are literally similar, but of different meaning.”^66 Anthony Lane’s meticulous research
on Calvin’s use of the church fathers provides additional cautions.^67 Nonetheless, it
is apparent that Ambrose willingly draws upon Western Catholic sources. Perhaps
his more conciliatory attitude that shunned controversy also created a greater
receptivity to medieval writings. Two glimpses of this are evident in comparing the
first and second editions of Ultima. In 1640 Ambrose writes, “as a Pope hath told us”
and in the margin reveals his identity as Gregory.^68 However, in the next edition he is
simply referred to as Gregory.^69 Similarly in his first work he names Luis de Granada
and his Meditations.^70 But in the 1654 edition while his name is removed the same
two quotations remain and he is merely identified as “saith one devoutly.”^71 This
reflects the nature of seventeenth-century polemics, but it also reveals that at least
some Puritans, while anxious to criticize and distance themselves publicly from
Western Catholics, were still quite willing to borrow from their writings. However,
this practice pertained only to devotional works of piety and not doctrinal writings.
Granada, author of the popular Of Prayer and Meditation, was one of the most widely
read continental mystics in seventeenth-century England.^72 Ambrose also includes
two references to Ignatius, though neither one is positive. In describing Jesus’
crucifixion he writes, “[l]et Jesuites and Friers in meditating of Christs sufferings, cry
(^66) Gilson, Mystical (^) Theology of Bernard (^) , 187, cf. 186.
(^67) Anthony Lane, John Calvin: Student of Church Fathers, esp. 1-13.
(^6869) Ambrose, Ultima in Prima, Media, Ultima (1640), 245.
Ambrose, Ultima in Prima, Media Ultima (1654), 109. Ambrose also links
Gregory and Calvin in their common interpretation of the fires of hell. Ultima in
Prima, Media, Ultima 70 (1654), 146.
71 Ambrose, Ultima (1640), 242, 388.^
Ambrose, Ultima in Prima, Media, Ultima (1654), 106, 212. I have not been able
to determine the specific source of thes 72 e quotations.
Horton Davies, Worship and Theology in England, 2:69. On Granada see Pourrat,
Christian SpiritualityGranada. Devotional Poetry in France, 3:95-101. Terence Cave asserts that Erasmus also influenced , 5.