ABSTRACT
It would not be accurate to say (as sometimes has been wrongly said), that St Ambrose was the first to introduce allegorical exegesis in the West. In order to render this assertion null and void, it is sufficient to mention the names of Tertullian, the author of the De Cibis Judaicis, and St Hilary of Poitiers. But Ambrose gave to it special importance because it enabled him to multiply ad infinitum edifying considerations in connection with texts, and to combat effectively the heretics with whom he happened to be dealing. Was it not by this means that he made a conquest of the intelligence of Augustine who was still imbued with very many Manichaean prejudices? 1 His special authorities were Philo the Alexandrine Jew, and Origen. He mentioned them but rarely by name; he even came to combat their views. But in point of fact he used them as his favourite guides to get beyond the literal meaning to what he calls the sensus altior or the subtilior interpretatio.B
Allegorical exegesis is no longer to modern taste. We know the Bible far less well than the Christians of the first
centuries who made it their favourite and almost sole sustenance.
