Gregory the Great, Dialogues (1911) Book 2.  pp. 51-101

[Footnotes moved to the end and combined with editorial notes]

1. Introduction, p. 51. St. Benedict was born at Nursia about 480. The date of his leaving Rome is disputed ; it was probably a few years before 500. Constantinus and Simplicius were his two immediate successors, the second and third Abbots of Monte Cassino ; Honoratus presided over the Abbey of Subiaco in St. Gregory's own days.

1. Chapter I., p. 52. For "Enside," read Enfide,which is identified with the mountain-village of Affile, between Olevano and Subiaco.

1. Ibid.p. 53. Sublacum, or Sublaqueum, now Subiaco, in the Apennines, above the river Anio. Here Nero had built a villa, with three artificial lakes, and it was over the ruins of the Emperor's "sylvan retreat" that the order of the Benedictines thus sprang into being. Cf.Lanciani, Wanderings in the Roman Campagna,pp. 350-352. The "strait cave," in which St. Benedict lived, is now the famous Sagro Speco,on the mountain-side, high above the town.

1. Ibid.p. 53. The name of this Abbot is variously given as Theodacus or Adeodatus.

1. Chapter II. p. 55. These thorns and nettles are piously said to have turned into the roses, the descendants of which are still seen in the garden of the monastery of the Sagro Speco.

1. 1 Numbers 8:24-26

1. Chapter III. p. 56. The monastery in question is said to have been at Varia (the modern Vicovaro), near Mandela. In the second chapter of the Rule of St. Benedict,we read that the Abbot "shall be acquitted in so far as he shall have shown all the watchfulness of a shepherd over a restless and disobedient flock ; and if as their pastor he shall have employed every care to cure their corrupt manners, he shall be declared guiltless in the Lord's judgment, and he may say with the prophet, I have not hidden Thy justice in my heart; I have told Thy truth and Thy salvation; but they contemned and despised me"(Gasquet's translation.)

1. 1 Luke 15

1. 1 Acts 12:11

1. Ibid.p. 60. "That notable preacher of the world." This is, perhaps, a misprint in the edition of 1608 for "word." The Latin has simply : ille quoque egregius praedicator.

1. 1 Phil. 1:21

1. Ibid.p. 61. The name of the father of Maurus is variously written : Equitius, Evitius, Euticius ; "Tertullius the senator" is simply Tertullus patricius.For the reception of children into the order, cf.chap. 59 of the Rule.According to the tradition, Maurus became the Benedictine apostle of France, and died in 584, while Placidus died a martyr's death in Sicily in 541, a few years before the death of St. Benedict himself.

1. Chapter VI. p. 63. "If any one whilst engaged in any work, either in the kitchen, in the cellar, in serving others, in the bakehouse, in the garden, or in any other occupation or place, shall do anything amiss, break or lose anything, or offend in any way whatsoever, and do not come at once to the abbot and community of his own accord to confess his offence and make satisfaction, if afterwards it shall become known by another he shall be more severely punished." (Rule of St. Benedict,chap. 46, Gasquet's translation.)

1. 1 John 1:9

1. 2 John 1:16

1. 3 Matt. 12:40

1. Chapter VIII. p. 68. St. Benedict thus founded the great Abbey of Monte Cassino in 528 or 529. Dante translates St. Gregory's words in the Paradiso(xxii. 37-45), where he puts them into the mouth of St. Benedict himself:

1. Chapter XI. p. 70. "The son of a certain courtier" is hardly the equivalent of cujusdam curialis filius. A curialis,or decurio,was member of the municipal council of some provincial town. SeeHodgkin, II. pp. 577 et seq.

1. Chapter XII. p. 71. "The brother who is sent on an errand, and expects to return to his monastery the same day, shall not presume to eat outside his house, even though he be asked to do so by any one, unless he be so ordered by his abbot. If he do otherwise, let him be excommunicated." (Rule of St. Benedict,chap. 51, Gasquet's translation.)

1. Chapter XIII. p. 72. This Valentinian is probably the Abbot of the Lateran mentioned on p. 52.

1. Chapters XIV. and XV. pp. 73-75. Totila (Baduila) became king of the Ostrogoths in Italy in 541, when Belisarius had won back for Justinian and the Empire all the peninsula south of the Po. His interview with St. Benedict took place probably in the following year, 542. Of his four Gothic attendants here mentioned—Riggo, Vult, Ruderic, and Bleda—the last two are also known in history as having been sent by the king to besiege Florence in this same year. (Cf.Hodgkin, Italy and her Invaders,II. p. 433). Totila reconquered almost all Italy, except Ravenna and Ancona ; he captured Rome twice (546 and 549), and overran Sicily ; but in 552 was defeated by Narses and killed in the rout of his army. It was naturally impossible for St. Gregory to take an impartial view of the Goths, and modern historians depict Totila in far more favourable colours. According to Dr. Hodgkin, he was "upon the whole one of the best types of the still future age of chivalry that the Downfall of the Empire can exhibit."

1. Chapter XV. p. 75. "Camisina" is Canusium, the modern Canosa di Puglia. The Bishop is the Sabinus spoken of below, Bk. III. chap. 5. Honoratus is the Abbot of Subiaco already mentioned on p. 52.

1. Chapter XVI. p. 75. Constantius, Bishop of Aquinum (Aquino), is commemorated on September 1.

1. 1 1 Cor. 6:17

1. 2 Rom. 11:34

1. 31 Cor. 2:9-12

1. 1 Ps. 119:13

1. Chapter XVII. p. 78. The Abbey of Monte Cassino was destroyed by the Lombards of the duchy of Beneventum in 589.

1. 1Acts 27, 22-44.

1. Chapter XIX. p. 80. "No one, without leave of the abbot, shall presume to give, or receive, or keep as his own, anything whatever. . . . All things are to be common to all, as it is written, Neither did any one say or think that aught was his own." (Rule of St. Benedict,chapter 33, Gasquet's translation; Cf.also chapter 54.)

1. Chapter XX. p. 80. In chapter iv. of the Rule,among the instruments of good works, we read : "To dash at once against Christ (as against a rock) evil thoughts which rise up in the mind." According to the Latin text, this monk cujusdam defensoris filius fuerat.The Defensores Civitatumwere the chief municipal authorities of the provinces, originally instituted to protect the people from the unjust extortions of the imperial officials. Cf.Hodgkin, Italy and her Invaders,I. pp. 625-628.

1. 1 John 3:8

1. 1 1 Chr. 17, 2-4

1. 2 4 Kings 4:27

1. Chapter XXII. p. 82. Tarracina, the Volscian city of Anxur, now Terracina, the last town of the former Papal States before crossing the Neapolitan frontier.

1. 1 Daniel 14, 32-38 (Vulgate)

1. 1 Matt. 16:19

1. 1 John 1:12.

1. 2 Acts 9 and 5.

1. Chapter XXXI. p. 91. The name of this Goth is more usually written Zalla.

1. Chapter XXXIII. p. 94. According to the tradition, St. Scholastica died on February 10, 543, and St. Benedict a month later, March 21, 543. Their bodies are supposed to lie together under the high altar of the abbey church at Monte Cassino ; but this is a little uncertain, as they are said to have been at one time translated (perhaps temporarily) to France.

1. 1 1 John 4:8

1. Chapter XXXV. p. 96. This Liberius quondam patriciusis probably the Liberius mentioned in the letters of Cassiodorus (Hodgkin, The Letters of Cassiodorus,pp. 178, 179) as a Roman noble who had been Praetorian Prefect under Theodoric. The monastery is referred to in St. Gregory's letters, Registrum, Epist.ix. 162, 164 (Ewald and Hartmann, ii. pp. 162, 163). St. Germanus, Bishop of Capua, died in 540 or 541, and is commemorated on October 30.

1. Ibid.pp. 97, 98. This vision of the whole world, and St. Gregory's explanation, deeply impressed the mediaeval mind. It was imitated by Marcus, the Irish Benedictine who wrote the Vision of Tundal (Visio Tnugdali,ed. Wagner, p. 52), and by Dante (Par.xxii. 133-153). St. Thomas Aquinas discusses it with a view to showing that St. Gregory's words do not imply that St. Benedict, still living in the present life, saw God in that vision per essentiam,in His Essence. (Summa Theologica,II. ii. Q. 108, A. 5 ad 3.)

1. Chapter XXXVI. p. 99. "For he wrote a rule for his monks, both excellent for discretion and also eloquent for the style." The Latin runs : Nam scripsit monachorum regulam, discretione praecipuam, sermone luculentam.St. Gregory himself, in the epistle to Bishop Leander prefixed to the Moralia,professes to despise "literary style" (ipsam loquendi artem, quam magisteria disciplinae exterioris insinuant); "for I deem it most unworthy," he says, "to restrict the words of the heavenly oracle under the rules of Donatus" (Epistola missoria ad Leandrum Hispalensem,cap. 5). For the style and Latinity of the Rule, cf.especially E. Wolfflin, Die Latinitat des Benedikt von Nursiain Archiv fur lateinische Lexikographie und Grammatik,ix. Munich, 1896.

1. ¹ John 16:7

This text was originally transcribed by the St. Pachomius Orthodox Library. Have mercy, O Lord, on Thy servants 
the translator P.W., the editor Edmund, and the scribes Boris, Deborah, Demetrios, Edward, Gerald, 
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