On Repentance

Against the Novatians of his day who refused penance to repentant sinners except for “lighter sins” (criminibus levioribus I, III, 10), Ambrose stresses the biblical notion of God’s radical forgiveness. He explains the practice of public and private penance in the Church on a biblical basis. His vibrant exposition emphasizes the harmony between both Testaments on that issue and ends with a call to personal penance.

Charles Kannengiesser, Handbook of Patristic Exegesis: The Bible in Ancient Christianity (Leiden: Brill, 2006), 1058.