4. But not even this was the case with
me. For I was carried off from the judgment seat, and the garb
[infulis] of office, to enter on the priesthood, St. Ambrose, at
the time of his election to the episcopate, was a consular magistrate,
and was not even baptized. The infula was a flock of red
and white wool formed into a fillet, and worn on the head; from which
ribands hung down on either side. It was a mark of religious
consecration, and so worn by the priests and vestal virgins. In
later times it was adopted also by the emperors and magistrates as a
sign of their semi-sacred character. and began to teach you, what I myself had
not yet learnt. So it happened that I began to teach before I
began to learn. Therefore I must learn and teach at the same
time, since I had no leisure to learn before. The following is
found in many mss., but not in the Benedictine
edition. “Et quantumlibet quisque profecerit nemo est
qui docere non egeat dum vivit.”