Gebizo

ON ST. GEBIZO, MONK AND CONFESSOR, AT MONTE CASSINO IN THE KINGDOM OF NAPLES,

BETWEEN THE YEAR 1078 AND 1087.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

Gebizo, monk and confessor, in the monastery of Monte Cassino. (S.)

BY V. D. B.

§ single. The scant cult of St. Gebizo; his biographers; his age.

Since from time immemorial, as will be shown below, the title of saint has been given to the most pious man Gebizo, The title of Saint, falling on the person, is held to be the beginning of cult, a monk of Monte Cassino, there seems to be no doubt that a place must be made for his name in the Acts of the Saints. For, on the testimony of Benedict XIV [De Serv. Dei Beat. et canon. book II, chap. 24, num. 110, vol. II, page 91, Venice ed. 1788.], when it had been doubted, because the Queens Teresa and Sancha were commonly called saints, whether that appellation should be retained, the S. Congregation of Rites on May 30, 1705, observing that they had been so called from time immemorial, ordered the appellation itself to be retained; yet in such a way that no increase of cult could be taken from it; or that these beginnings of cult, which are equivalent to beatification, should be preserved, but that nothing might be added by private authority. And so these things pertain to the character of beatification in such a way that generally, if the praise of holiness given to some servant of God falls on the person and not on the morals or life, it is not opposed to cult; as Benedict XIV has demonstrated by several examples Ibid. book II, chap. 12, num. 2 and following, page 33 and following.; and that on account of the same doctrine our predecessors judged that St. Victor, pope III (formerly Desiderius, abbot of Monte Cassino, of whom there will often be talk here), should be brought into our Acts at September 16 Acta SS. vol. V of Sept. page 372, num. 2.. I omit other examples.

[2] and was given him from time immemorial before the decrees of Urban VIII Now that the title of saint was attributed to Gebizo from time immemorial before the decrees of Urban VIII, and that this custom was never interrupted, we shall make out by the following testimonies. In the copy of his Life which our predecessors formerly received from Monte Cassino this title is read: The Life or death of SAINT Gebizo, monk of Monte Cassino, by Paul the deacon; similarly in the register of St. Placidus, written about the year 1140, you have this beginning, on the testimony of Gattola Hist. Cassin. vol. I, page 174.: Here begins the prologue to the life or death of SAINT Gebizo, monk, published by Paul, monk of Monte Cassino. Third, Peter the deacon, the most famous continuator of the Chronicle of Leo of Ostia, and whose praises our Urban Sticker has sufficiently vindicated [Acta SS. vol. V of Sept. page 378 and following; cf. Tosti, Storia della Badia di Monte-Cassino, vol. II, page 67 and following.], in chapter 30 of the Illustrious Men of Monte Cassino In Fabricius, Biblioth. eccles. vol. II, page 187., treating of Paul the deacon of Monte Cassino, has this: He also wrote the Life of SAINT Ebizzo (for so Peter is accustomed to call Gebizo), monk of Monte Cassino, who was similar to Hilarion; and in the Continuation of the Chronicle of Leo of Ostia, or book III, chap. 48, of the Chronicle of the monastery of Monte Cassino [In Muratori, Scriptt. rer. Ital. vol. IV, page 463 and 464; and in Pertz, Monum. Germ. vol. VII, page 737.], discoursing of the miracles of certain monks and the renewal of the holy Saviour's church, he first speaks of the death of St. Guinizo, kindly confessor; and then of the coming of Gebizo in these words: About this time Gebizo OF HOLY MEMORY, going forth from Cologne, from which he was sprung, came to this place, and was made a monk by Desiderius, a man supreme in humility, conspicuous for the lustre of uprightness, etc.; and finally in the book on the birth and death of the Just of the monastery of Monte Cassino, which His Eminence Cardinal Mai first published in the year 1832 Scriptt. vett. nov. Collect. vol. VI, part II, page 271 and following., he not only wove a long eulogy of him under num. 51 from the writing of Paul the deacon, but also at num. 50 calls him the most holy man Ebizo. And these things before the middle of the twelfth century.

[3] and it continued thereafter to be given to St. Gebizo. Then come the martyrologists; among whom the first is Wion at October 21 Lignum Vitae, book III, vol. II, page 346., praising him in these words: At Monte Cassino, the deposition of SAINT Gebizo, monk, famous for miracles; and Ménard has the same at the same day Martyrol. SS. O. D. Benedicti, page 91.. Mabillon also, in the Benedictine calendar prefixed to part II of the sixth Benedictine century, at October 22: In the monastery of Monte Cassino, of BLESSED Gebizo, monk; and Gelenius in the sacred and pious calendar of Cologne De Coloniae Agripp. magnit. page 733. at the 21st: Of BLESSED Gebizo, monk of Monte Cassino, a native of Cologne; to whom add Ferrarius Hagiolog. Ital. at Oct. 21., Cherle Mart. Benedict. at Oct. 21., Bucelin Menolog. Bened. at Oct. 21., Herrera Vida de Santos de la religion de S. Benito, at Oct. 21. and the anonymous of Donauwörth Kirchenkalender der Heiligen Benedictiner, at Oct. 21., with common consent pronouncing his eulogy as of a SAINT; which catalogue I shall close with the names of Giovanni Battista Mari, who in the middle of the seventeenth century illustrated with notes the Illustrious Men of Peter the deacon In Fabricius, Bibl. eccl. vol. II, page 187., of Angelo della Noce, who in almost the same age furnished the Chronicle of Monte Cassino with excellent commentaries In Muratori, Scriptt. rer. Ital. vol. IV, page 463, note 3., and finally of Erasmo Gattola, who in the year 1733 issued the first part of the History of Monte Cassino Page 174.; since all these agree in calling him barely and simply SAINT Gebizo; the title falling on the person, as when they say saint Benedict, saint Gunizzo, etc. And these things seem to suffice, so that there is no need to speak of other arguments, for example that the Life of saint Gebizo has existed for more than seven centuries now (by which fact also Benedict XIV himself asserts that cult is proved De Beatif. et canon. book II, chap. 12, num. 7 at the end, vol. II, page 35.), that his body was raised from the earth and placed in a position of honour, and other things of that kind.

[4] Paul the deacon, or grammarian, biographer of St. Gebizo. We have already indicated the chief of those who wrote about St. Gebizo; about Paul the deacon, or grammarian, of Monte Cassino alone, since we are about to publish his little work, it is helpful to add a few things from Peter the deacon's book on the Illustrious Men of Monte Cassino. Further, Paul, says he, in chap. 36 [In Gattola, Hist. Cassin. vol. I, page 591 and 592, and in Fabricius, Bibl. eccl. vol. II, page 187.], sprung from Liguria, a province of the Romans, and deprived of sight from his very infancy by a hidden judgment of God, and on this account unacquainted with letters and philosophical studies, has shown such a wonder of himself even to the present day that he is called by all another Didymus. He, after he had come to the monastery of Monte Cassino under Abbot Oderisius, wrote the disputation of the Romans and Greeks which took place in the city of Constantinople in the times of Pope Paschal II and the emperor Alexius; on Isaiah, on Jeremiah and on the other Prophets; on the Psalter, on Matthew, on Mark, on Luke, on John, on the Epistles of Paul, on the Apocalypse. And he learned by heart, most fully, by hearing only, not only Grammar but also the other arts. He also wrote the Life of saint Ebizzo, monk of Monte Cassino, who was similar to Hilarion. There exist also other volumes of his books which have not yet come into our hands. And he died at the city of Tivoli. At whose instigation Paul wrote the Life of St. Gebizo, he himself discloses in the Prologue, namely at the command of Oderisius, Roman cardinal and abbot of Monte Cassino, and at the suggestion of Theodomar the presbyter. Now Oderisius I, who is reckoned among the saints and blessed, held the pastoral crozier at Monte Cassino from the month of September of the year 1087 to December 5 of the year 1105 Tosti, vol. III, page 359., and, no less than Theodomar, had lived with St. Gebizo; and so they certainly related many things to Paul of Monte Cassino which he, being blind, could not even have seen. It would be useless to warn the reader that that Paul the deacon is altogether other than the historian of the Lombards, who also lived at Monte Cassino, but in the age of Charlemagne.

[5] When St. Gebizo lived. And from this it is clear that this writing is entirely contemporary with St. Gebizo, who lived most holily at Monte Cassino between the years 1058 and 1087. For it is established from num. 4 of the Life that St. Gebizo was received at Monte Cassino by St. Desiderius, who was made abbot in the year 1058, and from num. 17 that he was buried by the same, before, ascending the chair of St. Peter in the month of September of the year 1087, he had taken the name of Victor III. But let us inquire somewhat more accurately into the age of St. Gebizo. As we have seen, he did not come to Monte Cassino before the year 1058; but on the other side not after the year 1062, since, from the same number, he had first gone to the empress Agnes, who was still living in Germany. He lived also until Leo the librarian, or chronicler, was made a presbyter, as is manifest from num. 7: by which we shall intimate in annotation i to this place that we are led to at least the year 1074. Nay more, he lived until the year 1078, in which the Normans were excommunicated for invading Latium, as is said at num. 10 and explained in annotation p: whence it comes about that the death of St. Gebizo is to be marked between the year 1078 and 1087. He lived, then, at Monte Cassino when St. Desiderius presided over this monastery, the third pillar of the church after Hildebrand and Peter Damian; when that house of ascetics flourished most in holiness, number, authority and wealth; when the abbot and the provost, although neither was a presbyter, were cardinals of the Holy Roman Church; when the whole monastery was renewed and the church of St. Benedict was dedicated with most splendid solemnity by Blessed Pope Alexander II himself; when finally Monte Cassino was the refuge of the supreme pontiffs, their strength and help, and so the joy and crown of the universal church.

[6] The manner of publishing the Life. It remains that we set before the reader the Life written by Paul of Genoa, deacon or grammarian, which Mabillon missed in vain in the brief notice of St. Gebizo which he inserted in the Acts of the Benedictine Saints Saec. Bened. VI, part II, page 622 and 623.; following the Cassinese copy and the exemplar of this Life which Erasmo Gattola made public from the register of St. Placidus Hist. Cassin., vol. I, page 174 and following.: these differ considerably from each other, and so two editions must have been made by the author himself or by some other contemporary; of which the former is represented by Gattola's exemplar, the latter by the Cassinese copy. That the reader may have both editions here before his eyes, we shall mark all the discrepancies (if you except orthographical ones); and so, if from the Cassinese codex, with the letter C; if from Gattola's edition, with the letter G; and since Peter the deacon, following Gattola's exemplar, inserted whole shreds, as we have said, into the book on the birth and death of the Just of the Monastery of Monte Cassino, published through the care of His Eminence Cardinal Mai, we shall take from this also some variant readings, to be indicated by the letter M.

LIFE OF ST. GEBIZO, MONK OF MONTE CASSINO,

By Paul the deacon, or grammarian,

From the Cassinese manuscript collated with Gattola's edition and the excerpts of Peter the deacon.

Gebizo, monk and confessor, in the monastery of Monte Cassino. (S.)

BHL Number: 3295

BY PAUL THE DEACON.

PROLOGUE.

Those are not to be heeded who hold new Lives of the Saints useless. I know that to most people the increase of writings is wearisome, since they think those things suffice which our ancestors wrote . But those who whisper that nothing be dictated likewise labour that the good founder may not work. For the tongue of the scribe that writes swiftly is ablaze, whose lips drop the first myrrh, whose throat is most sweet and drink desirable; it is ablaze, I say, and among the rest so breathes forth . No one lights a lamp and puts it under a bushel. And He Himself does not cease to light the lamp. Who then are you, who wish it to lie hidden in silence? He certainly lights the lamp when He makes some of His own shine like stars in the heaven of perfection, that in the desert and pathless and waterless land they may see the light, whose ways are darkness and slipperiness, and the Angel of the Lord pursuing them . Surely David was of greater merit; who yet, when he was in the desert of Idumaea, cried out: O God, my God, to Thee do I watch at break of day. Nor has it slipped from mind why in the tabernacle of God, especially on the altar of incense, the priest continually lights a fire , but also the candlestick is placed toward the south over against the northern table, that those feasting may have light in the darkness. Nay more, to the people journeying through the desert there never failed the pillar of cloud by day nor the fire by night. As long as we are in the body we are pilgrims from the Lord, whence it is necessary that in the desert of this pilgrimage the pillar of fire should shine upon us . And lest the divine light be extinguished through our negligence, let it be handed down in books for the use of posterity. Which the kindly Lord deigns to work through His servants. Let us recite, therefore, those things which Christ willed to show through Gebizo His soldier, that the maidens may say: Draw me after thee, we will run to the odour of thy ointments.

[2] at whose instance these things were written. Lastly, I dare not keep silent, since the reverence of the pious father Oderisius compels me to speak, Roman cardinal and abbot of Monte Cassino ^a, strong as well in religion as in wisdom; for he laid this upon me, at the suggestion of the most reverend Theodomar ^b ; whom I should think it altogether wrong to resist. I will obey, then, diligently, and will serve such a father, as one set as watchman in the tower of Jerusalem built with gems, or so that the vineyard of Sorech may be protected from deceitful animals. For this is the tower of David, the tower of Lebanon, which is built with bulwarks and looks toward Damascus, toward those namely who thirst for our blood; for this is what Damascus is interpreted among the Latins ^c. But whoever should persuade me to resist the commands of so great a man, let him fear lest, as one going blind, he strike against the rock of scandal which says: He who despises you despises me; let him dread also and tremble greatly lest it be said on his account: The house of Israel will not hear you, because they will not hear me.

* scripsere G.

* lilia added in G.

* totus G.

* exaltatur G.

* ipse omitted in C.

* eo C.

* eos omitted in G.

* i. a. C.

* defuit G.

* et G.

* quid et quod G.

* Theudmaro. G.

* noluit C.

SOLE CHAPTER.

St. Gebizo's homeland, holy life at Monte Cassino, struggles with demons, prophetic spirit and miracles.

St. Gebizo, having led a holy life in the world, wonderfully Of how great merit Gebizo His servant was with the Almighty, both his tranquil morals and his religious life testify. For, wearing the monastic habit, he did not bear one thing outwardly and was another within, but carried out in works what he put on in garments . This indeed would suffice as an indication of his holiness. But he merited to have this greater testimony, namely of Him who is the faithful and true witness, who speaks once and does not add a second time, who searches the reins and the hearts. In short, while he was still held unwillingly in the world, and had already resolved to submit his neck to the divine yoke, and could not make this public because those stronger than he hindered it, one night he secretly took to flight, imitating Blessed Benedict, who for the same cause fled from his nurse ^d. For he too resolved to serve as a soldier in the congregation of so great a father. But since for the present he could not proceed further, he sought a hiding-place meanwhile in a certain hut. And when the night had passed and his absence became known, one of the chief men of the city, who had been enriched by him with very many advantages, grieving at being forsaken by so great a man, at once sent his clients and friends to search for him; who, ransacking each place and going through each lodging, come to where the man of God lay hidden; but they could by no means recognize him. For as they searched they came near, and struck against him, handled him and saw him; but, God dulling their sight, they wonderfully did not know that they were seeing him whom they saw. Behold the indication of divinity which we spoke of, behold what testimony He gave of His servant * before his conversion.

[4] with the permission of the empress Agnes he goes to Monte Cassino; And after those who had been sent returned home, frustrated in their search, Gebizo, having found the hour, went as soon as possible to the empress Agnes ^e; for he was by race a German, of the province which is called German Francia ^f. Relying, therefore, on the counsel and help of this empress, he changed not only his city but also his nation, and, now made an imitator of the pilgrimage of Abraham, taking a longer journey than from Ur of the Chaldees into the land of the Canaanites, having set out for Monte Cassino, he was kindly received by St. Desiderius, abbot of the place; under whom, a lover indeed of religion and a helper of such men, he sincerely presented his body as a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing to God. And since our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the world of darkness, observing that word of the Gospel: This kind can be overcome by nothing but by prayer and fasting, he strove always to do what he read in the Psalm : But I, when they were troublesome to me, was clothed with haircloth, and I humbled my soul with fasting, and my prayer was turned into my bosom. For he wore next to his flesh the roughest haircloth he could find. He was so intent on fasting that he abstained unceasingly even from fish , which is customarily called the food of cenobites. It is not worth while, then, to ask whether he ate eggs, or cheese, or fat. Certainly the food of flesh had not softened the passages of his throat from his birth , nor any allurement at all of richness except the seasoning of oil, so that what is said blameworthily of the harlot might be fulfilled laudably in him: Her throat is smoother than oil. But, as is wont to happen in such a college of brethren, having many imitators, as emulators of the good, he went altogether without oil too, except in common with the others. At length, when a scarcity of the said liquid arose, an edict went out from the father of the monastery that oil should not be given to anyone except at the solemn refection of all, and so it came about that he used only boiled vegetables; and, what was more pitiable, when * others dined better, he was refreshed worse. Yet never wishing to turn his back on abstinence, and scorning to be likened to Lot's wife, he was wearied by no hunger and failed through no want.

[5] where he exercises himself in fasting, prayer, vigils and silence. He never ate before the ninth hour, except on Sundays and the principal solemnities. On three days in the week, content with bread only and water, he continued thus through the whole year in order. Concerning prayer and vigils, not ignorant of the wiles of the devil, he kept the Saviour's precept: Watch and pray, that you enter not into temptation; and, striving to imitate the ancient saints, who from their persistence in spending the night were called vigilant, he very rarely slept, lest he should seem to transgress: Pray without ceasing. And if at length he sometimes dozed rather than slept, he could say: I sleep and my heart watches; no less fulfilling the saying of Solomon: Keep thy heart with all watchfulness; and that apostolic word: Put away all anger, indignation, malice, blasphemy, filthy speech from your mouth; he was so given to silence that for a whole year he scarcely spoke except for the sake of confession. For, considering that in this way in which he walked they had hidden snares for him , and laid snares for his feet , he began to dread that saying: A man full of tongue shall not be established upon the earth: but, consoled by Him who says: I am alone until I pass, and I have become like a sparrow alone in the building, he made the hall of blessed Bartholomew ^g, which is collateral with and adjoining the basilica of blessed Benedict, as it were a consistory; so that, the body being enclosed, the excursion of mouth and mind might be denied; which indeed, dwelling in it unceasingly as in a hermitage, he could chant without falsehood: Lo, I have gone far off flying away, and I abode in the wilderness. O who could unfold those groans, who those sobs, which he breathed day and night, anxious for his own safety and for the prosperity of the whole church. Indeed I think, and am certain, that no one can recount the tenor of his compunction in all things; nor to anyone except God * were the sighs that flowed from that breast utterable. At no time certainly did he leave the aforesaid building, except either on the occasion of obedience or under the impulse of human necessity, so that he seemed to say with Blessed Job: I shall die in my little nest. Whence it came about that, the frequenting of men being forbidden, he more often conversed with Angels or demons than with men.

[6] Ado, who had died without God's grace, by his prayers, He had had before his conversion a very intimate friend, Ado by name, very rich, who, having conferred very many benefits on him, at the last affected him with certain injuries. But the satellites of Satan, thinking that the man of God rejoiced in vengeance, on the vigil of the Lord's Nativity appeared to him as he was praying and, from excessive weariness, already drowsing, joyful as with a kind of dance; whom he questioned thus: And you, wretches, whence do you always rejoice? And they: Because, they say, we have just triumphed over the soul of that man. How? he says. Then they say: We have received it among our own. And, these things being said, they show the aforesaid soul bound like beasts of burden being dragged to punishment. These things being done, they vanished. But he, greatly fearing that word: If I have rendered evil to them that repaid me, pursuing an enemy rather than a neighbour, after the example of David, who ordered the messenger of the king's death to be slain, at once went to the holy Theymar ^h, to whom he committed all his secrets, and, recounting what he had seen and heard, so that he might carry out that word: Bear one another's burdens, took pains that through him the burden of the penance of that rich man should be laid upon himself. [Coming * then after these things to the brethren he says: Know that yesterday a certain man from beyond the mountains departed from the world, wherefore I earnestly beg your holiness that you all pour forth prayers to the Lord for him; for I saw on the past day his soul bound by demons being dragged to punishment. When he had narrated these things, he began together with the brethren to pour forth prayers for the deliverance of the same soul. And when night came, the devil was present and so beat him with scourges that he left him half dead, saying: Why have you dared to ask God for him who, his crimes requiring it, came into our jurisdiction? And the mansionarius, running with the others, lifting him from the ground, placed him in bed.

[7] by the sacrifices of others, and by his own prostrations And when another night came, as he was praying the clemency of God almighty for the deliverance of the same soul, the ancient enemy again beat him most grievously. And when the third night came, the devil scourged him with such blows that, falling from his bed to the ground, the mansionarii found him half dead. When, therefore, the man of God assiduously asked God for the deliverance of the same soul, Leo the librarian, who was afterward made bishop of Ostia, asked by the same man of God, had come to celebrate the divine mysteries for the same purpose, and when he had come to the breaking of the host ⁱ, the man of the Lord Gebizo is overcome with sleep, and the devil appeared to him, saying: With your psalms and prayers you have drawn the soul of Ado out of my power. Then the man of God, waking, gave thanks to God; yet not on that account fixing his mind on the vision,] while, not bearing his neighbour's fall, he strove to fulfil quickly the enjoined penance, praying at one time for the same man in the aforesaid house, he began to plan in his heart to accomplish the prostrations of many days in a short time ^k. And when he wished to begin what he had meditated, that kindly One who keeps Israel, who is near to the contrite of heart and saves the humble of spirit, knowing that His Prophet had said: Unless the Lord keep the city, he watches in vain that keeps it , was at once present in His goodness and set for His young recruit the measure by which he should serve . For a voice from heaven was uttered to him, who suffered no heaviness of sleep, but was entirely, as he confessed, wakeful, and he heard in this manner: What is it that you are turning over in mind? Are you able to carry so great a burden? It is enough that between day and night you perform three hundred prostrations ^l. That voice said only this, as though it said: The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh weak; and what He had said through the Prophet: This is the way, walk in it, turning aside neither to the right hand nor to the left. For the middle is more fitting than the twofold path. And so, while he carried out the divine counsel, the enemy's joy was turned into sadness. For as he stood in attendance on a certain priest who was offering sacrifices for the named deceased (for he had stirred up many to his deliverance), behold, the adversary of the good, the devil, appeared to him while he was less * than fully asleep and said: You do me many evils, and what you are now doing for that man is as if a sword cut me from the crown of the head to the feet; and, saying no more, he mingled himself with the shadows. Which we think he did for this reason,

that the man of God, secure about his neighbour's salvation, might grow lukewarm in the pious work, and, elated, might glory in the victory, and so be laid low unawares, like that pharisee who fasted twice on the sabbath and gave tithes of all that he possessed, cast down by this alone, that he boasted he was not as the other sinners. But let us not lay down the sword, dearest ones, the sword which slays hidden enemies; but against all things that oppose us let us say to our good protector: Draw out the sword and shut up the way against those who persecute me.

[8] he frees him from hell, as he learns from his guardian Angel; Let us follow His soldier Gebizo, who, although terrified by the enemy, yet did not cease to fight until a certain boy who was accustomed to appear to him frequently had come, who we do not doubt was his Angel, and we believe appeared to him in the form of a boy not by reason of frailty but for the sake of purity and simplicity, because Gebizo had lived holding fast to celibacy from infancy, and was of the company of those of whom the Saviour says: Suffer the little ones to come to me, for of such is the kingdom of heaven. The aforesaid boy, then, was seen eager indeed, but as though wearied with labour. When he asked him whence came his joy and weariness, he brought back this answer from him: Until now, he says, I and my companions have laboured for Ado, but give thanks to God, for he has just been freed and has been joined with the eternal citizens. In which deed our Gebizo is comparable to Blessed Gregory, who snatched Trajan from punishments. [Surely it is not more difficult to come to the help of a heathen than of a publican; for Ado had been a trader, nor could he frequent markets without grave fault, and we have scriptures authentic enough which assert that publicans are worse than heathens. It is not, then, more wonderful to have freed Trajan than Ado; although they differ in this, that the latter, regenerated by water and the spirit, is believed to have entered the kingdom of God; the former was only snatched from punishments.] Meanwhile, when Germans had arrived from Gaul, the man of God, inquiring about his death, found that he had departed from this world at that hour at which he himself had seen his soul being dragged to punishment ^m. Now let us hasten to his other wonders.

[9] he has a vision in which the prayers seem to him so many incensings; One night, after long common and private vigils, he was sitting on his own bed, which he always had before the door of the treasury at the very entrance of the basilica ⁿ. And when, exceedingly wearied, he dozed a little in sleep, the brethren seemed to stand in choir, and as though each was being incensed man by man, smoke seemed to come out from each of the stalls, whose plumes were gathered above the altar of blessed Benedict. Then he began to turn over in his thoughts thus: What is it that I see? Is it our office to minister incense? I have entreated no one in my stead; I wonder whence this incensing comes; for it was then his week for this ministry ^o. And as he thus thought, the Angel of the Lord appeared to him in the form of a boy, and at once began to remove his concern about such services. It is not, he said, what you think, but these are the prayers of the brethren, which are gathered on the altar for this reason, that saint Benedict may present them before the throne of majesty. Come, brethren, what do we say of this? Our praying is fragrant, and we are slothful in pouring forth prayers! Our supplication becomes a fragrance * to the Redeemer, and the urgency of supplicating ceases! When we pray to the Divinity, we send spices without incense, nor do we drive phantasms from the heart! These indeed are the spices of which we read in the Apocalypse that the smoke of the spices went up in the sight of God; and in Isaiah: The house was filled with smoke; and again: The Lord will create upon every place of mount Sion, and where He has been called upon, a cloud by day, and smoke and the brightness of fire by night. Let us awake, therefore, and not fail from prayer, that our prayer may be directed as incense in the sight of God; and if at any time we succumb through weariness, let us say to Him: Touch the mountains and they shall smoke. For if we are intent on pursuits of this kind, Angelic powers will not be lacking who, rejoicing over our company, will say in wonder: Who is she that goes up by the desert as a pillar of smoke, of aromatical spices, of myrrh and frankincense, and of all the powders of the perfumer.

[10] [in a vision he learns that the wives of the Normans share in the excommunication of their husbands.] Likewise, solicitous for the salvation of his neighbour, as an excellent cultivator of charity, when the Apostolic One had excommunicated the nation of the Normans, which had invaded Latium [p], he began to think silently within himself whether the wives lay under the curses of their husbands; for the Normans had married many of the native women; nor is the condition of women customarily subject to the crimes of soldiering; and therefore a knot of doubt of this kind had arisen in him especially; since he had heard that they wonderfully persisted in almsgiving, were munificent to ecclesiastical places, and lastly bestowed innumerable benefits on those who feared God. Among the others, however, he was anxious over the affection of two especially close friends, whose names I think it better to suppress. The merit of these two, therefore, the Lord did not wish to keep hidden from His servant. At length, when on their account he besought the Lord with fasts and other aids of discipline that He would untie by the light of His kindness the scruple of the aforesaid doubt, he saw in sleep the same boy, asserting that he was sent to him by God and furnishing him guidance along a certain path. And when they had gone half the way together, the boy stopped and said: Go, for without me the way leads you on until you arrive where you may see what you are seeking about that woman. Gebizo said to him: I fear lest some by-way of the path make me go astray somewhere. There is, he said, no by-path anywhere here that can put a hindrance in your way. He went, then, alone, and found a house large enough, in which he saw a pyre built of great logs, as is customarily done in cold, and especially in northern, regions. For there the country people roll whole beams to the hearths of their lords, they seemed to compose the pyre not of sawn pieces but of great beams , yet so that they lay them one upon another in a square, so that between log and log certain openings are made through which tongues of fire come out, and all the spaces of the house are filled with heat. The man of God, then, gazed more attentively, and saw a monstrous serpent alternately going into and coming out of the pile. And when he had stayed a long while and nothing else was seen by him, he returned by the same way, found the boy where he had left him, and, as though mocked by him, passed by indignantly. But the boy, calling behind his back, summoned him to himself, saying: Why do you go off, neglecting me? Why do I see you disturbed? Then he: Because, he says, you are deluding me. In what way? he says. Tell what you saw, and I will show that what you assert is false. I saw nothing, he answered, but a huge snake turning itself alternately in the flames. You saw well, he says. This is that woman about whom you were in suspense. Know without doubt that this will be her punishment after the setting of the present life. Now come with me, that you may see how the husband and wife together abide [q]. Presently he led him to a certain church, and he beheld both remaining outside the church, yet the man apart with his attendants and the woman with her parasites . To see both outside the church , then, was to consider both subject to excommunication. This is corroborated by the testimony of John the Evangelist, who, [writing a letter to the Elect lady, among other things makes this exhortation: If anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine]. : do not receive him into the house, nor say hail to him, for he who says hail to him communicates with his wicked works; [she cannot then be exempt from the husband's anathema who has been a sharer of the marriage bed.] *

[11] and in what way they can be freed; And while both were returning from there, Gebizo consulted the boy whether a remedy could be found by which the destruction of fire that he had seen might be escaped. To which the boy: If, he said, leaving the pomps of the world, she undergoes the service of the nuns, she will be able to avoid this torment, yet on this condition, that, as she was set over the others her equals, so she remembers to subject herself to the others. Conversing thus with each other, they parted from each other. Humility alone, then, is to be praised, by which safety can be granted to those labouring with the type of pride. Abasement alone is always to be embraced, which can raise a man from the depths into heaven. [O humility to be praised! O abasement always to be embraced! O abasement always to be embraced! Pride cast the Cherub down from the heights into hell; the humility of the cross raised man up from the depths into heaven; pride made Saul an exile from the kingdom; humility exalted David the shepherd with the honour of the throne; pride cast down him who rose in the morning; humility enthrones man above the stars; of the proud it was said: I saw Satan like lightning falling from heaven; of the humble it is written: When they shall say all evil against you, rejoice and exult, for your reward is very great in heaven: of both the Scripture says: God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. What then do you await, O tyrants? What you would avoid will be at hand. Do you not hear this? Do you not understand this? Do you never even see it with your eyes? Do they not resound daily in your ears: He has scattered the proud in the conceit of their heart and has put down the mighty from their seat? Why do you disdain to be humbled? Or perhaps does that alone delight you: The mighty suffer torments mightily? These things suffice, brethren, for his proclamation; but since his enemy himself still compels me to join on other praises, of many I shall join on one.] *

[12] he is tempted by the devil; That enemy of ours, the devil and satan, putting on the same arms by which he deceived Eve , carrying in his hand a garment of fine linen, came to the servant of God and said : Why do you macerate your flesh with such rough undergarments? Assent to my words, and I will give you such an inner tunic as that presbyter possesses. For the grammarian calls interula what the people call camisia. That presbyter was called George, who was of good conversation and lettered. But at that time, on account of a skin eruption, he was wearing linen, for which the devil spoke thus, as we have said, as though he were saying: He, wiser than you, and discharging the presbyterate, is of the best religion; you ought not to despise him, but rather emulate him. But Gebizo, not knowing whether what he had heard about the presbyter was true, went into the sacristy, where he himself was then washing his hands: he asked, found, tested, and told him what had been said. Without delay the priest of God put off the linen garment, and is clothed with the rougher garment that Gebizo was accustomed to wear. Come now, most wicked dragon, what do your illusions profit you? While you strive to bring harm upon the worshippers of Christ, you lose your own gain, and when you tried to trip up the one, tripped up by the other you yourself fell vanquished. Thus it often happens that you are confounded while you most wickedly try to confound us. But

let us return to ourselves, most beloved, and consider what the humility of haircloth avails, so that the strength of the enemy is broken; he now fears such a covering more than iron armour. [Nor let us wander through various instances seeking an example, since in one we may prove what we say. You know, then, that the most impious Ahab worshipped not only the calves but also, at the instigation of Jezebel, Baal. Yet when the Lord threatened, for the murder of Naboth the Jezreelite, to destroy of Ahab even him that pisseth against the wall, the tyrant was clothed in haircloth, and the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying: Have you not seen Ahab humbled before me? therefore I will not bring the evil upon the land in his days, but in the days of his son. O how great the force of such armour; how great the efficacy of such a covering: it puts to flight the onset of the enemy, spreads the quiet of peace, reconciles the angry ruler of heaven. Let us take up these arms, then, let us put on this breastplate against the invisible robbers. Surely they flee more swiftly from those clad in hair-cloaks than from three-pronged catapults; more swiftly from the humble and shaggy than from the insolent armed with iron spits; more swiftly from those with hands hidden in blue cowls than from those speared with darts or javelins. Let us not be ashamed, then, to be covered with rough things, by which the savage robbers are laid low. For it befits not the monastic cloister but the imperial palace to use delicacies, since those who are clothed in soft garments are in the houses of kings. But truly there still remain things about our Gebyzo to be recorded no less than those recorded.] *

[13] Likewise, when a certain priest had seen such terrible visions concerning himself that he seemed to have incurred the indignation of the Divinity, he discovers that a priest had used the blood of Christ in place of ink, he stirred up Gebizo with the other brethren to entreat the merciful God with assiduous prayers that He would not wish to conceal His anger from him. And so, a three days' fast having been completed, it was told the servant of God by divine means that the same priest had written with the blood of Christ, and he had really committed the offence [r]. But he imputed the offence to another, because he had done it for the health of a certain sick man by order of a skilled master. [Now I appeal to you who read and hear these things, whether in this deed Daniel seems to you more wonderful than Gebizo, or Gebizo inferior to Daniel: for the one divined in a wonderful manner the visions and thoughts of the king, and the other in a wonderful manner learned what he had never learned from any man; the one by fasts and supplications brought back by divine means to memory what the king had forgotten. The other by the same arts drew from heaven into knowledge what the transgressor had long since neglected. The future counsel of God did not lie hidden from Daniel, nor the future judgment from Gebizo.] *

[14] [troubled by a fistula, he goes to Peter, bishop of Venafro, for a remedy; he is harassed by the devil;] Besides, many things about the future were revealed to him, [at which he to whom he confessed such things greatly wondered. For the hearer of these things was abundantly strong in the gifts of wisdom. And therefore the things which the unlettered man wisely disclosed seemed to him the more astonishing.] He was also led in spirit through pleasant places, and it was named to him whose lodgings they were. And among other things there was shown to him a very delightful place, and he heard that it was that of the prophet Elijah. Many things besides would be worth recording, but, lest nausea come upon the reader, I will turn my pen to the end. He had asked God that, before the setting of his life, he might go forth to rest cleansed by some sickness of torment, and at length, being heard, he received a fistula in the left part of his breast; which, since it could scarcely be borne by the brethren and himself on account of the increase of the stench, he was persuaded by those same brethren of his to go, for the sake of a cure, to the bishop of Venafro, Peter by name [s], who had brought remedies to very many for a disease of this kind. But he, unwilling to cast off what he had asked of God, was scarcely compelled by force by the venerable presbyter George, uncle of the aforesaid George, at that time sacristan. And when he was staying some days at Venafro for that reason, not, however, intermitting the work of prayer, he was sitting secretly behind the altar of the basilica. Whence the devil, the common enemy of the pious , no longer bearing his envy, threw down a stone, desiring, I think, to crush the servant of the Lord, and smashed the wooden seat before which he was sitting. But since he by no means desisted from his customary supplications, the people now assembling for the divine mystery and crowding the walls of the church, the malignant enemy, whom he had not before been able to move by terror, then, with feigned consolation of kindness, approaching Gebizo humbly in the guise of a monk, addressed him thus *:

[15] He is tempted again; he returns to Monte Cassino, Your abbot bears more solicitude about transitory and perishable things than about his monks. You have already endured many evils. Put off, then, this mean habit with which you are clothed, and put on the more seemly one which I bring, in so great a throng of people. [For he himself was clothed in mean things, and he saw the monk, as he seemed, wearing a more honourable cloak. When he observed him more carefully, he who had come as it were as a young servant appeared now of manly age, now of old age, I suppose so that there might be greater authority in his words. And when he perceived that the person was changing, at once noticing what it was,] he armed himself with the sign of the cross, and presently that image vanished. And as it vanished, the whole fabric of the hall was shaken with such a tremor that the people and clergy who had been present went out fleeing. The pontiff also, staying near by in the bishop's house, astounded by the earthquake, and seeing others wandering hither and thither, began to inquire anxiously what had become of the servant of God; having summoned the presbyter whom he had given him as chaplain, he ordered him to be brought to him; whom he questioned whether he had felt the earthquake, and heard what the man of God had seen , and fully learned what had been done. And that prelate, on account of the merit of worthy religion, God revealing it, found that he was incapable of being cured and that the man would depart shortly. Wherefore he sent him back to the monastery of Monte Cassino that he might bid farewell to the world in his own monastery; , where, while he persisted in asking for divine help, he sees in a vision a long and joyful procession of those clothed in white, and, approaching the last of them, he asked who they were and on what account they were celebrating that pomp. He whom he consulted answered him: It is not expedient that you be taught this now, since you are about to learn it shortly.

[16] and there, abating nothing of his former rigour, Meanwhile Desiderius, abbot of the same place, whom we have mentioned, coming to him for the sake of visiting, said: How are you, brother? And Gebizo: Well, father, through your prayers interceding. Then he exhorted him to eat at least fish for the alleviation of his sickness. And Gebizo: No, father, no. Far be it that I should now, placed in danger of death, lose the abstinence which I have kept through the whole time of my life. For I shall now be presented to the sight of my Lord; I now desire to be dissolved and to be with Him. Then Desiderius, turning to the brethren, said privately: This man is of stone, not of flesh; he exceeds the measure of men. For the holy man * ate in his whole life, as we have already said before, not fish, not meat, not cheese, not eggs, not fat, nor any allurement at all of richness. O man not undeservedly to be compared among the highest and ancient fathers, who not even on the day of death would relax the rigour of abstinence!

[17] and, visited by the Blessed Virgin Mary, he dies most piously. While, then, the man of God lay weighed down with the same infirmity, a certain matron of wonderful stature, of inestimable beauty, of imperial person, becomes visible before him, and addresses him in his distress with such words: See that you do not fail , and wait for me until I return, and take comfort; for she seemed to be on a journey. And he: In what way, he said, shall I wait for you, Lady, who through the burning of the ulcer scarcely remain in myself? Then she, who was thought by him to be Blessed Mary, gave this answer to the burning man: Bear up, she said, manfully, because through this momentary burning you will escape that intolerable and perpetual one. Having received, then, this consolation, he stood more cheerful, and having recited all the visions to the brethren, after a little while closed his last day, on the twelfth of the kalends of November, namely on the thirteenth day after he had returned from Venafro. And he was buried next to the church of Blessed Benedict [t]. But afterward Desiderius, raising the body from that * place, laid it with many others at the head of the steps which lead to the refectory. [Nor is there doubt that he was carried by Angels into the bosom of Abraham, to the company of Lazarus, to whose burning ulcers he had been assigned. For so the Apostle also speaks: That if we suffer with Him, we shall also reign with Him; and the rich man in torments heard: Remember that you received good things in your life, and Lazarus likewise evil things: he certainly did not say: He is comforted because he did wonderful things; but because he received evil things; although it is very wonderful that our Gebizo knew things absent and future; who, since in this life, while he lived, he never spared himself for the love of Christ, is believed without doubt now to reign with Him, with whom may he continually intercede for us, that by his help we too may merit to please and cleave to the same our Lord; who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, God alone, through infinite ages of ages. Amen.

ANNOTATIONS.

the two churches lies. In another codex of the Chronicle of Monte Cassino it is read that this new basilica of St. Bartholomew, situated quite fittingly at the western part of the greater church, was dedicated by John, bishop of Sora, at the beginning of the year 1075, on the 3rd of the nones of January Cf. the notes of Angelo della Noce, in Muratori, vol. IV, page 454, letter K.. But now no memory, not even an altar, of St. Bartholomew seems any longer to survive.

p. Twice in those times the Normans were excommunicated; from the former sentence Pope Nicholas II absolved them Cf. Baronius, Annal. at the year 1050, num. 68.; from the latter, with which they were struck in the month of March of the year 1078 Ibid. at the year 1078, num. 8., St. Gregory VII freed them at the end of June of the same year 1078, as Stilting has shown against Baronius and Pagi Cf. Acta SS. vol. V of Sept. page 594.. Now if account be taken of St. Gebizo's arrival at Monte Cassino, of the cause of the excommunication, namely the invasion of Latium, and of the donations made by the Normans to Monte Cassino Ibid. 390 and following., it is manifest that in the Life of St. Gebizo things of the year 1078 are treated.

q. It escapes no one that the discipline has long been abolished according to which a wife was excommunicated for communicating with an excommunicated husband.

r. It is widely known that the condemnations of Pyrrhus and Photius, and also the treaty entered into by Charles the Bald with Bernard, count of Toulouse, were confirmed with the blood of Christ. That this divine blood was also sacrilegiously employed for curing the sick, as is plain from this passage, Jean-Baptiste Thiers seems not to have known Cf. Traite des superstitions, vol. II, page 316 and 317..

s. Venafrum (Venafro) is not far distant from Monte Cassino, and its bishop, namely the same Peter, a Ravennate by nation and formerly a monk of Monte Cassino Chron. Cassin. book III, chap. 15; in Muratori, vol. IV, page 423 c., had been present at the dedication of Monte Cassino in the year 1071. And from this passage of the Life of St. Gebizo we know that he survived this saint. He died, however, before Leo succeeded him in the year 1090 Ughelli, Italia sacra, vol. VI, col. 583..

t. The common burial place was (unless I am mistaken) somewhat beyond the apse of the church of St. Benedict; St. Gebizo seems to have been buried next to this church out of reverence, and thence somewhat afterward raised from the earth by Abbot St. Desiderius and placed with many others in the atrium; which, built on the Epistle side, contained two stairways; the one consisting of fifteen marble steps, by which one went down into the chapter house; the other of thirteen, by which one went down into the refectory; and at the head of these St. Gebizo was placed with many others. But whither his body came afterward is uncertain. For changes were very often made at Monte Cassino, either because the buildings had collapsed through earthquakes or for other causes; without it being preserved in writing where the remains of the Saints were deposited. Hence it came about that when in the year 1627 the Holy Bodies were found again near the Mausoleum of St. Benedict, only five names besides those of SS. Benedict and Scholastica became known, and that in the following year this inscription was inserted in the first of the four new caskets which were then prepared: The relics of the holy monks of Monte Cassino, whose names have perished on earth but are written in heaven, laid beneath the high altar, exalted in merits, Simplicius Caffarelli, second of this name, 127th abbot from the most holy father Benedict, placed in a higher position; and, the altar having been more honourably adorned, he ordered that greater cult be paid them thereafter; in the year 1628, the 6th year of the pontificate of Urban VIII, Philip IV, catholic king of the Spains, reigning. Probably among these were the pledges of St. Gibizo Col. 405D. For the rest see the History of this whole translation Acta SS. vol. VI of May, page 455 and following..

* videbatur G.

* siquidem G.

* magis C.

* quoniam G.

* inquirendum G.

* venerunt G.

* etiam added.

* frustrata G.

* I. e. G.

* sit added in G.

* frequenter added in G.

* dum G.

* etiam piscium G.

* this corruptly in C.

* quam omitted in G.

* quando omitted in C.

* dumtaxat G.

* ex G.

* indictum G.

* omnia G.

* ambulabam G.

* mihi G.

* meis G.

* lateralis G.

* momentis G.

* ibidem G.

* pro added in G.

* in place of nem. po. G has: nec lepida Varronis facundia, nec faceta Ciceronis eloquentia posset

* nec umquam de eo nisi G.

* enim added in G.

* Domini omitted in G.

* Nunc.

* s. cu. co. a. G.

* the words enclosed in brackets omitted in G.

* breviori G.

* vigilat in in vanum G.

* bonus dux, non ruinae pateret clientis in providentia, added in G.

* qui nusquam deest majestate G.

* debuerit G.

* perlata G.

* nimis C.

* destitit G

* pueros C.

* accepit G.

* The words enclosed in brackets are from G. and M. They are absent from C.

* fragrantia

* Mir. omitted in G

* In place of [] C. has: ut magnam struem et pyram componant,

* suis added in G.

* ec. ex. G.

* hoc exemplum J. B. and G.

* In place of [] C. has ait

* The words enclosed in [] omitted in C.

* caeteris omitted in G.

* typho

* In place of [] C. has: Sed venio ad alia, quae sunt de viro Dei sancto subnectenda. ex quibus unum dicam.

* eadem omitted in C.

* quemquam G.

* supranominatum Christi G.

* sic ei exorsus est loqui G.

* nominat G.

* autem added in G.

* ipse G.

* inductus added in G.

* u. d. s. est allocutus acsi G.

* In place of [] C. has: ut multis in locis scriptura docet, quae non est hic omnia retexere.

* In place of i. c. G. Dum.

* Omnipotentem G.

* In place of [] C. has: Itaque Dei famulus, ut alter Daniel, futurum Dei judicium, seu indignationis causam sacerdoti praedicavit occultam

* In place of [] Miranda C.

* i. sp. p. a. l. G.

* leva G. and M.

* purum G

* sic exorsus est G.

* In place of [] C. has: Quem cum diligentius attenderet, quod qui minister adolescens venerat, nunc virilis apparebat; illico ex tali variatione quod erat animadvertens

* univ. omitted in C.

* palari G.

* vidisset C.

* omitted in C.

* omitted in C.

* omitted in C.

* omitted in C.

* beatus G.

* vis omitted in C.

* dolomate added in G.

* sed conf. m. op. quoad red. G.

* omitted in G.

* eodem. G.