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The Church Fathers · 378–380

On the Faith

De Fide

Ambrose of Milan · c. 339 – 397

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What it is

Written at the request of the young emperor Gratian, who was leaving for a war against the Goths and asked his bishop for an account of the faith he was defending. Ambrose supplies a defence of the Son's full divinity and, in the later books, a good deal of advice the emperor had not asked for.

Why it lasted

The moment the Nicene settlement acquired imperial enforcement in the West. The court that received this book issued the edict of 380 making the faith of Nicaea the religion of the empire.

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Where to read it

Public domain and free to read in full, though not held here. The archives below have it.

These open a search on each archive rather than a direct link, which is the honest way to point at an edition nobody here has checked line by line.

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