Augustin, Paulin, Ennode et les origines de la mémoire d’Ambroise (ve-vie siècles)

This paper aims to focus on the first constructions of the Ambrose’s memory in the Milanese ecclesiological and political debates of the Early Middle Ages. The origins of this memory are closely linked to Augustine’s representations of Ambrose in the Confessiones and to the Vita Ambrosii of Paulinus of Milan which constitutes the first biography of a holy bishop in Italy. Paulinus, deacon of Milan and Ambrose’s secretary, asserts having written the life of Ambrose, at the request of Augustine of Hippo, to answer the lies spread about his memory. From the 5th century, the Ambrose’s memory separates so much that it gathers, and its memoria is ceaselessly reconstructed during the theological and political fights, well beyond the Milan Church. A new representation of Ambrose appears in the beginning of 6th century in the works of the deacon of Milan Ennodius who made up an hymnus Ambrosii and a cycle of thirteen carmina dedicated to the Milanese bishops since Ambroise. These thirteen carmina constitute a kind of poetical liber ecclesiae of Milan Church (Ambrose and his twelve successors!): this new representation of Ambrose, as the founder of a new era of Milan Church, could be considered as the origin of “the Ambrosian Church” celebrated in the second half of the 9th century.