120. 1 S.John ii. 18.
121. Exod. xii. 29.
122. Ib. 31.
123. Ib. 33.
124. 1 Cor. x. 2
125. This would seem to be not quite correct. Mr. Hensley remarks that in A.D. 360, Easter day was on April 23rd but that the 'fourteenth moon' of that year was a Monday and not on a Sunday. The question is discussed in Ideler Chronol. vol. 11 p. 254-257.
126. Col. iv.3.
127. Ps. cxli. 3.
128. 1 Cor. v. 8.
129. i. e. as Bishop.
130. Isa. i. 17.
131. Ps. lxviii. 5.
132. The Juthungi were a German tribe settled on the north bank of the Danube, in what is now Austria Proper and Moravia. It is uncertain whether they were, as Ammianus Marcellinus describes them, a sept of the Alemanni, or whether they were Goths. It has been suggested that the name is only another form of Gothi or Gothones, (Dict. of Antiq.) The want of a detailed and accurate history of these times, which are just beyond the range of Ammianus, makes it difficult to make out clearly the allusions which S. Ambrose here makes. Tillemont explains them thus, 'Bauton seeing the Juthungan Alemanni ravaging Rhaetia, while, the Roman soldiers were engaged in guarding the passes of the Alps against Maximus, summoned the Huns and Alans to make war on them. These tribes accordingly pillaged the territories of the Alemanni up to the frontiers of Gaul. But on Maximus complaining that they had been brought against him, Valentinian, to deprive him of any pretext for breaking off the peace, induced them to retire in the midst of their victories by presents of money.' He also considers that the reason why the Juthungi came to pillage Rhaetia that year was the extraordinary fertility, and that it is this invasion to which allusion is made in Letter xxiv, 21, where S. Ambrose says that Rhaetia Secunda 'drew down an enemy on herself by her abundance.'
133. S. Ambrose means Maximus' brother.
134. He scorns to mean that pity for the dead should move him to less harsh treatment. But perhaps the word 'tuam' may have dropped out, and we should read 'tu tuam causam considera,' ' do you consider your own case.'
135. It seems necessary here to read 'allegabis' for 'allegabas,' as the past tense would be unmeaning.
136. Cabillonum is the ancient name of Chalons-sur-Saone.
137. He refers to the Bishops Idacius and Ithacius, who had induced Maximus to put Priscillian and others of his party to death, in spite of the remonstrances of S. Martin, who urged Maximus to be content with their having been condemned by ecclesiastical sentence. Priscillian 'had adopted a strange compound of various errors,' (Prof. Bright Hist. p. 160.) chiefly Manichean. There is a full account of Maximus' dealings with them in Fleury, xviii. 29, 30. Newman's Transl. vol. 1 p. 66-69. S. Ambrose in Letter xxvi. condemns the conduct of these Bishops, and the appeal to the civil sword in Ecclesiastical cases, in still stronger terms.
138. Rom.xiii. 4.
139. The Benedictine Editors consider him to be referring to the Novatians.
140. S. Matt. v. 27.
141. Jer. xxii. 29, 30.
142. S. Ambrose's Latin is 'scribe hoc viros abdicates.' The Vulg. has 'scribe virum istum sterilem.' The LXX. gra&yon to_n a!ndra tou~ton e0kkh&rukton .
143. abdicati
144. S. John viii. 8.