The emperor is in the Church, not above the Church.
Interpretation
The authority of the Emperor is subordinate to the moral and spiritual authority of the Church.
This quote emphasizes the idea that secular authority should be guided by spiritual and moral principles. Saint Ambrose implies that no matter how powerful an emperor may be, their rule is ultimately constrained by the values and teachings of the Church, suggesting a balance between state and religion.
In practice
During a speech about the importance of ethics in leadership.
A good youth ought to have a fear of God, to be subject to his parents, to give honor to his elders, to preserve his purity; he ought not to despise humility, but should love forbearance and modesty. All these are an ornament to youthful years.
Where a man's heart is, there is his treasure also.
A kindness received should be returned with a freer hand.
Take away the contests of the martyrs, and you have taken away their crowns.
It is ingrained in all living creatures, first of all, to preserve their own safety, to guard against what is harmful, to strive for what is advantageous.
The best way to use the gold of the Redeemer is for the redemption of those in peril.
Similarly, thought is a system. That system not only includes thought and feelings, but it includes the state of the body; it includes the whole of society - as thought is passing back and forth between people in a process by which thought evolved from ancient times.
Tis so much to be a king, that he only is so by being so.
Ideas are like wandering sons. They show up when you least expect them.
Islamophobia, in all its guises, seeks to minimise the importance of the individual and maximise the importance of the group. Yet our instinctive stance ought to be one of suspicion towards such endeavours. For individuals are undeniably real. Groups, on the other hand, are assertions of opinion.
The shallow, as intimated, consider liberty a release from all law, from every constraint. The wise see in it, on the contrary, the potent Law of Laws.
IMAGINATION, n. A warehouse of facts, with poet and liar in joint ownership.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.