Ps. xcix. [xcviii.] 5.
Editorial footnote · On the Holy Spirit, Chapter XI., editorial note cite_note-11 · Original source
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On the Holy Spirit — Historical footnotes
Chapter XI.
Complete historical editorial footnotes. These notes retain the original edition’s wording; individual note authors are unspecified.
English translation and editorial credits: Augustus Henry Eugene de Romestin, Eugene de Romestin (assistant), Henry Thomas Forbes Duckworth (assistant).
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76. But they worship not only His Godhead but also His Footstool, as it is written: “And worship His footstool, for it is holy.” Or if they deny that in Christ the mysteries also of His Incarnation are to be worshipped,
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 ἀνθρωπολάτραι. The Apollinarians held that Christ was Θεὸς σαρκοφόρος, as Nestorians made Him ἄνθρωπος Θεοφόρος, instead of the proper Θεάνθρωπος. Apollinaris said Christ is οὔτε ἄνθρωπος ἅπλος, οὔτε Θεὸς, ἀλλὰ Θεοῦ καὶ ἀνθρώπου μίξις. 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 œcumenical 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.
Editorial footnote · On the Holy Spirit, Chapter XI., editorial note cite_note-13 · Original source
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77. Therefore if it do not at all detract from Christ, that God is worshipped in Christ, for Christ too is worshipped; it certainly also detracts nothing from the Spirit that God is worshipped in the Spirit, for the Spirit also is worshipped, as the Apostle has said: “We serve the Spirit of God,” for he who serves worships also, as it is said in an earlier passage: “Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve.”
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 adoramus cum Ambrosio, et non id, sed eum qui super altare colitur. Nec Carnem manducamus quin adoremus prius cum Augustino.…El Sacramentum tamen nulli adoremus.” Resp. ad Bellarmin, p. 195.
Editorial footnote · On the Holy Spirit, Chapter XI., editorial note cite_note-17 · Original source
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79. Let us, however, see whether the prophet does not say that that earth is to be worshipped which the Lord Jesus took upon Him in assuming flesh. And so, by footstool is understood earth, but by the earth the Flesh of Christ, which we this day also adore in the mysteries, and which the apostles, as we said above, adored in the Lord Jesus; for Christ is not divided but is one; nor, when He is adored as the Son of God, is He denied to have been born of the Virgin. Since, then, the mystery of the Incarnation is to be adored, and the Incarnation is the work of the Spirit, as it is written, “The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee, and that Holy Thing Which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God,” without doubt the Holy Spirit also is to be adored, since He Who according to the flesh was born of the Holy Spirit is adored.
Ps. civ. [ciii.] 24.
Editorial footnote · On the Holy Spirit, Chapter XI., editorial note cite_note-19 · Original source
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83. Let us investigate the force of that word and expression more diligently, and deduce its proper meaning from other passages. “Thou hast,” it is said, “made them all in wisdom.” Do we here understand that Wisdom was without a share in the things that were made? But “all things were made by Him.” And David says: “By the Word of the Lord were the heavens established.” So, then, he himself who calls the Son of God the maker even of heavenly things, has also plainly said that all things were made in the Son, that in the renewal of His works He might by no means separate the Son from the Father, but unite Him to the Father.