Ma il benedetto Agapito, che fue
Sommo pastore, alia fede sincera
Mi dirizz� con le parole sue.
Io gli credetti, e ci� che in fede sua era
Veggio ora chiaro, si come tu vedi
Ogni contraddizion e falsa e vera."
4. Chapter IV. p. 110. Datius, Archbishop of Milan, a great champion of orthodoxy and an active ecclesiastical politician, was closely associated with Pope Vigilius in his struggle with Justinian and Theodora. He died at Constantinople in 552. This legend probably refers to his earlier visit to the Byzantine Court, circa 544.
5. Isai. 14, 13, 14.
6. Chapter V. p. 111. Sabinus, Bishop of Canosa in Apulia, has been already mentioned, Bk. II. chap. 15. This story shows Totila in a different light from that in which he usually appears in Gregory's pages.
7. Chapter VIII. p. 116. The Pope in question is usually identified with John III. (561-574) ; but the previous reference to Constantius, Bishop of Aquino, as a contemporary of St. Benedict ( cf. Bk. II. chap. 16), seems to point to John II. (533-535).
8. Chapter IX. p. 117. Frigidianus or Frigdianus (in Italian, San Frediano) was an Irishman. He died in 588, and is celebrated on March 18 and November 18. For "Anser" read Auser, now called the Serchio.
9. Chapter X. p. 118. Placentia is the modern Piacenza, in Lombardy.
10. Chapter XI. p. 119. Cerbonius died about 575. Populonium, or Populonia, a few miles from Piombino in the Maremma of Tuscany, was an important place in antiquity by reason of the smelting of the iron from Elba. It was the chief Etruscan seaport.
11. Chapter XII. p. 120. Otricoli ( Ocriculum ) is near Orte in Umbria. This St. Fulgentius (d. 540) is not to be confused with his contemporary, St. Fulgentius, Bishop of Ruspe (d. 533).
12. Chapter XIII. p. 121. The capture of Perusia (the modern Perugia) by the Goths and the martyrdom of St. Herculanus (Sant' Ercolano) took place in 549, after a siege of three years, during which the city was gallantly defended by a Greek imperial garrison under Cyprian. According to the legend, when the defenders were reduced to extremities, Herculanus ordered a lamb or an ox to be fed with all the store of grain that remained, and then hurled down from the walls, in order that the besiegers might suppose that supplies abounded, and abandon their hope of reducing the city by starvation. A young ecclesiastic, either accidentally or by treachery, revealed the trick to the Goths, who straightway took the city by storm.
13. Chapter XIV. p. 123. There were a number of Syrian monks in Italy during the sixth century (Herculanus of Perugia is said to have been a Syrian). Nothing more is known concerning this Isaac of Spoleto, who, if he lived "almost to the last days of the Goths," must have died about the middle of the century (Teias, the successor of Totila, and the last king of the Goths in Italy, was slain in 553). He is not to be confused with two other Syrians of the same name, the presbyter Isaac of Antioch (middle of fifth century) and Isaac of Nineveh, the Nestorian bishop of that city in the latter half of the seventh century. For the last-named, see J. B. Chabot, De S. Isaaci Ninivitae vita, scriptis, et doctrina (Paris, 1892), and a more recent article by J. P. Arendzen in the Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. viii. (New York, 1910). The Latin Liber de contemptu mundi is a kind of collection from the writings of Isaac of Nineveh (translated from a Greek version of the Syriac original) ; upon this is based an Italian work of the fourteenth century, variously entitled De la perfectione de la vita contemplativa and Collazione dell' Abate Isaac, erroneously attributed to St. Gregory's Isaac of Spoleto, which has been several times reprinted (the latest edition is that of Bartolommeo Sorio, published at Rome in 1845, together with the letters of Giovanni dalle Celle).
14. Judges 3, 1. 127
15. Chapter XV. p. 128. Euthicius (better, Eutychius) died about 540 ; Florentius about 547.
16. 1 Cor. 6, 10.
17. Isai. 6, 5.
18. Prov. 28, 9. 132
19. Chapter XVI. p. 133. Marcius is called Martinus in the Latin text. Mons Marsicus is either Monte Marsicano in the Abruzzi, or the mountain of the same name near Marsico Nuovo in Basilicata. Pope Pelagius II., Gregory's immediate predecessor, reigned from 579 to 590.
20. Chapter XVII. p. 136. Buxentum, in Lucania, is either Pisciotta or Policastro on the coast of Calabria. Monte Argentario, in the Tuscan province of Grosseto (formerly a part of the republic of Siena) is famous in the annals of the order of the Passionists.
21. I Cor. 7, 3. 138
22. Chapter XVIII. p. 139. This monk Benedict (who, of course, is not the same person as his more famous contemporary, St. Benedict of Nursia) is commemorated on March 23.