Benedict, The
Contemporary Of Cassiodorus (We Have No Authority For Supposing That
They Knew Each Other), When He First Ascended The Mount Above
Casinum, Found A Temple Of Apollo, With The Statue Of The God
Receiving Daily Homage.
Archaeologists have tried to determine at
what date the old religion became extinct in Italy.
Their research
leads them well into the Middle Ages, but, undoubtedly, even then
they pause too soon.
Legend says that Cassiodorus attained the age of nearly a hundred
years. We may be sure that to the end he lived busily, for of
idleness he speaks with abhorrence as the root of evil. Doubtless he
was always a copious talker, and to many a pilgrim he must have
gossiped delightfully, alternating mundane memories with counsel
good for the soul. Only one of his monastic brethren is known to us
as a man of any distinction: this was Dionysius Exiguus, or the
Little, by birth a Scythian, a man of much learning. He compiled the
first history of the Councils, and, a matter more important,
originated the computation of the Christian Era; for up to this time
men had dated in the old way, by shadowy consulships and confusing
Indictions. There is happy probability that Cassiodorus lived out
his life in peace; but the monastery did not long exist; like that
of Benedict on Monte Cassino, it seems to have been destroyed by the
Lombards, savages and Arians. No trace of it remains. But high up on
the mountain is a church known as S. Maria de Vetere, a name
indicating an ancient foundation, which perhaps was no other than
the anchorite house of Castellense.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 137 of 152
Words from 36142 to 36417
of 40398
