Did These Virtuous Brothers
Continue Their Literary Labours?
One hopes so, and one is glad that
Cassiodorus himself seems to have ended his life down in the valley
by the Pellena.
A third class of monks finds mention, those in whom "Frigidus
obstiterit circum praecordia sanguis," quotes the founder. In other
words, the hopelessly stupid. For these there was labour in the
garden, and to console them Cassiodorus recites from a Psalm: "Thou
shalt eat the labour of thy hands; happy shalt thou be, and it shall
be well with thee." A smile is on the countenance of the humane
brother. He did his utmost, indeed, for the comfort, as well as the
spiritual welfare, of his community. Baths were built "for the sick"
(heathendom had been cleaner, but we must not repine); for the
suffering, too, and for pilgrims, exceptional food was provided -
young pigeons, delicate fish, fruit, honey; a new kind of lamp was
invented, to burn for long hours without attention; dials and
clepsydras marked the progress of day and night.
Among the monastic duties is that of giving instruction to the
peasantry round about. They are not to be oppressed, these humble
tillers of the soil, for is it not written that "My yoke is easy,
and my burden light"? But one must insist that they come frequently
to religious service, and that they do not lucos colere - worship
in groves - which shows that a heathen mind still lingered among
the people, and that they reverenced the old deities.
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