Ps. xxxiv. [xxxiii.] 11.
Editorial footnote · On the Duties of the Clergy, Chapter I., editorial note cite_note-1 · Original source
Search a Bible verse · Source library · Sources and text rights
On the Duties of the Clergy — Historical footnotes
Chapter I.
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).
Read the original source · Text reuse terms
Read the surrounding source paragraph
1. I think I shall not seem to be taking too much on myself, if, in the midst of my children, I yield to my desire to teach, seeing that the master of humility himself has said: “Come, ye children, hearken unto me: I will teach you the fear of the Lord.” Wherein one may observe both the humility and the grace of his reverence for God. For in saying “the fear of the Lord,” which seems to be common to all, he has described the chief mark of reverence for God. As, however, fear itself is the beginning of wisdom and the source of blessedness—for they that fear the Lord are blessed—he has plainly marked himself out as the teacher for instruction in wisdom, and the guide to the attainment of blessedness.
Paulinus, in his Life of St. Ambrose, relates various expedients that he tried, to enable him to avoid the office to which he had been called; e.g. how he caused torture to be applied to prisoners, contrary to his usual practice, in the hope that this might lead to his rejection. More than once, also, he endeavoured to escape the honour by flight.
Editorial footnote · On the Duties of the Clergy, Chapter I., editorial note cite_note-3 · Original source
Read the surrounding source paragraph
2. We therefore, being anxious to imitate his reverence for God, and not without justification in dispensing grace, deliver to you as to children those things which the Spirit of Wisdom has imparted to him, and which have been made clear to us through him, and learnt by sight and by example. For we can no longer now escape from the duty of teaching which the needs of the priesthood have laid upon us, though we tried to avoid it: “For God gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers.”
St. Ambrose, at the time of his election to the episcopate, was a consular magistrate, and was not even baptized. The infula was a flock of red and white wool formed into a fillet, and worn on the head; from which ribands hung down on either side. It was a mark of religious consecration, and so worn by the priests and vestal virgins. In later times it was adopted also by the emperors and magistrates as a sign of their semi-sacred character.
Editorial footnote · On the Duties of the Clergy, Chapter I., editorial note cite_note-6 · Original source
Read the surrounding source paragraph
4. But not even this was the case with me. For I was carried off from the judgment seat, and the garb [infulis] of office, to enter on the priesthood, and began to teach you, what I myself had not yet learnt. So it happened that I began to teach before I began to learn. Therefore I must learn and teach at the same time, since I had no leisure to learn before.
The following is found in many mss., but not in the Benedictine edition. “Et quantumlibet quisque profecerit nemo est qui docere non egeat dum vivit.”
Editorial footnote · On the Duties of the Clergy, Chapter I., editorial note cite_note-7 · Original source
Read the surrounding source paragraph
4. But not even this was the case with me. For I was carried off from the judgment seat, and the garb [infulis] of office, to enter on the priesthood, and began to teach you, what I myself had not yet learnt. So it happened that I began to teach before I began to learn. Therefore I must learn and teach at the same time, since I had no leisure to learn before.