tate David in his repentance as well as in his sin, and he accordingly submitted, and kept from the church eight months, nor was he at last admitted without signs of penitence, and the performance of public penance. One condition which Ambrose imposed cannot be mentioned without approbation; it was, that the emperor should suspend the execution of capital warrants for thirty days, in order that the mischiefs of intemperate anger might be prevented. Although in these public penances we see more of superstition than real compunction, and perhaps what might now be reckoned an immoderate exercise of episcopal power, yet it is probable in the then state of society, Theodosius lost nothing by submission in the case of so flagrant a crime, nor Ambrose by performing what not only he conceived, but was then acknowledged, to be his duty.

Such are the outlines of the life of this eminent father, which might have perhaps been filled up with many collateral events in which he was partially concerned; but for these our readers may be referred to Cave, in his lives of the fathers, and other ecclesiastical historians, Some of these, indeed, seem inclined to depreciate his character by a common error, of estimating the characters of distant and dark ages by the opinions which now prevail, and in this they have been followed by all who are hostile to ecclesiastical establishments.

It remains that we conclude this article with a short notice of his death. In the year 392, Valentinian the emperor being assassinated by the contrivance of Argobastus, and Eugenius usurping the empire, Ambrose was obliged to leave Milan, but returned the year following, when Eugenius was defeated. He died at Milan the 4th of April, 397; and was buried in the great church at Milan. He wrote several works, the most considerable of which is that " De officiis," a discourse, divided into three books, upon the duties of the clergy. It appears to have been written several years after he had been bishop, and very probably about the year 390 or 391, when peace was restored to the church, after the death of the tyrant Maximus. He has imitated in these three books the design and disposition of Cicero's piece De officiis. He confirms, says Mr. Du Pin, the good maxims which that orator has advanced, he corrects those which are imperfect, he re

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futes those which are false, and adds a great many others which are more excellent, pure, and elevated. He is concise and sententious in his manner of writing, and full of turns of wit; his terms are well chosen, and his expressions noble, and he diversifies his subjects by an admirable copiousness of thought and language. He is very ingenious in giving an easy and natural turn to every thing he treats, and is frequently not without strength and pathos. This is part of the character which Du Pin gives him as a writer; but Erasmus tells us that he has many quaint and affected sentences, and is frequently very obscure; and it is certain that his writings are intermixed with many strange and peculiar opinions; derived, as we have already remarked, from his early attachment to the manner of Origen. He maintained, that all men indifferently are to pass through a fiery trial at the last day; that even the just are to suffer it, and to be purged from their sins, but the unjust are to continue in for ever; that the faithful will be raised gradually at the last day, according to the degree of their particular merit; that the bow which God promised Noah to place in the firmament after the deluge, as a sign that he never intended to drown the world again, was not to be understood of the rainbow, which can never appear in the night, but some visible token of the Almighty. He carries the esteem of virginity and celibacy so far, that he seems to regard matrimony as an indecent thing. But it must be observed with regard to all those selections of opinions, that great injustice has been done to his memory by frauds and interpolations, and entire works have been attributed to him, which he never. wrote. His works, indeed, are divided into, 1. Those that are genuine. 2. Those that are doubtful. 3. Those that are fictitious: and 4. Those that are not extant. Paulinus, who was his amanuensis, wrote his life, and dedicated it to St. Augustin; it is prefixed to St. Ambrose's works; the best edition of which is reckoned to be that published by the benedictine monks, in two volumes in folio, at Paris, in 1686, and 1690. His life was also published in 1678, by Godfrey Herment. 1

AMBROSE, deacon of Alexandria, the intimate friend and admirer of Origen, was a man of great learning and

1 Cave's Lives of the Fathers-Milner's Church Hist, vol. II. p. 173-238. Mosheim.-Gen, Diet.-Saxii Onomasticon.

piety, and worthy of being recorded, although his history has not in all particulars been exactly ascertained. Eusebius says that he followed the Valentinian heresy, but was brought over to orthodoxy by the preaching, of Origen. St. Jerome says that he was at first a Marcionite, but being convinced of his error by Origen, he became a deacon of the church, and had the honour of suffering for Christ, as a confessor. To him, he adds, and to Protoctetus, Origen inscribed his book on Martyrdom, and dedicated to him many other volumes which were published at his desire and expence. Ambrose was a man of a good family, and of considerable wit, as his letters to Origen show. He died before Origen, and is blamed by many, because, though he was rich, he did not at his death remember his friend, who was not only poor, but in his old age.

Of these two accounts of Ambrose's first opinions, Dr. Lardner prefers that of Eusebius, and thinks that Ambrose's conversion from the heresy of Valentinus, took place about the year 212. Eusebius says nothing of his being a deacon of the church of Alexandria, which we have named him, and Dr. Lardner is inclined to think he held that office in the church of Cæsarea. Origen, in a letter of which a fragment only remains, calls him "a man indeed devoted to God," and speaks of his earnest desire to understand the scriptures, and of his great application to them. He had a wife, named Marcella, by whom he had several children; she is commended by Origen as a true Christian, and faithful wife. Eusebius also informs us, that Ambrose was the person who excited Origen to write commentaries upon the scriptures, and that not only by words and entreaties, but by supplies of all things necessary, furnishing him with amanuenses, whom he paid liberally. With respect to his bequeathing nothing to Origen, Tillemont thinks that Ambrose knew his friend's mind, and that Origen chose to be poor, and to live in a dependence on providence. St. Jerome speaks of Ambrose's "Epistles;" but there are none of them extant. It appears by the best conjectures, that he lived nearly to year 250.

the

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AMBROSE, a monk, and general of the monks of Camalduli, was born in 1373, at Portico in the Romagna.

1 Gen. Dict.—Lardner's Works, vol. III. p. 191.—Moreri.

Eugene IV. sent him to the council of Basil, where he much distinguished himself, as well as at those of Ferrara and Florence. He acquired a high degree of reputation by his profound knowledge of the Greek language, by his uncommon acquaintance with Grecian literature, by the zeal and industry he discovered in the attempts he made to effectuate a reconciliation between the Greek and Latin churches. He was no less admired for his candid and liberal spirit, and placid and serene temper. Having failed in an attempt to reconcile those literary rivals Poggius and Valla, he told them that men who made use of abusive language could not be supposed to possess either the charity of Christians, nor the politeness of men of letters. His talents would have recommended him to the purple, which the pope intended, but this was prevented by his death, Oct. 23, 1439. He was employed, by order of pope Eugenius IV. to reform several convents of both sexes, which had become irregular; and he has described the result of his labours in this difficult work in his "Hodæporicon," which contains particulars of the behaviour of the inhabitants of those convents, which he found it necessary to express in Greek. This was printed at Florence, 1431 and 1432, 4to, both scarce editions, and 1678, 8vo. The other works of this learned monk were Latin translations from the fathers. Martenne, in his "Collectio amplissima," has published twenty hooks of his letters, which contain many curious particulars of the history of his time. He also translated Diogenes Laertius into Latin, which was printed at Venice, 1475, and is a book of great price, as being prior in date by nearly sixty years to any edition of that author. 1

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AMBROSE DE LOMBEZ (PERE), a pious and learned capuchin, whose family name was la Peirie, was born at Lombez in 1708, and died the 25th of October 1778, at St. Saviour, near Baréges, at the age of 70. His order was sensible to his merit, and he was successively professor of theology, guardian, and definitor. His tract on

Inward Peace,' " and his "Lettres Spirituelles," each in one vol. 12mo, are said by persons of his communion, to be full of light and unction, and breathe that gentle piety that characterised their author. We are told by pere Mayeul, that he had great talents as a spiritual director,

1 Biog. Universelle-Dict. Hist.-Gen. Dict. in Camaldoli-Moreri.

and was an instrument in the hand of God for converting sinners, and consoling the just. Pere Ambrose had by nature a self-love by far too sensible, with an exuberance of delicacy, and an ardent desire of public esteem: but an adherence to the precepts of the gospel effectually cured him of all these defects. To his native pride he opposed humility and self-contempt. "It is self-love," said he, "that corrupts our virtues, and spoils our happiness. Of a hundred things that offend us in society, ninety-nine were never meant to offend. But pride takes all things in their strictest rigour." "Let it take things," added he, "as it will; I will suffer all. If they should spit in my face, have I not a handkerchief to wipe it off?" 1

AMBROSE (ISAAC), a noted presbyterian teacher in the times of the usurpation, was son of a clergyman, and descended from the Ambroses of Ambrose-hail, in Lancashire. In the beginning of the year 1621 he was admitted of Brazen-nose college in Oxford, where he took the degree of bachelor of arts. Afterwards he went into holy orders, and officiated in some little cure in his own county. Being in very low circumstances, he was often obliged to the bounty of William earl of Bedford for the relief of himself and family. Mr. Wood thinks that lord procured him to be inserted in the list of his majesty's preachers, appointed for the county of Lancaster. Afterwards, when the times changed, in 1641, he left the church of England, and went over to the presbyterian party, took the covenant, and became a preacher at Preston, and afterwards at Garstang, in his own county. He was very zealous and very active against the clergy of the established church, especially after he was appointed assistant to the commissioners for ejecting such whom they called scandalous and ignorant ministers and school-masters. In 1662 he was ejected for nonconformity. It was usual with him to retire every year for a month, into a little hut in a wood, when he shunned all society, and devoted himself to religious contemplation. He had, according to Calamy, a very strong impulse on his mind of the approach of death: and took a formal leave of his friends at their own houses, a little before his departure, and the last night of his life, he sent his "Discourse concerning Angels," to the press. Next day he shut himself up in his parlour, where, to the surprise and

Dict, Hist,-Biog, Universelle,