De fide


 [AMBR.Fid.]: CPL 150.  
ed.: O. Faller CSEL 78 [PL 16.527-698].

MSS
  1. Oxford, Bodleian Library Bodley 739 (SC 2736): HG 593.
  2. Oxford, Bodleian Library Bodley 827 (SC 2718): HG 605.
  3. Salisbury, Cathedral Library 140: HG 739.
  4. London, Lambeth Palace Library 414: HG 516 (short excerpts).
Lists--A-S Vers       none
Quots/Cits
  1. Fid.II.v.28-40: BEDA.Comm.Marc. IV.797-812.
  2. Fid.II.vii.7-12: BEDA.Comm.Marc.IV.1537-39.
  3. Fid.II.vii.36-41: BEDA.Comm.Epist.cath.1Petri.IV.i.8-12.
  4. Fid.V.x.38-46, 67-68: ALCVIN.Comm.Ioan.815.23-34.
  5. Fid.I.xvii.29-31: ALCVIN.Contr.her.Fel.74.4-6 [=PL 101.101.40-43].
  6. Fid.V.i.30-53: ALCVIN.Contr.her.Fel.87.5-25 [=PL 101.111.3-31].
  7. Fid.V.i.63-65: ALCVIN.Contr.her.Fel.87.25-88.1 [=PL 101.111.32-36].
  8. Fid.V.i.70-74: ALCVIN.Contr.her.Fel.88.1-4 [=PL 101.111.37-41].
  9. Fid.I.xiii.11-24: ALCVIN.Adu.Fel.219.16-32.
  10. Fid.V.viii.73-77: ALCVIN.Adu.Fel.221.16-20.
Refs
  1. ALCVIN.Epist.CXCIII.320.30-35.
  2. ALCVIN.Epist.CXCIV.322.16-18.

De fide provides instruction in the Catholic faith by refuting Arian denials of the divinity of Christ. This work and the later treatise DE SPIRITU SANCTO were both written for the emperor Gratian, and often circulated together with the one-book DE INCARNATIONIS DOMINICAE SACRAMENTO SACRAMENTO as a single work in nine books (see Wallach 1977 pp 124-25). For the Salisbury manuscript, see Webber 1992 (p 152). According to James and Jenkins 1930-32 (4.571-72), the Lambeth Palace manuscript contains two extracts.

BEDE quotes this work twice in his COMMENTARIUS IN MARCUM (see Laistner 1935 p 247). For ALCUIN's quotation in his IN IOHANNIS EVANGELIUM (PL 100), see Berarducci 1994 (pp 54, note 113, and 56; a second passage to which Berarducci refers as a possible parallel seems remote). Alcuin, EPISTULAE 193 and 194 (MGH ECA 2) to Arno requests the return to St. Martin's of Ambrose's De fide and of another (unidentified) treatise on the prophets Joel and Amos. It is not clear whether Alcuin regarded the latter as a work of Ambrose. Alcuin cites four passages from De fide in his LIBER CONTRA HAERESIM FELICIS and two in his ADVERSUS FELICEM (PL 101), complaining in the latter work (221.13-35) that Felix had doctored a passage from Ambrose in order to support his own doctrines (see Bolton 1978 p 21; Cavadini 1991 pp 137, n 40 and 146, n 73; Wright 1998). For two other quotations attributed wrongly by Alcuin to Ambrose, see the headnote for the entry PSEUDO-AMBROSE.

The Oxford and Salisbury manuscripts belong to a distinctive English family (see Faller 33*-34*). However, Webber 1992 (pp 53-54) notes that the Salisbury manuscript (from Salisbury) and Bodley 739 (from Exeter) share certain readings as against Bodley 827 (from Christ Church, Canterbury) and two other manuscripts from Canterbury and Rochester. She concludes that the former group "derive[s] from an imported exemplar different from that used at Canterbury . . . "



Last modified by Bill Schipper, June 30, 2001