Primary source · Latin

On the Duties of the Clergy (De Officiis)

Ambrose of Milan · c. AD 391

Patrologia Latina, vol. 16 (Migne) — manuscript witness to On the Duties of the Clergy (De Officiis)
Patrologia Latina, vol. 16 (Migne) — 1845https://vk.com/docs · Public domain · Commons
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Patrologia Latina, vol. 16 (Migne) — manuscript witness to On the Duties of the Clergy (De Officiis)

Patrologia Latina, vol. 16 (Migne) — 1845https://vk.com/docs · Public domain · Commons

What this text is

Cicero's De Officiis rewritten for the presbyterate — with the church's plate melted for captives, and Lawrence's gridiron wit quoted as the pattern of clerical courage.

Profile of Ambrose of Milan →

Interlinear passages

Word-for-word glosses of the original; the complete public-domain translation is linked below.

Book I.41 — Lawrence on the gridiron
AssumRoastedest,it isversaturnetandmanducaeat

Public-domain translations

H. de Romestin (NPNF, 1896)

When Lawrence was being roasted upon the gridiron he said: 'It is done; turn it and eat.' So he conquered the fire's punishment by his courage of soul… These are the riches of the Church — the poor, in whom Christ is fed.

Manuscript witnesses

Carolingian tradition

9th c. onward

De officiis ministrorum, the West's first clerical ethics.

PRINCIPAL WITNESSES

Patrologia Latina, vol. 16 (Migne)

1845

Standard pre-critical text of the corpus.

PRINTED PROXY

Provenance

Milan, c. AD 388 — Cicero's Offices baptized for the clergy

Editions & scholarship

Critical editions and standard translations behind the text above.

Figures named in this text (2)

Complete public-domain text ↗