Ambrose's Imperial Funeral Sermons

Abstract

Ambrose's funeral sermons on the emperors Valentinian and Theodosius have been analysed as texts borrowing from classical rhetorical traditions, and as repositories of detail about contemporary politics. However, the crucial context for these texts was ecclesiastical; they were sermons, preached in church in services during which lessons were read from the Bible. This article shows that a consideration of this particular historical and liturgical context helps to elucidate Ambrose's ‘levelling’ political thought, and that identifying the biblical cadences of the sermons, far from being obfuscatory, is the key to understanding them.