51. Matt. 13, 30.
52. Chapter XXXVI. p. 223. Evasa appears to be the island of Ibiza in the Balearic Archipelago.
53. Ibid. pp. 223-226. This famous and important chapter may be regarded as the germ of the later mediaeval visions of Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven. The Bridge is the "Bridge of Dread," said to be of Oriental origin, which occurs in so many of the later visions of the other world (though not in the Divina Commedia ) ; this is its first appearance in the West, the Latin version of the Visio Sancti Pauli, in which (though not in the original Greek) it also occurs, being later. The sumptuous house of gold, which is being built for an unnamed person, is the ultimate source of the empty throne seen preparing (probably for St. Bernard) in the vision of Tundal ( Visio Tnugdali, ed. cit., p. 54), and for Henry VII. in the Divina Commedia ( Par. xxx. 133-138). The episode of the priest, who passes safely over the bridge, is dramatically expanded in the vision of Tundal (ed. cit., pp. 15, 27).
54. Ibid. p. 227. In the usual version of the Latin text, the arrangement of the chapters is different. The story of Deusdedit forms chapter xxxvii., the story of the boy Theodorus being included with those of the deaths of Chrysaorius and the monk of Iconium as chapter xxxviii.
55. 1 Matt. 7, 14.
56. Job 24, 20.
57. Gen. 19, 24.
58. Chapter XXXVII. p. 229. The story of Theodorus (without his name) is told by St. Gregory in the Homilies (Lib. II. Homilia 38).
59. Chapter XXXVIII. p. 230. Chrysaorius in the Latin text.
60. Ibid. p. 232. St, Gregory calls this monastery in Greek Tw~n Gala&twn , that is, "of the Galatians."
61. John 12, 35.
62. Isai. 49, 8.
63. 2 Cor. 6, 2.
64. Eccles. 9, 10.
65. Psalm 118, 1.
66. Matt. 12, 32.
67. 1 Cor. 3, 11-15.
68. Chapter XL. pp. 234, 235. Pope Anastasius II., whom Dante ( Inf. xi. 7-9) condemns as a heretic, died in November 498. Two rival conclaves met: the one, which represented the majority, was held in the Lateran, and elected the Sardinian deacon Symmachus to the papacy; the other, which favoured a reconciliation with the Emperor (Anastasius I.), in S. Maria Maggiore, chose for Pope the Archdeacon Laurentius, who was a Roman. After a violent struggle, an appeal to the arbitration of Theodoric resulted in the general recognition of Symmachus. The struggle was afterwards renewed, until Laurentius finally withdrew in 505. In the synod ( Synodus palmaris ) which was called in 501 to investigate the charges against Symmachus, the famous principle of the Church of Rome was established : Summa sedes a nemine judicatur. Cf. Grisar, Geschichte Roms und der Papste im Mittelalter, nos. 308, 309. Paschasius died a few years before the death of Symmachus (514) ; he is venerated as a saint on May 31. A work on the Holy Ghost, De Spiritu Sancto libri duo, is attributed to him, and identified with the "rectissimi et luculenti de Sancto Spiritu libri," of which St. Gregory here speaks (Migne, P.L. lxii.); but its authenticity has been disputed, and it is included by Augustus Engelbrecht among the works of Bishop Faustus o. Riez ( Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum, vol. xxi., Vienna, 1891.) A letter from Paschasius to Eugippius, the biographer of St. Severinus, is extant (In Migne, tom. cit., and ed. Pius Knoell in Corp. Script. Eccles. Lat., vol. ix. pars 2, Vienna, 1886). The scene of this apparition is laid by St. Gregory in Angulanis thermis, that is, the baths of Angulus, or Paterno, near the modern Castel Sant' Angelo in the Abruzzi. This story of Paschasius is cited by mediaeval writers on the place of Purgatory as implying that souls are punished in the places on earth where they committed their faults. In his Commentary upon the Sentences of Peter the Lombard ( In Lib. IV. Sententiarum, dist. xx. pars i. art. i. q. 6), St. Bonaventura combats this theory, declaring that the case of Paschasius was a special dispensation, and not according to the general purgatorial rule; for "it appears altogether incredible, or at least improbable, that all the souls who sinned in Paris should be punished in Paris."
69. Psalm 86, 13.
70. Rev. 5, 1-3.
71. Matt. 25, 46.
72. Matt. 5, 44.
73. 2 Tim. 2, 25-26.
74. Chapter XLIV. p. 240. This doctrine of St. Gregory's, that the faithful do not pray for the souls of those whom they suppose to be in Hell, is more explicitly stated in the Moralia (lib. xxxiv. cap. 19) : "The Saints do not pray for the unbelieving and impious that are dead, because they shrink from the merit of their prayer, concerning those whom they already know to be condemned to eternal punishment, being made void before that countenance of the just Judge." This is curiously inconsistent with the popular legend, first heard in the eighth century, that St. Gregory, moved by the tale of the justice and humility of Trajan towards the poor widow whose son had been slain, prayed and obtained that the soul of the Emperor might return from Hell to his body to win his salvation. This inconsistency is noticed by St. Thomas Aquinas, who discusses the story at some length ( Summa Theologica, III. supl. Q. 71, A. 5 : Utrum suffragia prosint existentibus in Inferno ). Dante speaks of the legend of Trajan and St. Gregory, in two famous passages ( Purg. x, 73-93; Par. xx. 106-117).
75. Chapter XLV. p. 241. "Two manner of deaths," duobus etiam modis mors debet intelligi. Cf. Rev. xxi. 8 : "which is the second death." Thus Dante speaks of the souls of the lost, che la seconda morte ciascun grida ( Inf. i. 117).