15. John 1:16
16. Matt. 12:40
17. Chapter VIII. p. 68. St. Benedict thus founded the great Abbey of Monte Cassino in 528 or 529. Dante translates St. Gregory's words in the Paradiso (xxii. 37-45), where he puts them into the mouth of St. Benedict himself:
"Quel monte, a cui Cassino e nella costa,
Fu frequentato gia in sulla cima
Dalla gente ingannata e mal disposta.
E quel son io che su vi portai prima
Lo nome di Colui, che in terra addusse
La verita che tanto ci sublima ;
E tanta grazia sopra me rilusse,
Ch'io ritrassi le ville circostanti
Dall' empio culto che il mondo sedusse."
18. Chapter XI. p. 70. "The son of a certain courtier" is hardly the equivalent of cujusdam curialis filius. A curialis, or decurio, was member of the municipal council of some provincial town. See Hodgkin, II. pp. 577 et seq.
19. Chapter XII. p. 71. "The brother who is sent on an errand, and expects to return to his monastery the same day, shall not presume to eat outside his house, even though he be asked to do so by any one, unless he be so ordered by his abbot. If he do otherwise, let him be excommunicated." ( Rule of St. Benedict, chap. 51, Gasquet's translation.)
20. Chapter XIII. p. 72. This Valentinian is probably the Abbot of the Lateran mentioned on p. 52.
21. Chapters XIV. and XV. pp. 73-75. Totila (Baduila) became king of the Ostrogoths in Italy in 541, when Belisarius had won back for Justinian and the Empire all the peninsula south of the Po. His interview with St. Benedict took place probably in the following year, 542. Of his four Gothic attendants here mentioned—Riggo, Vult, Ruderic, and Bleda—the last two are also known in history as having been sent by the king to besiege Florence in this same year. ( Cf. Hodgkin, Italy and her Invaders, II. p. 433). Totila reconquered almost all Italy, except Ravenna and Ancona ; he captured Rome twice (546 and 549), and overran Sicily ; but in 552 was defeated by Narses and killed in the rout of his army. It was naturally impossible for St. Gregory to take an impartial view of the Goths, and modern historians depict Totila in far more favourable colours. According to Dr. Hodgkin, he was "upon the whole one of the best types of the still future age of chivalry that the Downfall of the Empire can exhibit."
22. Chapter XV. p. 75. "Camisina" is Canusium, the modern Canosa di Puglia. The Bishop is the Sabinus spoken of below, Bk. III. chap. 5. Honoratus is the Abbot of Subiaco already mentioned on p. 52.
23. Chapter XVI. p. 75. Constantius, Bishop of Aquinum (Aquino), is commemorated on September 1.
24. 1 Cor. 6:17
25. Rom. 11:34
26. 1 Cor. 2:9-12
27. Ps. 119:13
28. Chapter XVII. p. 78. The Abbey of Monte Cassino was destroyed by the Lombards of the duchy of Beneventum in 589.
29. Acts 27, 22-44.
30. Chapter XIX. p. 80. "No one, without leave of the abbot, shall presume to give, or receive, or keep as his own, anything whatever. . . . All things are to be common to all, as it is written, Neither did any one say or think that aught was his own. " ( Rule of St. Benedict, chapter 33, Gasquet's translation; Cf. also chapter 54.)