Ambrose, Saint, Bishop of Milan, Acta Sancti Sebastiani Martyris [Incertus]

5t. Post hæc accesserunt ad Chromatium dicentes ei : Confringentibus nobis idola tu debuisti sanitatem recipere, nisi forte aliqua tibi in animo signa infidelitatis derelinquuntur. lloc enim apud nos certum gerimus, quod aut est aliquid, quod non- , dum est fractum; aut si omnia fracta sunt, quid in animo geras nobis evidentius manifesta. Tunc ille . liabeo, inquit. cubiculum holovitreum, in quo omnia disciplina stellarum ac mathesis a meuhanica est arte constructa, in cujus fabrica pater meus Tarquinius amplius quam ducenta b pondo auri dignoscitur expendisse. Cui S. Sebastianus dixit: Si hoc tu integrum habere volueris, te ipsum frangis. Chromatius dixit: Quid enim ? Mathesis aut a ephemeris aliquo sacrificiorum usu coluntur, cum tantum eis mensium et annorum cursus certo d numero per horarum spatia distinguuntur? et lunaris globi plenitudo vel diminulio, digitorum motu, rationis magisterio, et calculi computatione prævidetur? S. Polycarpus presbyter dixit : lllic sigua Leons et Capricornii et Sagittarii, et Scorpionis, et Tauri sunt, illic in Ariete luna, in Cancro hora; in Jove stella, in Mercurio tropica, in Venere Mars, et in omnibus istis monstruosis dæmonibus ars Deo inimica cognoscitur. Ista Christiani ita rccu ani, ut non solum ipsi non habeant, non colant, non credant, non teneant; verumetiam nec animos illos habeant ,qui hujuscemodi nugis suum occupant pectus ? Omnia euim ista falsa deceptionisque ministra sunt: similitudo in eis veritatis est, non ipsa veritas.

54. After this they came to Chromatius, saying to him: ‘When we broke the idols, you ought to have recovered your health, unless perhaps some signs of unbelief are left behind in your mind. For we hold this as certain among us: either there is something that has not yet been broken, or, if everything has been broken, show us more plainly what you are harbouring in your mind.’ Then he said: ‘I have a chamber made entirely of glass, in which the whole science of the stars and of astrology has been built by mechanical art; on its construction my father Tarquinius is known to have spent more than two hundred pounds of gold.’ Saint Sebastian said to him: ‘If you wish to keep this intact, you break yourself.’ Chromatius said: ‘Why so? Are astrology or the ephemerides worshipped with any use of sacrifices, when by them only the courses of months and years are marked off by a fixed number through the spaces of the hours, and the fullness or waning of the lunar globe is foreseen by the motion of the fingers, under the guidance of reason and by reckoning with counters?’ Saint Polycarp the presbyter said: ‘There are the signs of Leo and Capricorn and Sagittarius and Scorpio and Taurus; there the moon in Aries, the hour in Cancer; in Jupiter a star, in Mercury the tropic, in Venus Mars; and in all these monstrous demons an art hostile to God is recognised. Christians reject these things so thoroughly that not only do they themselves not have them, not worship them, not believe them, not keep them, but they do not even share the minds of those who fill their breasts with trifles of this kind. For all these things are false and servants of deception: there is a likeness of truth in them, not truth itself.’