15 Symmachus is called parens of Satyrus here and elsewhere by St. Ambrose. The title does not imply blood relationship, but friendship and patronage.
18 At this time there was no doubt concerning the faith of the Roman Church, as there would have been later under Liberius and Honorius. Consequently Satyrus instances it, as being the chief and best known see.
19 Lucifer was Bishop of Cagliari in Sardinia. At the synod of Aries, a.d. 353, he had strenuously resisted the condemnation of St. Athanasius, though it was urged by the Emperor Constantius, maintaining that the Nicene faith was opposed in the person of Athanasius. Against the synod of Milan, a.d. 355, he was equally resolute in defence of the belief of Nicaea, for which the emperor banished him to Syria. But when the synod of Alexandria, a.d. 362, determined on the restoration of certain Arians after repentance, he withdrew from Catholic Communion.
20 It is plain from various passages that Satyrus, when he undertook his voyage to Africa, was only a catechumen, i.e. not yet baptized. Many holy men postponed baptism, not out of contempt or carelessness, but through fear, in all the dangers of the period, of losing baptismal grace, sin after baptism and grace received being then estimated at its true awfulness. Satyrus having been, as he believed, saved from death by the Holy Eucharist, determined to be at once baptized, so soon as he could find a Catholic bishop. It must be noted that the Fathers condemn nothing more severely than postponing baptism, in order to continue in sin.
25 Ps. xxiv. [xxiii.] 4, Ps. xxiv. [xxiii.] 6.
26 Ps. xv. [xiv.] 2, Ps. xv. [xiv.] 3.
27 2 [4] Esdr. x. 6. In the Vulgate, as in the older Latin Version used by St. Ambrose, there are four books of Esdras, the first and second answering respectively to the Anlican books of Ezra and Nehemiah. Esdras iii. and iv. are counted apocryphal, but are quoted as canonical by St. Ambrose, St. Augustine, and the third Council of Carthage.
30 2 [4] Esdr. x. 15, 2 [4] Esdr. x. 16.
1 Not only the Martyrs and Saints, but ordinary Christians, are meant here, for these used to be commemorated with special prayers and offerings of the Holy Eucharist on their behalf, especially on the anniversaries of their deaths.