The perspective of Saint Ambrose on the Church-State symphony
The perspective of Saint Ambrose on the Church-State symphony

Summary/Abstract: The Church has divine and human origins. Founded in a mysterious way by Christ the Saviour on the cross and in a visible way after the sermon of the Saint Apostles on Pentecost, the Church’s aim is that all its members attain sainthood. The State’s role, however, is to offer its citizens the guarantee of a happy and just earthly life. Its aim is limited to the created world. The inaccurate understanding of each of these two institutions’ aim has generated several conflicts throughout the years. The Church suffered, among other reasons, because the Roman emperors could not evaluate correctly the attitude of the Christians towards the State as a created reality, and thus as an ephemeral one. After Christianity became religio licita, some emperors tried to use the Church and Christianity only as means of maintaining state unity. This led to conflicts, out of which the Church has almost always come out victorious. It managed to maintain and assert its divine attribute and it could not be used only for ephemeral purposes. Within the minutely organised Church-State symphony, there were also solitary, but strong voices, that had the power to protest against the abuses caused by too strong a cooperation between the two institutions.

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