Editing Ambrosiaster (section)

== Identity ==
Pseudo-Ambrose was the name given by [[Erasmus]] to refer to the author of a volume containing the first complete Latin commentary on the [[Pauline epistles]].<ref name="FitzgeraldCavadini1999">{{cite book|author1=Allan D. Fitzgerald|author2=Allan Fitzgerald John C. Cavadini|title=Augustine Through the Ages: An Encyclopedia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GcVhAGpvTQ0C&pg=PA19|accessdate=13 November 2012|year=1999|publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing|isbn=978-0-8028-3843-8|pages=19–}}</ref> 

Attempts to identify Ambrosiaster with known authors has continued, but with no success. Because Augustine cites Ambrosiaster's commentary on [[Romans 5]]:12 under the name of "Hilary", many critics have attempted to identify Ambroasiaster with one of the many writers named "Hilary" active in the period. In 1899, [[Germain Morin]] suggested that the writer was Isaac, a converted Jew and writer of a tract on the Trinity and Incarnation, who was exiled to [[Spain]] in 378–380 and then relapsed to [[Judaism]]. Morin afterwards abandoned this theory of the authorship in favour of [[Decimus Hilarianus Hilarius]], proconsul of [[North Africa during the Classical Period|Africa]] in 377.<ref name="EB1911"/> Alternatively, [[Paolo Angelo Ballerini]] attempted to sustain the traditional attribution of the work to Ambrose, in his complete edition of that Father's work. This is extremely problematic, though, since it would require Ambrose to have written the book before he became a bishop, and then added to it in later years, incorporating later remarks of [[Hilary of Poitiers]] on Romans.<ref>[[Alexander Souter]], ''Study of Ambrosiaster'' (Cambridge Univ. Press, 1905)</ref> No identifications, therefore, have acquired lasting popularity with scholars, and Ambrosiaster's identity remains a mystery.

Internal evidence from the documents has been taken to suggest that the author was active in Rome during the period of [[Pope Damasus I|Pope Damasus]], and, almost certainly, a member of the clergy.<ref name="FitzgeraldCavadini1999"/>