31. Chapter XX. p. 80. In chapter iv. of the Rule, among the instruments of good works, we read : "To dash at once against Christ (as against a rock) evil thoughts which rise up in the mind." According to the Latin text, this monk cujusdam defensoris filius fuerat. The Defensores Civitatum were the chief municipal authorities of the provinces, originally instituted to protect the people from the unjust extortions of the imperial officials. Cf. Hodgkin, Italy and her Invaders, I. pp. 625-628.
32. John 3:8
33. 1 Chr. 17, 2-4
34. 4 Kings 4:27
35. Chapter XXII. p. 82. Tarracina, the Volscian city of Anxur, now Terracina, the last town of the former Papal States before crossing the Neapolitan frontier.
36. Daniel 14, 32-38 (Vulgate)
37. Matt. 16:19
38. John 1:12.
39. Acts 9 and 5.
40. Chapter XXXI. p. 91. The name of this Goth is more usually written Zalla.
41. Chapter XXXIII. p. 94. According to the tradition, St. Scholastica died on February 10, 543, and St. Benedict a month later, March 21, 543. Their bodies are supposed to lie together under the high altar of the abbey church at Monte Cassino ; but this is a little uncertain, as they are said to have been at one time translated (perhaps temporarily) to France.
42. 1 John 4:8
43. Chapter XXXV. p. 96. This Liberius quondam patricius is probably the Liberius mentioned in the letters of Cassiodorus (Hodgkin, The Letters of Cassiodorus, pp. 178, 179) as a Roman noble who had been Praetorian Prefect under Theodoric. The monastery is referred to in St. Gregory's letters, Registrum, Epist. ix. 162, 164 (Ewald and Hartmann, ii. pp. 162, 163). St. Germanus, Bishop of Capua, died in 540 or 541, and is commemorated on October 30.
44. Ibid. pp. 97, 98. This vision of the whole world, and St. Gregory's explanation, deeply impressed the mediaeval mind. It was imitated by Marcus, the Irish Benedictine who wrote the Vision of Tundal ( Visio Tnugdali, ed. Wagner, p. 52), and by Dante (Par. xxii. 133-153). St. Thomas Aquinas discusses it with a view to showing that St. Gregory's words do not imply that St. Benedict, still living in the present life, saw God in that vision per essentiam, in His Essence. ( Summa Theologica, II. ii. Q. 108, A. 5 ad 3.)
45. Chapter XXXVI. p. 99. "For he wrote a rule for his monks, both excellent for discretion and also eloquent for the style." The Latin runs : Nam scripsit monachorum regulam, discretione praecipuam, sermone luculentam. St. Gregory himself, in the epistle to Bishop Leander prefixed to the Moralia, professes to despise "literary style" ( ipsam loquendi artem, quam magisteria disciplinae exterioris insinuant) ; "for I deem it most unworthy," he says, "to restrict the words of the heavenly oracle under the rules of Donatus" ( Epistola missoria ad Leandrum Hispalensem, cap. 5). For the style and Latinity of the Rule, cf. especially E. Wolfflin, Die Latinitat des Benedikt von Nursia in Archiv fur lateinische Lexikographie und Grammatik, ix. Munich, 1896.
46. John 16:7
This text was originally transcribed by the St. Pachomius Orthodox Library. Have mercy, O Lord, on Thy servants the translator P.W., the editor Edmund, and the scribes Boris, Deborah, Demetrios, Edward, Gerald, Jeff, Larry, Mary, Matthew, Paul, Robert, Steven, Susan, Timothy, and Walter.
This version reedited by Roger Pearse, 2004. All material on this page is in the public domain - copy freely.
Greek text is rendered using the Scholars Press SPIonic font, free from here .