Чем объяснить близкую зависимость св. Амвросия в его De officiis ministrorum от Цицерона?

The previous considerations led us to the conclusion that, despite all its closeness to Cicero’s work De officiis, St. Ambrose, in his treatise De officiis ministrorum, remained precisely a Christian writer. Even if the principle of Christian ethics is not clearly and distinctly outlined in him, even if it is not carried out consistently throughout the entire book, even if it is sometimes obscured in St. father's pagan-Ciceronian principle, but there is no doubt that the principle of Christian ethics and the authority of the Holy Scriptures of St. Ambrose puts first place in this work, which is why his book De officiis ministrorum is imprinted with the character of a Christian work. But this statement, as we have already shown above, does not at all deny the fact of copying St. the father of Cicero’s work, as well as his very diligent (and sometimes almost literal) borrowing from De officiis of both general moral principles and individual moral precepts of the pagan ethics of the Roman orator (even if he lost his pagan salt under the hand of the holy father). Questions inevitably arise: what caused the need of St. father to turn to Cicero, how to explain that St. Ambrose, who worked in the field of theological and literary activity for fifteen years and, therefore, had already become sufficiently familiar with the Christian truth, became such an extreme dependence on the pagan writer, which we do not observe in any of his early works, not to mention his later ones? We begin the answer to the questions posed by pointing out that, although this work, compiled from those conversations that St. Ambrose led in his presbyterium, and appeared in the world in 390 - 391, but it was compiled, as we have already mentioned in its place, probably for more than one year, and the very idea of ​​​​this treatise could have originated with St. Ambrose already in the first years of his episcopal ministry, that is, when his theological knowledge was not yet as extensive and defined as in the later period of his hierarchal life. So: what promptly forced the Milanese saint to accept the work of the Roman orator as a guide? He was driven by the need for ethical and practical Christian leadership (closest to clergy). We already know that, having become a bishop, St. Ambrose immediately began to study Eastern theology. This study of Eastern theology, and at the same time Eastern ascetic morality, which, as we know, did not pay as much attention to practical life as the Western did, captivated the sympathies of St. father towards (mystical in its essence) asceticism. Meanwhile, deep down in St. Ambrose lived a practical Roman. Arranging the Christian life of his flock and being concerned, in particular, with the question of preparing worthy candidates for the priesthood, St. the father was clearly aware of the need to give these latter (and in general all his flock) practical guidance in moral life. As a person who is not original and a thinker who is not deep, St. Ambrose could not compose the necessary manual on his own and therefore was forced to look for a model for himself. Unfortunately, he did not find such a model either in the East or in the West. 4034 Here is St. Father probably remembered Cicero’s treatise De oficiis, which was familiar to him, of course, from his school days, - which, apparently, was so suitable for what St. was looking for. Ambrose,” and then decided to use him as a model for his ethical and practical guidance. 4035 Now we only have to answer the second question: how did St. Father, such an implacable opponent of paganism, when writing De officiis ministrorum, decided to take the pagan writer Cicero as his leader. The fact that the model for his work “On the Duties of the Clergy” by St. Ambrose took the work of Cicero; it will not seem strange, as we think, after we learn what significance Cicero had for his descendants and how the fathers and teachers of the church of the first centuries of Christianity treated him. Cicero presented his philosophical writings clearly and accessiblely, at the same time putting them in an elegant form. 4036 It was precisely these qualities of his works that primarily contributed to their spread among the Romans. Thanks to Cicero's stylistically impeccable philosophical dialogues, the Romans not only became acquainted with philosophy, but also became interested in it, and in this regard, the significance of Cicero for his contemporaries, as well as for subsequent generations, is very great. Even during Cicero’s lifetime, his treatise Hortensius, for example, became a luxurious portal through which the student youth of the entire Roman West reached the source of wisdom. 4038 After the death of Cicero, the Romans' sympathy for philosophy grew more and more. 4039 The philosophical movement in Rome develops so widely that in the next century, for example, after Seneca, Rome becomes “what it had never been before, namely, a kind of center of free thought.” In connection with this development of philosophy among the Romans, the position of the latter in Roman society also changed. If at its first appearance in Rome during the republic, when the mos majorum acted in society as a moral code, philosophy found the place of the leader of morals already occupied, 4040 and in Rome they treated it not only negatively, but downright hostilely, then under the empire, when ancient principles lost their salt, on the contrary, educated Romans themselves turned to philosophy, which was once in great suspicion, wanting to find from it moral guidance both for themselves and for children. 4041 This need was all the more necessary because Rome in the 2nd, 4042 but especially in the 3rd century was seized by such a strong desire for moral perfection, which had never been noticed before that time. 4043 In the II, 4044 but mainly in the III century, believers and philosophers begin to implement “a new moral ideal, incomparably exceeding the horizons of the ancient Roman religion, which was applied to a different social system.” 4045 They begin to care about the rights and dignity of the human person, 4046 they preach benevolence towards the weak and, in general, humanity and love for others. 4047 At the same time, the character of Roman religion gradually changes: it becomes a personal matter, and not the fulfillment of only a national duty. 4048 Worship of God in spirit and truth, love of the deity, 4049 and in connection with this, personal moral improvement, now come to the fore. 4050 Apparently, the new trend threatened to obliterate the narrowly nationalistic philosophy of Cicero. In part, this was indeed the case. However, certain circumstances contributed to the fact that Cicero was not only not forgotten in subsequent centuries, but was even remembered and read longer than, for example, Marcus Aurelius, Epictetus and even Seneca. This must include, first of all, what, in our current understanding, constitutes a shortcoming of Cicero’s philosophy - its pronounced national imprint. “What we know about the character of Cicero’s philosophy,” writes Dr. H. Hitter, proves that he sought to repeat the ancient teachings, tried to harmonize them with each other and then adapt them to his own and the people’s character, which, of course, suffered from the scientific nature of his principles and consistency (in the system), but in this form his views were even more influential for subsequent times, which drew their education from Latin literature. In this regard, we can consider the philosophical works of Cicero as the basis of later Roman philosophy, and partly the philosophy of the Roman church fathers...” 4051 In particular, the spirit of Cicero’s national philosophy affected Roman jurisprudence. 4052 If the Romans of the 2nd and subsequent centuries took the path of broad humanity, then these were, first of all, jurists who tried to establish a common principle of legal relations for all, 4053 a universal human law, fair always and everywhere, 4054 who tried, generally speaking, to spiritualize the legal code with ethical ideas. 4055 The lawyer Paul, for example, argued that only that which is always the same and good is called right; This is exactly what natural law is. 4056 But the leader of the lawyers on this path was Stoic philosophy, more specifically Cicero. At the very least, they “make one of their main rules the beautiful words of Cicero, borrowed from the Stoics: “Justice is inseparable from charity,” 4057 and, indeed, in their judgments they lean more towards mercy than severity. 4058 It is possible to point out other reasons why Cicero's philosophical works were not consigned to oblivion in subsequent times. Cicero (and partly Seneca) was the only, one might say, representative of Roman philosophy and, what is even more important, he gave in his writings a summary of all ancient philosophy, 4059 appearing for his compatriots as an encyclopedist of philosophy. In his writings one could find everything one needs to know about antiquity (in the field of philosophy, of course). From this it is clear why, giving his book De opificio mundi to Demitrian, Lactantius assured the latter that there was something in it that he would not find in Cicero. 4060 It is also clear why, for example, the philosopher Arnobius and the lawyer Minucius Felix constantly turn to Cicero for material for their philosophical treatises, 4061 why Lactantius, having decided to substantiate Christian moral teaching 4062 and partly religious teaching on philosophical principles, used the famous Roman orator so diligently that he earned the epithet “Christian Cicero”. 4063 However, the most important reason for the historical vitality of Cicero and his philosophical views was that his works were studied not only by lawyers and those who wanted to study philosophy, but also by students in the then secondary and higher, i.e., schools. The fact is that Cicero, on the one hand, lived in a brilliant period of the Latin language, which is why his Latin for the future became classical and unique, 4064 and on the other hand, he was such an excellent (both in theory and in practice) orator that theories were learned from his rhetorical works, and the practice of eloquence from his speeches. 4065 Introduced into the school for the sake of his form, Cicero begins to influence Roman youth through his content and spirit and brings his ideas to the Roman world, which left an imprint on the entire cultural era. 4066 From the above it is clear that an educated Roman, in particular a lawyer, could not help but know Cicero, could not help but be familiar with his philosophical works or, at least, with the spirit of his philosophy. If we take into account that Christian youths, in the absence of Christian schools, went through, as we already know, the same pagan school and unwittingly accepted the ideas that reigned there, 4067 then there is nothing surprising in the fact that St. Ambrose, who was a lawyer before being elected bishop, and who is also no stranger to philosophical knowledge, displays excellent familiarity with both classical literature in general and the philosophical works of Cicero in particular. This had a particularly noticeable effect on the first work of St. father - De excessu fratris sui Satyri, this purely oratorical work, 4069 not yet sufficiently distinguished by the Christian spirit. So, the lawyer Ambrose, one might say, brought up on Cicero, could not help but be greatly influenced by Cicero’s views. But Ambrose the Bishop, due to certain circumstances, was far from not only an unconditional, but also a relative denial of Cicero. This will become obvious to us when we find out the attitude of Christian writers of that time towards pagan culture and philosophy in general and towards Cicero in particular. Christian writers, as we have already said, received their education in pagan schools, thus being under double influence, on the one hand, church, on the other, school influence. Both influences, powerless to destroy each other, often coexisted side by side among Christian writers, with school influence prevailing among young educated Christians, and church influence among older ones. 4070 However, “the pagan education received in childhood made itself felt,” says Boissier, “all his life, and the church fathers could not forget the pagan information that they received at school.” 4071 From here, Christian writers involuntarily, without noticing it themselves, became dependent on pagan philosophy. 4072 “I have no doubt,” writes Boissier, “that it was chiefly education that instilled paganism in the minds and hearts of young Christians of the educated classes, and from there, unbeknownst to them, penetrated into their understanding and expression of religious beliefs.” 4073 Even the church fathers were strongly influenced by the ideas of ancient philosophy: many of them, who “indignantly rejected attempts to create some kind of Stoic or Platonic or dialectical Christianity, in fact, in many points of their theological systems were Stoics, Platonists, and dialecticians (Aristotelians).” 4074 However, such a favorable attitude of Christian writers towards pagan philosophy was not always unconscious. Sometimes church writers, asserting the dependence of pagan philosophical thought on Revelation, consciously went towards ancient philosophy and its ideas. On the other hand, one cannot fail to take into account the psychologically very important fact that many of the fathers and teachers of the church owed their conversion to Christianity in part to this same pagan philosophy. 4075 The circumstances indicated above explain, for example, the phenomenon that Juvencus, a presbyter of the Christian church, which was greatly influenced by Hellenism, not only allows the immortality of Homer and Virgil until the end of time, but is also filled with an anti-Christian, pagan thirst for glory. 4076 The works of Minucius Felix and Arnobius speak about the same thing. According to Lactantius, only the unity of religion with philosophy gives us both true philosophy and true religion, 4077 and he considers it possible to accept from ancient philosophy everything that his Christian point of view does not directly exclude. 4078 Blessed Jerome intended to unite Christianity with paganism through adaptations and changes. 4079 He loved to decorate his writings with quotations from his favorite authors of Roman literature. 4080 St. Augustine believed that deviation from all philosophy indicates a lack of love for wisdom. 4081 He himself, like Blessed Jerome, found it necessary to use goodness wherever it was found. 4082 He treated Plato with special admiration, 4083 and in one of his letters he expresses the good hope that when Christ descended into hell, he did not leave great souls there, among whom were the great teachers of his youth. 4084 Even in Prudentius, the appeal to Christ is actually the appeal of Virgil with only the proper names changed, and the description of the future bliss of the righteous is copied from the blissful stay of the righteous in Elysia, and the stay of the righteous with God is not at all presented to him as a source of bliss. 4085 But, if Christian writers had a favorable attitude towards pagan philosophy in general, then they were especially inclined towards Stoicism. Thus, Justin Martyr already praised Stoicism and, in particular, its ethics. 4086 During the time of Origen, Stoic writings were more widespread among Christians than, for example, the writings of Plato. Origen himself pointed out the similarity in some points of Stoic teaching with Holy Scripture. 4087 He, like Clement of Alexandria, in his views was not always alien, as we saw in his place, to Stoic thoughts and generally Stoic influence. Tertulian is ready to consider Seneca a Christian writer (saepe noster). 4088 Lactantius also finds in Seneca many similarities with Christianity. 4089 The same must be said about the attitude towards Seneca and Blessed Jerome (who included Seneca in the catalog of Christian writers 4090) and who directly states that the Stoics almost always agree with our dogmas. 4091 Finally, the same must be said about St. Augustine. 4092 But especially, of course, Western Christian writers should have warmly treated Cicero, especially since they also found many passages of a purely Christian character in him. Thus, he taught about the divine origin of the soul, 4093 which fell from the highest dwelling and, as it were, plunged into the earth 4094 and which, as if in chains or in prison, remains in this material body. 4095 From here, by the way, it followed that the real life of people is in heaven, and not on earth, 4096 and that earthly life is only a temporary refuge, 4097 is not life, but death, 4098 that the habitat of the righteous is in heaven, that the object of their constant aspirations is an eternal home, 4099 that people will be happy when they are freed together with the body from passions, 4100 that death is good, 4101 that you need to contemplate the heavenly and despise everything human, 4102 you need to turn the spirit away from the body or, which is the same, learn to die and thereby make the transition to the future life easier, 4103 that you need to give up indulgence in the body, 4104 reject pleasure and enjoyment, 4105 that the bodily interferes with the true and adequate perception of things and that only when the spirit is freed from the body, then nothing will interfere contemplation of a thing in itself. 4106 It is not surprising after this that the teachers of the church treated Cicero with great attention 4107 and often mentioned his name in their works. 4108 We are not even talking about the attitude towards Cicero of Arnobius, Minucius Felix and the “Christian Cicero” - Lactantius - even later Christian writers and church teachers treated him with great respect. Thus, Cicero was the favorite author of Blessed Jerome. True, after one vision 4109 he broke with the classical writings, but then he again took up reading them, and then the Ciceronian merged in him with the Christian. 4110 For St. Augustine, Cicero was more than a teacher of rhetoric: he remained for him a teacher of morals and the author of Hortensius, 4111 and St. Augustine even calls him “our” Cicero. 4112 With such an attitude towards Cicero on the part of St.’s contemporaries. Ambrose does not seem unexpected that St. Ambrose, when a great need presented itself, did not find it reprehensible to turn to Cicero for help. At the same time, we should not be embarrassed by the fact that St. Ambrose in his creation De officiis ministrorum not only imitates Cicero’s De officiis, but often directly copies it. The fact is that the widespread use and borrowing from the works of early authors was not prohibited by the literary ethics of that time; on the contrary, they were encouraged and valued extremely highly. 4113 Neither the “Pedagogue” of Clement of Alexandria, nor the ascetic rules of St. Basil the Great was not approached by the St. father of the goal. Wed. R. Thamin, 202; Ewald, 19 – 20. The book De officiis ministrorum is of a purely practical nature, standing out in this case from a number of other works of St. father, written under the influence of the ascetic East. From this point of view, the statements of R. Thamin (228 – 229; 233) and Dr. should be recognized as solid. W. Gass'a (165), that the stoicism of St. Ambrose in De officiis ministrorum is a reaction against the influence of Plato and the East in general. Wed. prof. D. Naguevsky, 397. Prof. D. Naguevsky, 363. Boissier, "Roman Religion," 401. Boissier, "Roman Religion", 330 – 331. Martha, op. cit., 111, 114. Kozhevnikov, op. cit., p. 47. J. Reville, “Religion in Rome under the Severas,” M., 1898, p. 15; 172. V. Kozhevnikov, 288 – 289. Ibidem, 172. Without a doubt, these ideas were partly prepared by the philosophy of the later Stoics, who also maintained that all men are brothers (Seneca, Ep. 95, 52; Epict, Dissert. I, XIII; M. Aurel., Med. VIII, 27), which should benefit even our enemies (Seneca, De otio, I, IV; De ira 1, 5, 2; cp. Ep. 95, 52), that in God all people have one common father, creator and provider (Epict., Diss. I, 9; III, 24). In addition, in Seneca, Epictetus and Musonius, the dualistic doctrine of spirit and matter is especially pronounced, with a visible preference for the former over the latter (A. Schmekel, 401 - 403) and even contempt for the body, although milder than before (R. Thamin, 109), as well as demands for purity of even thoughts (Marc. Aur., Med. VIII, 29; Epict. Dissert. II, 18: “Today, having met a beautiful woman, I did not say to myself: “Happy is he who lies with her, happy is her husband.” For to say so means to commit adultery with her in thought.” Wed. also Zeller, III, 1, S. 287; J. Reville, 175; R. Thamin, 106. Dr. R. Ritter, 169; cp. Boissier, "Roman Religion from Augustus to the Antonines", p. 330. Cp. prof. P. G. Redkin, cit. cit., vol. VII, p. 304 – 305, 310, 324. V. Kozhevnikov, 277 – 278. Wed. prof. A. I. Sadov, 255; R. Thamin, 139 – 140. Wed. prof. A. I. Sadov, 208; Dr. Chr. E. Luthardt, 166. Luthardt, 166; cp. prof. A.I. Sadov, 69, approx. 3, 70 approx. 1; R. Thamin, 145. Lactantius’s borrowings from Cicero are so extensive that they make it possible, for example, to restore parts of the lost work De republica. A. Degert, 75 – 76. Prof. Th. Zielinski, “Cicero im Wandel der Jahrhunderte”, S. 44; cp. Dr. H. Ritter, 103. Among the Latin textbooks on the theory of eloquence, the following works of Cicero were in first place: De inwentione, De oratione libri tres, Brutus de claria oratioribus, Orator (Cicero’s ideal of an orator) and then his minor works. Dr. K. A Schmidt, “Geschichte der Erziehung an unsere Zeit”, Band, Stuttgart, 1884, S. 284 – 285. Prof. Th. Zielinski, S. 45. Prof. A. P. Lebedev, “Church historical narratives”, p. 84; his “The Clergy of the Ancient Universal Church from Apostolic Times to the IX Century,” p. 294; G. Boissier, “The Fall of Paganism,” p. 147; Archimandrite Boris, p. 9. In this regard, the work made by St. Ambrose, shortly before his elevation to the episcopate, translated into Latin the works of Josephus on the Jewish war. Wed. Labriolle, 6. Cp. Franz Rozynski, “Die Leichenreden des hl. Ambrosius”, S. 118 et passim and a review of this dissertation by W. Wilbrand in Theologiche Revue. 1911, No. 4, S. 111. G. Boissier, “The Fall of Paganism,” p. 221. Prof. A. A. Bronzov, “The Christianized “Enchiridion” of the Stoic Epictetus,” St. Petersburg, 1904, p. 2 – 3. Wed. Alfionov, “Emperor Julian and his attitude towards Christianity”, Kazan, 1877, p. 63. G. Boissier, "The Fall of Paganism", p. 97. Wed. prof. A. I. Sadov, 257. Cp. Instit. div. III, 10, 11. Cp. Thamin, 149. G. Boissier, “The Fall of Paganism,” p. 25. G. Boissier, “The Fall of Paganism,” p. 460 – 461. Wed. Tsaplikov, “Aurelius, Prudentius, Clement”, Moscow, 1890, pp. 370 – 371; prof. A. I. Sadov, 257. Apologia, 11, 7, 13. Leipoldt, “Christenrhum und Stoucusmus” in Zeitschruft f. K. – G.” XXVII, 2, S. 131. Cp. I. Nevzorov, p. IV–V. De anima. s. 20. S. Govorov, “The moral philosophy of the Stoics in relation to Christianity” in “Faith and Reason”, 1888, No. 1, p. 22 – 23. I. Nevzorov, p. V. Hieronimus, De vir. illustr., p. XII. De amic. 4, 14; Tuscul I, 31, 75. De senect. 21, 77; Tuscul I, 31, 75. De leg. III. Fragm. y Lactant., lust. div. III, 19. Tuscil I, 31, 75; cp. 22, 52. Tuscil I, 20, 47; Somn. 26, 29. Contra Acad. I, 3, 7. Cp. R. Thamin, 175; prof. D. Naguevsky, 355. How many readers Cicero had is evidenced by the lists of his works that have reached us (R. Thamin, 180). Praiseful reviews of Cicero's De officiis are given, for example, by Pliny the Elder in his Histor. natur. (praef. § 23; cpI. Reeb, 12) and Gelmi (Noct. Attic. XIII, 28. Edit. M. Hertz). Even in the Middle Ages, Cicero had admirers. Thus, under the direct influence of Cicero, Alcuin wrote “Discourse on Rhetoric and Virtues,” and Elred, in his preface to the Tusculans, argued that he, at least, was saved. As for the treatise De officiis, the same Erasmus reverently kissed the manuscript with this treatise; Melanchthon made it a teaching book in his schools, and Luther compared De officiis with Aristotle's ethics. It is interesting that the 16th century produced 140 editions of the treatise “On Duties” (R. Tamin, 180, 182, 186 – 187; I. Reeb, 12). Prof. A. I. Sadov, 77 – 78.