960 THIRD PERIOD. A.D, 31 i 590.
viz., On Synods, or the Faitli of the Orientals (358) ; fragments of a history of the Synod of Ariminuni and Seleucia ; a tract against the Arian emperor Constautius, and one against the Arian bishop Auxentiiis of Milan. He wrote also Commentaries on the Psalms (incomplete), and the Gospel of Matthew^ which are partly a free translation of Origen,' and some original hymns, which place him next to Ambrose among the lyric ])oets of the ancient church.
Hilary was a man of thorough biblical knowledge, theological depth and acuteness, and earnest, efficient piety. He haa schooled himself in the works of Origen and Athanasius, but was at the same time an independent thinker and investigator. His language is often obscure and heavy, but earnest and strong, recalling Tertullian. He had to reproduce the profound thoughts of Athanasius and. other Greek fathers in the Latin language, which is far less adapted to speculation than the copious, versatile, finely-shaded Greek. The incarnation of God was to him, as it was to Athanasius, the centre of theology and- of the Christian life. He had an effective hand in the development of the dogma of the consubstantiality of *,lie Son with the Father, and the dogma of the person of Ohrist. In this he was specially etninent for his line use of the Gospel of John. But he could not get cle<2S of subordinationism, nor call the Holy Ghost downright God. His Pneumatology, as well as his anthropology and soteriology, was, like that of all the fathers before Augustine, comparatively ci-ude. In Christology he saw farther and deeper than many of his contemporaries. He made the distinction clear between the divine and the human in Christ, and yet held firmly to the unity of His person. He supposes a threefold birth of the Son of God : the eternal generation in the bosom of the Father, to whom the Son is equal in essence and glory ; the incarnation, the humiliation of Himself to the form of a servant from the free impulse of love ; and the birth of the Son of God out of
' Jerome (De viris illustr. c. 100) says of bis Commentary on the Psalms: "In quo opere imitatus Origenem, nonnuUa etiara de suo addidit," and of the Commentary on Matthew and the tract on Job " Quos de Graeco Origeni3 ad sensum trauatulit"
§ 175. AMBROSE. 901
the Son of Man in the resurrec^tion, the transfiguration of the form of a servant into the form of God, at once sliowinf forth again the full glory of God, and realizing the idea of iiumanity.'
§ 175. Ambrose.
I. S. Ambrosius Mediolanensis episcopus : Opera ad manuscriptos codicos
Vaticanos, Gallicanos, Belgicos, &c., emendata, studio et labore monachorura ord. S. Benedict! e congreg. S. Mauri {Jac. du Friche et Nic-, de Nourry). Paris. 1686-'90, 2 vols. fol. This editioa was reprinted at Venice, 1748-51, in 4 vols, fol., and in 1781 in 8 vols. 4to, and by Abbe Migne in his Patrol., Petit-Montrouge, 1843, 2 torn, in 4 Parts with some additions. The Libri tres de officiis, and the Hexaemeron of Ambrose have also been frequently published separately. A convenient edition of both is included in Gersdorfs Bibliotheca Patrum Latinorum selecta, vols. viii. and ix. Lips. 1839. His hymns are found also in DanieVs Thesaurus hymnolog. torn. i. p. 12 sqq.
II. Paulintts (deacon of Milan and secretary of Ambrose) : Vita S. Am-
brosii (written by request of St. Augustine, derived from personal knowledge, from Marcella, sister of Ambrose, and several friends). The Vita of au anonymous writer, in Greek and Latin, in the Bened. ed. of the Opera. Both in the Appendix to torn. ii. ed. Benedictiua). Benedictini Editores: Vita Ambrosii ex ejus potissimum scriptia collecta et secundum chronologic ordinem digesta, in the Bened. ed., in the Appendix to torn, ii., and in Migne's reprint, torn. i. (ver/ thorough and instructive). Comp. also the Selecta veterum testini.)nia de S. Ambr. in the same editions. The biographies of Hermant (1678), TiLLEMONT (tom. X. pp. 78-306), Vagliano (Somniario degli archivescovi di Milanoj, Butler (sub Dec. 7), Sohrookh, Bohringer, J. P. SiLBERT (Das Leben des heiligen Ambrosius, Wien, 1841).
Ambrose, son of the governor (praefectus) of Gaul, which was one of the three great dioceses of the Western empire, was born at Treves (Treviri) about 34:0, educated at Rome for the highest civil offices, and after greatly distinguishing himself as a rhetorician, was elected imperial president (praetor) of
' Kling says, 1. c. p. 94 : " Hilary holds a most important place in the develop^ ment of Christology, and his massive analysis contains fruitful germs which in the succeeding centuries have been only in part developed ; profound and comprehensive thoughts, the stimulating and fertilizing power of which reaches down even into our own time ; nor need our time be ashamed to learn from this ancient master, as weO as from other teachers of that age."