of a large basin, half surrounded by abrupt and picturesque heights, rises a scarped and isolated hill, the vast and rounded summit of which overlooks the course of the Liris near its fountainhead, and the undulating plain which extends south towards the shores of the Mediterranean, and the narrow valleys which, towards the north, the east, and the west, lose themselves in the lines of the mountainous horizon. This is Monte Cassino. At the foot of this rock, Benedict found an amphitheatre of the time of the Cæsars, amidst the ruins of the town of Casinum, which the most learned and pious of Romans, Varro, that pagan Benedictine, whose memory and knowledge the sons of Benedict took pleasure in honouring, had rendered illustrious. From the summit the prospect extended on one side towards Arpinum, where the prince of Roman orators was born, and on the other towards Aquinum, already celebrated as the birthplace of Juvenal, before it was known as the country of the Doctor Angelicus, which latter distinction should make the name of this little town known among all Christians. "It was amidst these noble recollections, this solemn nature, and upon that predestinated height, that the patriarch of the monks of the West founded the capital of the monastic order. He found paganism still surviving there. Two hundred years after Constantine, in the heart of Christendom, and so near Rome, there still existed a very ancient temple of Apollo and a sacred wood, where a multitude of peasants sacrificed to the gods and demons. Benedict preached the faith of Christ to these forgotten people; he persuaded them to cut down the wood, to overthrow the temple and the idol." On the ruins of this temple he built two chapels, and higher up the mountain, in 529, laid the foundation of his famous monastery. Fourteen years afterwards he died in the church of this monastery, standing with his arms stretched out in prayer. ciples a perfect model for their imitation, and a transcript of his rule. Being chosen by God, like another Moses, to conduct faithful souls into the true promised land, the kingdom of heaven, he was enriched with eminent supernatural gifts, even those of miracles and prophecy. He seemed like another Eliseus, endued by God with an extraordinary power, commanding all nature, and, like the ancient prophets, foreseeing future events. He often raised the sinking courage of his monks, and baffled the various artifices of the Devil with the sign of the cross, rendered the heaviest stone light in building his monastery by a short prayer, and, in presence of a multitude of people, raised to life a novice who had been crushed by the fall of a wall at Mount Cassino." Very little A story of St. Benedict and his sister Scholastica is thus told by Mrs. Jameson, Legends of Monastic Orders, p. 12: "Towards the close of his long life Benedict was consoled for many troubles by the arrival of his sister Scholastica, who had already devoted herself to a religious life, and now took up her residence in a retired cell about a league and a half from his convent. is known of Scholastica, except that she emulated her brother's piety and selfdenial; and although it is not said that she took any vows, she is generally considered as the first Benedictine nun. When she followed her brother to Monte Cassino, she drew around her there a small community of pious women; but nothing more is recorded of her, except that he used to visit her once a year. On one occasion, when they had been conversing together on spiritual matters till rather late in the evening, Benedict rose to depart; his sister entreated him to remain a little longer, but he refused. Scholastica then, bending her head over her clasped hands, prayed that Heaven would interfere and render it impossible for her brother to leave her. Imme diately there came on such a furious tempest of rain, thunder, and lightning, that Benedict was obliged to delay his departure for some hours. As soon as "St. Bennet," says Butler, Lives of the Saints, III. 235, "calls his Order the storm had subsided, he took leave of a school in which men learn how to his sister, and returned to the monasserve God; and his life was to his dis-tery: it was a last meeting; St. Scho lastica died two days afterwards, and St. Benedict, as he was praying in his cell, beheld the soul of his sister ascending to heaven in the form of a dove. This incident is often found in the pictures painted for the Benedictine nuns. For the history of the monastery of Monte Cassino see the Chron. Monast. Casiniensis, in Muratori, Script. Rer. Ital., IV., and Dantier, Monastères Benedictins d'Italie. 49. St. Macarius, who established the monastic rule of the East, as St. Benedict did that of the West, was a confectioner of Alexandria, who, carried away by religious enthusiasm, became an anchorite in the Thebaid of Upper Egypt, about 335. In 373 he came to Lower Egypt, and lived in the Desert of the Cells, so called from the great multitude of its hermit-cells. He had also hermitages in the deserts of Scetè and Nitria; and in these several places he passed upwards of sixty years in holy contemplation, saying to his soul, "Having taken up thine abode in heaven, where thou hast God and his holy angels to converse with, see that thou descend not thence; regard not earthly things." Among other anecdotes of St. Macarius, Butler, Lives of the Saints, I. 50, relates the following: "Our saint happened one day inadvertently to kill a gnat that was biting him in his cell; reflecting that he had lost the opportunity of suffering that mortification, he hastened from his cell for the marshes of Scetè, which abound with great flies, whose stings pierce even wild boars. There he continued six months exposed to those ravaging insects; and to such a degree was his whole body disfigured by them with sores and swellings, that when he returned he was only to be known by his voice." St. Romualdus, founder of the Order of Camaldoli, or Reformed Benedictines, was born of the noble family of the Onesti, in Ravenna, about 956. Brought up in luxury and ease, he still had glimpses of better things, and, while hunting the wild boar in the pine woods of Ravenna, would sometimes stop to muse, and, uttering a prayer, exclaim: "How happy were the ancient hermits who had such habitations." At the age of twenty he saw his father kill his adversary in a duel; and, smit. ten with remorse, imagined that he must expiate the crime by doing penance in his own person. He accordingly retired to a Benedictine convent in the neighbourhood of Ravena, and became a monk. At the end of seven years, scandalised with the irregular lives of the brotherhood, and their disregard of the rules of the Order, he undertook the difficult task of bringing them back to the austere life of their founder. After a conflict of many years, during which he encountered and overcame the usual perils that beset the path of a reformer, he succeeded in winning over some hundreds of his brethren, and established his new Order of Reformed Benedic tines. St. Romualdus built many monasteries; but chief among them is that of Camaldoli, thirty miles east of Florence, which was founded in 1009. It takes its name from the former owner of the land, a certain Maldoli, who gave it to St. Romualdus. Campo Maldoli, say the authorities, became Camaldoli. It is more likely to be the Tuscan Ca' Maldoli, for Casa Maldoli. "In this place," says Butler, Lives of the Saints, II. 86, "St. Romuald built a monastery, and, by the several observances he added to St. Benedict's rule, gave birth to that new Order called Camaldoli, in which he united the cenobitic and eremitical life. After seeing in a vision his monks mounting up a ladder to heaven all in white, he changed their habit from black to white. The hermitage is two short miles distant from the monastery. It is a mountain quite overshadowed by a dark wood of firtrees. In it are seven clear springs of water. The very sight of this solitude in the midst of the forest helps to fill the mind with compunction, and a love of heavenly contemplation. it, we meet with a chapel of St. Antony for travellers to pray in before they advance any farther. Next are the cells and lodgings for the porters. Some. what farther is the church, which is large, well built, and richly adorned, Over the door is a clock, which strikes so loud that it may be heard all over On entering NOTES TO PARADISO. the desert. On the left side of the church is the cell in which St. Romuald lived, when he first established these hermits. Their cells, built of stone, have each a little garden walled round. A constant fire is allowed to be kept in every cell on account of the coldness of the air throughout the year; each cell has also a chapel in which they may say mass. See also Purg. V. Note 96. legend of St. Romualdus says that he The lived to the age of one hundred and twenty. It says, also, that in 1466, nearly four hundred years after his death, his body was found still uncorrupted; but that four years later, when it was stolen from its tomb, it crumbled into dust. 65. In that sphere alone; that is, in the Empyrean, which is eternal and immutable. Lucretius, Nature of Things, III. 530, "But things immortal ne'er can be transposed, 70. Genesis xxviii. 12: "And he dreamed, and, behold, a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven and, behold, the angels of God ascending and descending on it." 74. So neglected, that it is mere waste of paper to transcribe it. commenting upon this line, Benvenuto In gives an interesting description of Boccaccio's visit to the library of Monte Cassino, which he had from his own lips. "To the clearer understanding of this passage," he says, "I will repeat what my venerable preceptor, Boccaccio of Certaldo, pleasantly narrated to me. He said, that when he was in Apulia, being attracted by the fame of the place, he went to the noble monastery of Monte Cassino, of which we are speaking. And being eager to see the library, which he had heard was very noble, he humblygentle creature that he was!-besought a monk to do him the favour to open it. Pointing to a lofty staircase, he answered stiffly, Go up; it is open.' Joyfully ascending, he found the place of so great a treasure without door or fastening; and having entered, he saw the grass growing upon the windows, and all the books and shelves covered with dust. And, wondering, he began to open and turn over, now this book and now that, and found there many and various volumes of ancient and rare works. whole sheets had been torn out, in others From some of them the margins of the leaves were clipped, and thus they were greatly defaced. At studies of so many illustrious minds should length, full of pity that the labours and have fallen into the hands of such profligate men, grieving and weeping he withdrew. And coming into the cloister, he asked a monk whom he met, why those most precious books were so vilely mutilated. He replied, that some of the out a handful of leaves, and made psalters monks, wishing to gain a few ducats, cut which they sold to boys; and likewise of they sold to women. Now, therefore, O the margins they made breviaries which scholar, rack thy brains in the making of books!" 77. To dens of thieves. monks' hoods and habits are full," says "And the Buti, "of wicked and sinful souls, of evil thoughts and ill-will. bad flour bad bread is made, so from illAnd as from will, which is in the monks, come evil deeds." 79. The usurer is not so offensive to revenues of the Church in his own pleaGod as the monk who squanders the sures and vices. O thou sea, that thou fleddest? thou 94. Psalm cxiv. 5: "What ailed thee, Jordan, that thou wast driven back ?" can also bring help to the corruptions of The power that wrought these miracles the Church, great as the impossibility may seem. 64 107. Paradise. "Truly," says Buti, the sign of the Gemini, under which Buti, quoting Albumasar, says: "The 115. Dante was born May 14th, 1265, when the Sun rose and set in Gemini; or as Barlow, Study of Div. Com., p. 505, says, "the day on which in that year the Sun entered the constellation Gemini." He continues: "Giovanni Villani (Lib. VI. Ch. 92) gives an account of a remarkable comet which preceded the birth of Dante by nine months, and lasted three, from July to October. This marvellous meteor, much more worthy of notice than Donna Bella's dream related by Boccaccio, has not hitherto found its way into the biography of the poet." And signifies, also, sterility, and moderation beautiful modification which it receives in manners and in religion, beauty, and is that with itself, and the first which Jeportment, and cleanliness, when this it receives is twenty, consequently the sign is in the ascendant, or the lord of movement aforesaid is signified by this the descendant is present, or the Moon; number. And by the thousand is signiand largeness of mind, and goodness, and fied the movement of increase; for in liberality in spending." name this thousand is the greatest number, and cannot increase except by multiplying itself. And Physics show these three movements only, as is proved in the fifth chapter of its first book. on account of the Galaxy this heaven has great resemblance to Metaphysics. For it must be known that of this Galaxy the philosophers have held diverse opinions. For the Pythagoreans said that the Sun once wandered out of his path; and, passing through other parts not adapted to his heat, he burned the place through which he passed, and the appearance of the burning remained there. I think they were influenced by the fable of 119. The Heaven of the Fixed Stars. Phaeton which Ovid narrates at the beOf the symbolism of this heaven, Dante, ginning of the second book of his MetaConvito, II. 15, says: "The Starry morphoses. Others, as Anaxagoras and Heaven may be compared to Physics on Democritus, said that it was the light of account of three properties, and to Meta- the Sun reflected in that part. And physics on account of three others; for these opinions they proved by demonit shows us two visible things, such as strative reasons. What Aristotle said its many stars, and the Galaxy; that is, upon this subject cannot be exactly the white circle which the vulgar call known, because his opinion is not the the Road of St. James; and it shows same in one translation as in the other. us one of its poles, and the other it con- | And I think this was an error of the ccals from us; and it shows us only one translators; for in the new he seems to motion from east to west, and another say that it is a collection of vapours bewhich it has from west to east it keeps neath the stars in that part, which always almost hidden from us. Therefore we attract them; and this does not seem to must note in order, first its comparison be very reasonable. In the old he says, with Physics, and then with Metaphysics. that the Galaxy is nothing but a multiThe Starry Heaven, I say, shows us tude of fixed stars in that part, so small many stars; for, according as the wise that we cannot distinguish them here men of Egypt have computed, down to below, but from them proceeds that the last star that appears in their meri- brightness which we call the Galaxy. dian, there are one thousand and twenty. And it may be that the heaven in that two clusters of the stars I speak of. And part is more dense, and therefore retains in this it bears a great resemblance to and reflects that light, and this seems to Physics, if these three members, namely, be the opinion of Aristotle, Avicenna, two and twenty and a thousand, are and Ptolemy. Hence, inasmuch as the carefully considered; for by the two is Galaxy is an effect of those stars which understood the local movement, which of we cannot see, but comprehend by their necessity is from one point to another; effects, and Metaphysics treats of first and by the twenty is signified the move- substances, which likewise we cannot ment of modification; for, inasmuch as comprehend except by their effects, it is from the ten upwards we proceed only manifest that the starry heaven has great by modifying this ten with the other resemblance to Metaphysics. Still furnine, and with itself, and the most ther, by the pole which we see it signi NOTES TO PARADISO. fies things obvious to sense, of which, such prodigious movements should pass taking them as a whole, Physics treats; in silence; and nature teaches that the and by the pole which we do not see it sounds which the spheres at one exsignifies the things which are immaterial, tremity utter must be sharp, and those which are not obvious to sense, of which on the other extremity must be grave; Metaphysics treats; and therefore the on which account that highest revolution aforesaid heaven bears a great resem- of the star-studded heaven, whose motion blance to both these sciences. further, by its two movements it signifies and quick sound; whereas this of the Still is more rapid, is carried on with a sharp these two sciences; for, by the move-moon, which is situated the lowest, and ment in which it revolves daily and at the other extremity, moves with the makes a new circuit from point to point, gravest sound. For the earth, the ninth it signifies the corruptible things in na- sphere, remaining motionless, abides ture, which daily complete their course, invariably in the innermost position, and their matter is changed from form occupying the central spot in the uni to form; and of this Physics treats; and verse. by the almost insensible movement which it makes from west to east of one degree in a hundred years, it signifies the things incorruptible, which had from God the beginning of existence, and shall never have an end; and of these Metaphysics treats." of which have the same powers, effect "Now these eight directions, two seven sounds, diftering in their modulations, which number is the connecting principle of almost all things. Some learned men, by imitating this harmony with strings and vocal melodies, have 135. Cicero, Vision of Scipio, Ed-opened a way for their return to this monds's Tr., p. 294:— "Now the place my father spoke of was a radiant circle of dazzling brightness amid the flaming bodies, which you, as you have learned from the Greeks, term the Milky Way; from which position all other objects seemed to me, as I surveyed them, marvellous and glorious. There were stars which we never saw from this place, and their magnitudes were such as we never imagined; the smallest of which was that which, placed upon the extremity of the heavens, but nearest to the earth, shone with borrowed light. But the globular bodies of the stars greatly exceeded the magnitude of the earth, which now to me appeared so small, that I was grieved to see our empire contracted, as it were, into a very point. endued with pre-eminent qualities, have place; as all others have done, who, cultivated in their mortal life the pursuits of heaven. these sounds, have become deaf, for of "The ears of mankind, filled with all your senses it is the most blunted. Thus the people who live near the place where the Nile rushes down from very high mountains to the parts which are called Catadupa, are destitute of the sense of hearing, by reason of the greatness of the noise. Now this sound, which is effected by the rapid rotation of the whole system of nature, ful, that human hearing cannot compre. so powerhend it, just as you cannot look directly upon the sun, because your sight and sense are overcome by his beams.' Also Milton, Par. Lost, II. 1051 :— "And fast by, hanging in a golden chain, This pendent world, in bigness as a star "Which as I was gazing at in amazement, I said, as I recovered myself, from whence proceed these sounds so strong, and yet so sweet, that fill my ears? 'The melody,' replies he, which you hear, and which, though composed in unequal time, is nevertheless divided into regular harmony, is effected by the impulse and motion of the spheres themselves, which, by a happy temper of sharp and grave notes, regularly produces various har-Terret, lustrat, agit, Proserpina, Luna, Diana, monic effects. Now it is impossible that Ima, suprema, feras, sceptro, fulgore, sagitta.” Diana, on earth Luna, and in the in139. The Moon, called in heaven fernal regions Proserpina; as in the curious Latin distich : : |