The remains of St. Ambrose - flanked by his '
bodyguards' - Sts. Gervasius and Protasius. Basilica San't Ambrogio - Milan.
Sotd - Saturday the 7th of December
Prep - facial scrub
razor - Ikon X3 on Rockwell s/s handle
blade - Super Max Titanium (8 and out)
brush - Semogue 2000 boar
soap - Tabac - hard soap - tallow
post - rose water toner
a/s - Tabac
balm - Nivea Sensitive
scent - Tabac edt.
Result - great.
I'm mildly astonished - if you can be '
mildly' astonished - to have had 8 close, clean and comfortable shaves from an Indian blade - there is a first time for everything I guess. It could possibly go on longer - but I am not going to take the piss and tempt fate. BBS in two passes - and smelling proper old school - job done - enjoy the weekend and your shaves one and all - yours - I.
Oh - find following some rambling pish that I wrote early this morning - about some incredibly obscure historical stuff - if you should choose to read it - thank you - if you enjoy it - thank you even more - if you don't fancy it - no problem - I understand your position - I'm sure the next post will properly be about shaving. The quote at the end is taken from '
Primitive Christianity' by John Henry Newman - c.1833-36 - I lightly edited it to make it read more smoothly to the modern eye. All dates are common era.
St Ambrose of Milan - ‘
So let them come and see my body-guard.'
Aurelius Ambrosius (?340-397) - Roman governor of Liguria and Emilia, bishop of Milan (374-397)
Ambrose was born to an elite Roman Christian family - probably somewhere in Germany - his mother was of the distinguished
Aurelli Symmachi line - you didn't get much more establishment than that at the time - when of age he was sent to Rome to be educated - literature, law and rhetoric - as befitted a man of his station. He was also fluent in Greek - which was extremely useful when he became bishop - virtually all early Christian texts - including the canon gospels - were composed in the language - he could read them directly - and used this advantage skillfully when debating with his opponents - of which - latterly - there were many. It is problematic assessing the life of someone that ended up a saint - necessarily - he could do no wrong - what isn't really in doubt is that he was a powerful and gifted speaker - this is attested to by none other than St Augustine of Hippo - who credits Ambrose with being a major influence on his decision to convert to Christianity - he is mentioned in the former's ‘
Confessions' at length. Ambrose fluency and skill in oratory seemed never to have been in doubt - church tradition holds that as a baby in the crib - a swarm of bees settled on his head - concerning his parents no end - but they flew off without injuring him - leaving a drop of honey on the infant's tongue. Message pretty clear - a charming story. This is why Ambrose is the patron saint of bee-keepers - among other things - including geese - for reasons I have never been able to fathom.
We need a bit of background here - so the events make sense to you - at this point the empire was controlled from a western capital - Milan - by Valentinian II (r- 375 - 392) - co-ruled with his brother - Gratian (r.367 - 383) - but he doesn't feature in the story - and an eastern one - Constantinople - Theodosius (r- 379 - 395) - the latter would end up being the final sole emperor of a unified empire - it split permanently after he died. Of great importance was that Valentinian was an Arian Christian as opposed to Theodosius - who professed to the Nicene creed - i.e Catholicism. After Constantine had effectively Christianised the empire - the struggle between the two interpretations of faith had convulsed the early church - causing no end of internal dissent, squabbling and theological nitpicking - pissing several emperors off along the way - who tried to force the church hierarchy into producing a single definition of belief - did this help? - of course not - it in fact made everything worse - and by the time of Ambrose - things were more fissiparous than ever. The differences between the two systems are horribly, horribly complex - but put as simply as possible - was Jesus created and made incarnate by god for his ministry on earth or was he eternally existent as part of the trinitarian godhead before pitching up in Bethlehem? The former was the Arian position - the latter Catholic. Relics - generally - but not exclusively - are preserved body parts of the martyr saints of the primitive church - vitally important in early and medieval Christianity. They possessed miraculous properties - they were pneumatological lightning rods - short circuiting the divide between the human and the divine - the martyrs sat at the hand of god - and could intercede directly on behalf of the petitioner. To possess them lent awesome spiritual authority. Things got a bit silly later in the medieval period - at one point there were six heads of John the Baptist on the go.
When he finished his education Ambrose chose to follow his father into public service - in short order he was appointed governor of Liguria and Emilia - based in Milan - this is pretty impressive - similar to becoming mayor of London just after you graduate. He seems to have been competent and enjoyed popular support. In 374 the sitting bishop of Milan - Auxentius - an Arian - died - and the choice of his successor threatened to cause serious unrest among the populace. A large mob had gathered at the cathedral - Ambrose intervened - fearing a full scale riot on his watch - and due to his eloquence - calmed them down - whereupon they decided they wanted him as their bishop - he did a runner and went into hiding but was soon turned over to the authorities. Almost certainly not true - it is a standard trope for those that would end up saints - popular acclamation - an initial refusal to take office before acceptance. What is verifiable - and ought to have been a serious problem - Ambrose wasn't technically a Christian - he hadn't done the required theological study - and more importantly he hadn't been baptised. This was brushed over - he was ‘
fast tracked' and a week later started in the job.
Due to the proximity of the emperor - Milan attracted significant numbers of Arian refugees from the east - where they were being actively persecuted by Theodosius - the influx causing tension with the locals. Relations worsened - when they asked for the use of a church in the suburbs - the Portian basilica - to worship in. Ambrose absolutely point-blank refused this seemingly obvious compromise. Valentinian intervened on behalf of the Arians - and ordered Ambrose to give the church up - to which - he responded by saying - roughly - ‘
piss off.' Generally not a wise way to deal with an emperor. Things came to a head when the bishop and part of his congregation barricaded themselves in the basilica - imperial troops were sent to surround the building - which in turn were encircled by Ambrose supporters. The stalemate had all the potential to end very badly indeed. If not for divine intervention - Ambrose had a dream - that if they dug under the church floor he would find the bodies of two saints - which they did - Sts Gervasius and Protasius - the blood still fresh on their 200 year old decapitated bodies - a sure sign they were the relics of martyrs. That was it - game over - Ambrose knew it - and the emperor knew it - he withdrew his troops - and in due course - himself from Milan. His authority never really recovered from his encounter with the bishop. In case anyone had failed to get the point - Ambrose delivered a sermon shortly after - of which - this is an extract -
‘
Thanks be to Thee, Lord Jesus, for awakening for us at this time the spirits of the holy martyrs, when Thy Church needs greater guardianship. Let all understand the sort of champions I ask for—those who may act as champions, not as assailants. And such have I gained for you, my religious people, such as benefit all, and harm none. Such defenders I solicit, such soldiers I possess, not the world's soldiers, but soldiers of Christ. I fear not that such will give offence; because the higher is their guardianship, the less exceptionable is it also. Nay, for them even who grudge me the martyrs, do I desire the martyrs' protection. So let them come and see my body-guard; I own I have such arms about me. 'They put their trust in chariots and in horses; but we will glory in the name of the Lord our God.'
Ambrose facing down the emperor was astonishingly influential for the next thousand years - and beyond - who had the ultimate authority - the secular or spiritual? In many ways the struggle between them is still with us today.
