemer.
The heresy was opposed by St. Athanasius, St. Basil, and others, condemned in synods at Alexandria 362, Rome 373 and probably 382, Antioch 378 or 379, and decisively at Constantinople in the second oecumenical council. See Dict. Chr. Biog.; Blunt, Dict. of Sects, etc.; Hefele on Council of Constantinople; St. Gregory of Nazianzus' Letters on the Apollinarian controversy in this series, p. 437 ff.
108 There can be no doubt that St. Ambrose held what is known as the Real Presence in the Sacrament of the Eucharist, and is here asserting the custom of his day, viz., that Christ was worshipped as indivisibly God and Man in that Sacrament. Similar expressions are to be found in other Fathers, and in St. Ambrose elsewhere; e.g. De Fide, V. 10; De Mysteriis, §§52-54, 58. Bishop Andrewes, formerly of Winchester (ob. a.d. 1626), refers to St. Ambrose as follows: "Nos vero et in Mysteriis Carnem Christi adaramus cunt Ambrosio, et non id, sed eum qui super altare colitur. Nec Carnero manducamus quin adoremus prius cum Augustino. ...El Sacramentum tamen nulli adaremus." Resp. ad Bellarmin, p. 195.