Letters

Contents

Only Letter 63 (to the church of Vercelli), sections 62-64 (on 'the husband of one wife' and a second marriage) is published; the other letters are not yet on the site.

1. 63.62Ambrose explains that “the husband of one wife” does not forbid a bishop to be married, but requires him to keep his baptismal grace by conjugal chastity, not to beget children in office, and not to marry again.
2. 63.63Ambrose rejects the view that a marriage before baptism does not count: baptism forgives sins, but marriage is a law, not a fault, so a twice-married man cannot be ordained though he is not guilty.
3. 63.64Ambrose adds that Nicaea also excluded the twice married from the clergy, and argues that a cleric who exhorts widows not to remarry must himself have kept faith with his first marriage.