Nicius

ON ST. NICIUS, CONFESSOR, NOT A BISHOP, IN THE GREEK MONASTERY OF ST. PAUL OF THE FOREST NEAR PONTECORVO IN TERRA DI LAVORO,

ABOUT THE YEAR 1000.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

Nicius, confessor, monk near Pontecorvo in Italy. (S.)

BHL Number: 6094

BY V. D. B.

FROM MANUSCRIPTS.

§ I. St. Nicius distinct from St. Clinus. Monks using different languages or rites in sacred things under one rule. The origin of this among Easterners and Westerners. St. Nicius's sojourn at Monte Cassino and in the monastery of St. Nicholas of Ciconia.

Among the remains which passed from the museum of our predecessors into the library of the abbey of Tongerlo and from there into the royal library of Brussels, [St. Nicius, a Greek, at one time a monk of Monte Cassino, then abbot near Pontecorvo, and known from a fragment of his Life and from an indication of Ferrari,] we have found a fragment of a Life of St. Nicius, divided into lessons, with this inscription: The feast is celebrated on the 25th day of October. Copied from its own original, which is written on parchment in the manner of a quinternion of a whole leaf. From the collections of Father Manni. While he was in Italy, Papebroch had that copy made and corrected it with his own hand. Nevertheless this Life, or portion of a Life, at first caused us no little concern. For it contains the deeds of a Greek monk, who first lived for some time at Monte Cassino, then in the neighbouring abbey of St. Nicholas of Ciconia, where he also gathered disciples, and at last passed to Pontecorvo and in its neighbourhood raised up the monastery of St. Paul of the Forest. For nowhere else did any memory of this blessed man come to our notice: not in the ecclesiastical calendars of the diocese of Aquino or Pontecorvo; not in the Italian Hagiology; not in the General Catalogue of Saints of Ferrari; not in the Cassinese fasti; not in Pietro Pompilio Rodotà's catalogue of the Greek monks who by the holiness of their life made illustrious the provinces of the kingdom of Naples and Sicily; nowhere, finally, except in the index of Ferrari's Catalogue of the Saints of Italy, where you have this: Nicus, another (for a certain Nicus from the territory of Milan precedes), monk in the diocese of Aquino; but nothing further is added about him and no mention is made in the body of the book itself. Nevertheless, however slight this indication was, it was established from it that at the beginning of the seventeenth century some kind of knowledge of St. Nicius still survived there, which afterwards perished.

[2] he is distinct from St. Clinus, to whose life, however, his is very similar. It had next to be asked whether another saint did not lie hidden under the name of St. Nicius. For under the 30th day of March our predecessors spoke very briefly of St. Clinus, who likewise is said to have been a monk of Monte Cassino and then to have built in the neighbourhood of Pontecorvo the monastery of St. Peter of the Forest. But it cannot be that St. Clinus is the same as St. Nicius. In the first place the names are different, and were never corrupted or changed. For in the Life of St. Nicius one reads: Nicius in Attic is said in Latin Victor; next, there survive two diplomas in which the name of St. Clinus is read; and in one of them, of the year 1047, he himself set down his name in Greek letters: Ἐγω Κληνυς ἡγουμενος; which subscription, imitated with the graver, Erasmo Gattola had reproduced Historia abbatiæ Casinensis, part. I, pag. 270.; adding some things on the cult of this blessed man which are lacking in our Work. Besides, the monasteries of St. Peter of the Forest and St. Paul of the Forest, founded about the same time near Pontecorvo, are two quite distinct asceteries; as we shall presently explain.

[3] [St. Sabas seems to have been the first to establish monks using various languages in sacred things under one rule and in the same monastery,] There is therefore no doubt that St. Nicius existed, and that he was distinct from St. Clinus. His age is well known. For he came to Pontecorvo while Guido was lord there, that is, at the end of the tenth century. For which reason it would be right to explain in this place for a little while what the condition of monks was at that time in those parts and what was the state of Pontecorvo. But both questions were long ago anticipated. For in the year 1758 and those following, Pietro Pompilio Rodotà, whom I have already designated above by name, gave to the public three volumes on the ecclesiastical history of the Greeks in Italy, especially in the kingdom of Naples and in Sicily [Dell' origine, progresso e stato presente del rito greco in Italia, osservato dai Greci, monaci Basiliani e Albanesi libri tre, Roma, 1758 et seqq.]. The first treats chiefly of the origin and fortunes of the churches of the Greek rite in those regions; the second is almost entirely monastic; the third finally takes in more recent matters, especially of the Albanians. On the origins and fortunes of Pontecorvo many more have spoken: but best of all Tosti in his History of the abbey of Monte Cassino. I would therefore not go over this again, considering that it will be better to discuss a certain particular question, which up to now is almost untouched and pertains very closely to St. Nicius; since he wished at Monte Cassino to join Greek rites with the Rule of St. Benedict. In the first times, then, it is a most evident fact that there was great intercourse among Christians of various languages and nations, without any diversity of rites and languages being introduced. The Latins, if they went to the Easterners, followed the morals and ecclesiastical customs of the Easterners; the Greeks and other Easterners, if they came to the Latins, adopted the usages of the Latins; similarly Syrians, Copts, Arabs, Armenians, Greeks, and others communicated indiscriminately in the same rites; nor was it ever thought of opening some churches and monasteries to these, others to those. The first contrary example (as far as I know) was given by St. Sabas at the end of the fifth century; yet so tempering the matter that a certain communion was preserved among his monks of various languages. Here is the beginning of this matter. In the year 491 the blessed man had admitted into the Great Laura, which he had built above the torrent Cedron, Jeremiah, an Armenian by race, with his companions Peter and Paul. Father Sabas rejoiced greatly over these, as being religious men, and gave them a cave with a small cell on the north side of his own cave, where he had first stayed when he alone inhabited the torrent; and he permitted and instructed them to perform the canon of psalmody on Saturday and Sunday in the Armenian language in a small oratory. In this way, since by far the greatest number of the old monks were uneducated and knew only their native language, the Armenians gradually increased in number in the Laura [Cyrillus Scythopolit. Vita S. Sabæ, num. 20, ap. Cotelerium, Eccles. græc. monumenta, tom. III, pag. 247.].

[4] [Armenians having been admitted into his Laura; but he avoided complete separation. In the eleventh century similar monasteries still existed at Jerusalem and at Antioch; in which latter St. Macarius, venerated at Ghent, was archbishop of the Armenians.] Three years later, when the small common chapel of the Laura, which was said to have been constructed by God, was too narrow for the enlarged congregation, and the Armenians had multiplied and were cramped in the small oratory which had previously been assigned to them, he built a great church of the most celebrated Mother of God and ever-virgin Mary. And in the middle between the two churches an atrium

he made… Then, therefore, he moved the Armenians from the small oratory, so that they might carry out the rule of psalmody in the dialect of the Armenians in the common former church, the one constructed by God, and he instructed them to recite among themselves in the synaxes the megalium or gospel and the rest of the sequence of the office in the Armenian language; but at the time of the divine oblation to come together with the Hellenists, that is, those who used the Greek language, and to receive the divine sacraments. But since some of them had undertaken to say the thrice-holy hymn or trisagion with that addition devised by Peter, surnamed Cnapheus or the Fuller: Who was crucified for us; the divine old man, justly angered, ordered that they should sing this hymn in Greek according to the ancient tradition of the catholic Church… He also decreed that on the Sabbath the synaxis or collecta should be celebrated in the church founded by God and now assigned to the uses of the Armenians, but on the Lord's day in the church of the Mother of God, in which the Greeks were accustomed to assemble daily, and also that vigils should be held without interruption from evening until morning in both churches on the Lord's days and feasts Ibid. num. 32, tom. III, pag. 264 et 265.. That institution was spread abroad and long persisted, as is clear from Nicon, a Greek-Melkite monk, who flourished in Syria about the year 1060 Cfr Mai, Scriptorum veterum nova collectio, tom. IV, part. II, pag. 159.. For he testifies in his 36th letter to Abbot Gerasimus Ibid. pag. 166. that certain Armenian monks in the eleventh century lived in monasteries of the Greeks at Antioch and at Jerusalem, and that they were orthodox and removed from all suspicion of the Eutychian heresy. And he shows that from the time of St. Sabas and of Theodosius the cœnobiarch they had led the monastic life among the Greeks, but had been accustomed, by permission of the same Sabas, to perform the sacred rite in the Armenian tongue, except for the trisagion hymn, which they were ordered to bring forth in Greek; … that furthermore the Armenians had a bishop of Edessa, who received the imposition of the hand from the Greek patriarch of Antioch. But before this they had also an archbishop, who had his seat in the mixed monastery of St. Simeon of the Wonderful Mountain near Antioch on the Orontes. But this see seems to have ceased when at the beginning of the eleventh century St. Macarius, the archbishop, called at once the Armenian and of Antioch, left it, passing in the year 1011 into the Ghent monastery of St. Bavo Acta SS. tom. I Aprilis, pag. 873 et seqq. and dying there shortly afterwards.

[5] [About the middle of the fourteenth century Charles IV raises at Prague, where Benedictine foundations of the Latin rite already existed, the Benedictine monastery of St. Jerome or Emmaus of the Slavic rite,] But while this union, such as it was, of Greeks and Armenians persisted, a much greater division little by little gained strength, so that the Easterners dwelling in the regions of the Latins observed exclusively Eastern monastic rules, rites, and languages, and in turn the Latins among the Easterners latinized altogether. This distinction, which certainly did not arise in the beginning from the spirit of Christ, was afterwards commanded to be kept entire, lest greater evils should arise. There were, however, those who joined the Benedictine Rule with Eastern rites. A notable specimen of this is what Charles IV, emperor and king of Bohemia, instituted about the middle of the fourteenth century. The Bohemians indeed followed the Latin rites, and at Prague there had long been dwelling Benedictine monks observing the Latin rites and the Latin language. But it pleased the prince, who was quite inclined to founding new cœnobia, to have at Prague Benedictine monasteries of all the rites that he knew. Hence Beneš of Weitmil, canon of Prague, who died about the year 1390, says Ap. Pelzel, Scriptores rerum Bohemicarum, t. II, p. 346.: In the year of the Lord 1348, on the day of blessed Mark, the lord Charles, king of the Romans and of Bohemia, laid the first stone and founded the New City of Prague… In the same year he founded a monastery of the order of St. Benedict in the same New City, and established in it Slav brothers, who should celebrate Masses and chant the hours in Slavonic letters. And further on under the year 1372 Ib., p. 416.: In the same year, on the Monday after Easter, the reverend father in Christ, the lord John, archbishop of the holy church of Prague, legate of the apostolic see, consecrated the monastery of the Slavs of the order of St. Benedict in the New City of Prague, founded by the aforesaid lord emperor, and also completed with wonderful work and magnificently endowed; so that the people of Prague, when they wished to extol the bridge built by the same emperor, were accustomed to say that the bridge of Prague had cost Charles the founder one obol more than this cœnobium and Slovan church [Balbinus, Miscellanea historica regni Bohemiæ, Decas I, lib. III, c. x, §3, p. 133.]. At which dedication, so Beneš continues Pelzel, t. II, p. 417., the lord emperor himself and the princes were present. The title of St. Jerome, whom the Slavs, as a Dalmatian, reckon to their nation, was given to it; but it was afterwards changed to Emmaus Balbinus, Epitome rerum Bohemicarum, lib III, c. 21, p. 359 et 360..

[6] The ascetery of St. Jerome or Emmaus was not yet finished, and another of the Ambrosian rite. when in the year 1354, as Beneš again testifies Pelzel, t. III, p. 359., the lord Charles, king of the Romans and of Bohemia, founded a monastery under the title of St. Ambrose in the New City of Prague, and placed in it a mitred abbot and a convent of monks of the order of St. Benedict; for whom he provided sufficiently with goods and revenues. He obtained, moreover, from the apostolic see (from which he is reported by Balbinus Epitome rerum Bohemicarum, p. 360. to have already obtained this earlier for the Slavonic monastery) that the abbot and brothers of the monastery itself should be bound to hold and have the office of the Mass and of the other hours in the manner and custom of the church of Milan according to the rubric and rite of St. Ambrose. But when about the year 1420 the heresy of the Hussites was running riot with impunity, it destroyed this church and monastery with so many others Ib., lib. IV, c. 5, p. 433.. The Slovan ascetery had a better lot, which at the end of the seventeenth century, as is clear in many places from the books of Balbinus, still existed; but whether the Slavic rite and language were still observed at that time I have not been able to discover.

[7] [A colony is led forth from the Slavic cœnobium of Prague and obtains a seat near Cracow.] That institution also had an offshoot. Hence in Długosz, canon of Cracow Hist. Polon., lib. x, c. 127, edit. 1711., under the year 1389, we read: Wladislaus the Second, king of Poland, with his consort Hedwig …, stirred by a similar example which exists in the city of Prague, founded and endowed a monastery of the Slavs of the order of St. Benedict, to endure under its regular observance, under the honour and title of the Holy Cross outside the walls of Cracow in the town of Kleparz, not far from the river Rudawa, under the pontificate of Peter Visz, bishop of Cracow, on the Thursday after the feast of St. James the apostle, and they marked out the circuit of the church, both of the choir and of the nave, with a most beautiful brick wall in sumptuous and magnificent work, and completed and finished the choir of the same church with the sacristy; but of the nave they only laid the foundations; as may be seen with one's own eyes up to the present day (or the middle of the sixteenth century). And they built a wooden house for the monastery with a garden, and brought into it brothers taken from the monastery of Prague: giving them for an endowment, though a slender one, twenty marks each year from the rents and proceeds of the toll of Cracow. By whom up to my own times and under my own eyes that church of the Holy Cross, both in the divine service and in matins and the canonical hours and the other ecclesiastical ceremonies, was served and administered with sonorous chant and reading in the Slavonic idiom by monks and brothers of St. Benedict. Matthew of Miechów Chronic. Polonor., lib. x, c. 49., who wrote many years after Długosz, testifies that in the days of his boyhood a Slav presbyter continued to perform the sacred rites in the Slavonic idiom; but in the seventeenth century these things seem to have ceased Cfr Hélyot, Hist. des ordres religieux, t. I, p. 229.. They will have it that those monks were clothed in a red garment, but of the same form as the other Benedictines. Other Polish regulars too have loved the colour red; but I should not think that it was admitted at Prague. Most of the Italian Basilians have long since mingled Latin Masses with the Rule of St. Basil and other Eastern institutions; but these things are full of corruptions, on which Rodotà may be consulted.

[8] [Other foundations in which there are the languages, rites, and rules of different nations.] From what has been said so far, to note it in passing, it appears that nothing new was proposed by the excellent Thomas of Jesus, when in his book on the Conversion of schismatics and others he judged that it would be useful if in the religious orders of Latin origin there were some men who used Eastern rites and languages in the sacred ministry, while otherwise following the laws and rules of their brothers. To this, however, do not belong the Armenian Dominicans or Friars Preachers, who indeed used the Armenian language in sacred things, but kept the Latin rites; but they were rather similar to those Illyrians who have the Roman Missal and Breviary translated into the Slavic language. Nor did St. Nicius approach those Armenians and Illyrians, but rather the manner and method of the Armenians who followed the institutions of St. Sabas, and especially the Slavs of Prague and Cracow, who associated the Rule of St. Benedict with Slavonic rites and language. This need not be explained more fully in this place, since it is sufficiently declared in the fragment of the Life itself.

[9] [St. Nicius must be considered to have observed the Benedictine Rule first at Monte Cassino, then in the Cassinese monastery of St. Nicholas of Ciconia.] The blessed man did not, however, remain at Monte Cassino; but first, with the consent of the monks, he inhabited the cell of St. Nicholas, situated not far from the monastery, and there he admitted disciples. The earlier fortunes of this place have been unknown up to this day even to the Cassinese themselves. Hear Erasmo Gattola Historia Cassinensis, part. I, p. 218 et seq.: The cœnobium of St. Nicholas of Ciconia, which is a mile and a half distant from the monastery of Cassino in the valley from which it took its surname, I found first named in a bull of Victor II, given in the year 1057, where these words are read: "The cell Albaneta, Ciconia, etc." This cœnobium was inhabited by SS. Guinizzo and Januarius his disciple, as Victor III relates, in book I of the Dialogues, chap. 20 and following; and Peter the Deacon at the end of their Life has this: "He (St. Guinizzo) was buried in the church of the holy confessor of Christ Nicholas in a leaden coffin on the right side of the altar in the place which is called Cyconia, in which also St. Januarius his disciple, having died, was placed together with his master: to declare whose merits God does not cease to work wonders up to the present day." Gattola then indicates many diplomas in which mention of this ascetery is made; which he concludes

with these words: We conjecture that that cœnobium lasted until the times of Urban VI from a parchment which, placed in the casket where the bodies of SS. Guinizzo and Januarius were, bore these words: "Relics of SS. Guinizzo and Januarius translated from St. Nicholas of Ciconia to the monastery of Cassino in the time of Urban the Sixth;" as D. Antonio of Naples, archivist of Cassino, testifies on oath, who had read these words twice at different times. This cœnobium afterwards, indeed more than seventy years earlier, Abbot Thomas, who presided over Monte Cassino about the year 1304, wished to be united to the office of the deanery Ibid., p. 503 et 504.; until about the middle of the fourteenth century Pope Urban V suppressed this office and ordered that there should be a prior in place of the dean. But these things have already called us too far away from St. Nicius.

§ II. The construction of the Greek monastery near Pontecorvo. The origin of this place. The diploma of Count Guido.

[When St. Nicius founded the monastery of St. Paul of the Forest near Pontecorvo, he fully adopted the Greek rites.] As long as St. Nicius remained in that place, he doubtless observed the Benedictine Rule; inasmuch as he was subject to the abbot of Cassino, who would certainly not willingly have yielded a cell of his monastery to outsiders. But when he went on to Pontecorvo and in the neighbouring forest erected a new ascetery, he took up an altogether different mind. For he adopted a Greek rule; and dire imprecations were made against those who should dare to turn it into the Latin language, as is established from the diploma of foundation. For this diploma still exists and has been published by Erasmo Gattola Ibid. p. 293 et 294., and will be published below by us. Nor is it surprising: for he wished to keep that cœnobium for Greeks alone; fearing probably (this fear is indicated by many other circumstances) lest, if Latins were admitted, little by little their party should become the greater and in that way his own countrymen should be excluded. Moreover, even the holiest men among the Greeks seem to have been little fair toward the Latins. For they knew how to love only their own customs and discipline. Whence it is almost in the nature of a prodigy that St. Nilus, abbot of Grottaferrata, having gone at one time to Monte Cassino and being questioned there by the monks about the Saturday fast, which the Greeks omit, replied Acta SS., t. VII Septembris, p. 329.: Let him who eats not despise him who does not eat; and let him who does not eat not judge him who eats: for God has received both… We therefore do well in not fasting on the Sabbath, in detestation of the abominable Manichees, who mourn on that day and calumniate the Old Testament… And you of necessity fast, purging yourselves beforehand for the holy day of the resurrection, or Sunday. Very rarely will you find a similar reply among the Greeks: nor at that time were very many of the Latins less sharp against the usages of the Greeks. But these have long since given up this itch for calumny, while that of nearly all Easterners is still the supine yawning by which they suppose that the religious life chiefly consists in the beard, total abstinence from meat, the form of garments, and other things of this kind. For which reason a very few years ago a Russian bishop, a man otherwise not unlearned, in a very sharp book against Catholics, seemed to himself to have cut the throat of the Jesuits when, defining what these men are, he said that they are religious who do not sing the ecclesiastical office, who drink wine and eat meat, as if such men were laughable butts and a sure proof of the apostasy of the Catholic Church.

[11] [In the diploma written at that time he seems to be called James. On the change of names practised by Greek monks] In that diploma, however, there lies a very grave difficulty. All things that are said in it agree with the fragment of the Life; but in place of Abbot Nicius one reads Abbot James: which, as long as the whole Life of St. Nicius does not come forth, can be explained in no other way than by saying that he had two names. But at that time this was already the condition of nearly all Eastern monks, that when they laid aside the secular garment and put on the angelic one, having cast away their secular name, they received a new one. Very widely extended was that custom of changing names. In the annotations to the Passion of St. Crescius Acta SS. tom. X Octobris, p. 594. we have already said something about the change of name at baptism. About the changed name of Roman pontiffs, of bishops, and also sometimes of abbots, a number of persons have spoken. Krebs also published a particular dissertation on this same custom practised by monks; but since I lack it, I would say this one thing, that examples older than the sixth century are unknown to me: toward the beginning of which St. Dorotheus had a disciple with him in the infirmary and called him Dositheus Vita S. Dosithei, num. 6, Act. SS. tom. III Februarii, p. 382.. Thereafter this little by little prevailed like a fixed law. Thus in the Life of St. Leo Luke of Corleone, who was abbot of Mula in Calabria up to the beginning of the tenth century, it is reported that Abbot Christopher hastened to clothe blessed Leo in the habit of holy conversion and according to the rite of the same conversion imposed the name LUKE and said: "Behold, son, you have climbed the cross of your Lord; see therefore to whom you have joined yourself, or with whom you have crucified yourself Acta SS. tom. I Martii, p. 99.." Similarly Pancratius in his Panegyric of St. Nilus wrote about this blessed abbot of Grottaferrata Ibid. tom. VII Sept., p. 281.: When the great NICHOLAS, who is also NILUS, had given a beginning to the monastery of Grottaferrata. And Sciommari, following an ancient Greek codex, says of his disciple and the fourth hegumen or abbot of Grottaferrata Breve notizia della vita di S. Bartolomæo, p. 14.: Basil was received with open arms by St. Nilus; who, foreseeing how great that young man would one day become with advancing age, immediately clothed him in the monastic and angelic garment and imposed the name of Bartholomew. And Pancratius in the Panegyric of that St. Bartholomew Ibid., p. 78.: Named Basil in baptism and Bartholomew when he took up the angelic habit.

[12] and on its varieties. On these passages Sciommari, himself a Basilian, observes Ibid.,p. 78 et 79. that this usage still persisted in his time, with this rule added, that the new name should begin with the same letter as the old and that the new name should be that of a saint of the Basilian order. But formerly that change was not limited by those two conditions. It was indeed the custom that the first letter should be common to both names, as is easily detected in Leo and Luke, Nicholas and Nilus, Basil and Bartholomew; but this was not fixed or stable, as it now is among the Greeks. Thus the very celebrated St. Sabas, archbishop of the Serbs, on Mount Athos, the model of monastic life among the Easterners, in the twelfth century received a new name which begins with another letter: for Rastko was his secular name, which he changed into Sabas or Sabbas Cfr A. Chodzko, Légendes slaves. Les Némania, p. 9.. Since, therefore, these things were still being done in the twelfth century, it will be much less surprising that in the tenth century St. Nicius was previously called James, or that, when he entered the monastic life, he took a name not beginning with the same letter as before. Indeed, since at that time the usage of changing the name had not yet gained strength among the Benedictines (whether the Cassinese ever admitted that usage I doubt), it may easily be that, when that diploma was written, St. Nicius still kept his former name: for up to this time, as we have already hinted, he had not followed Eastern institutions, but Benedictine ones.

[13] By this diploma Count Guido granted a place in the forest or wood, The beginnings of Pontecorvo next to Pontecorvo, which place is called now Fergile, now Sergile; but perhaps Fregella or Fregellæ should everywhere be read: and this matter pertains to the origins of Pontecorvo. Pasquale Cayro supposes Lorenzo Giustiniani, Dizionario del regno di Napoli, tom. VII, p. 239 et seqq. that in that region on the bank of the Liris or Garigliano there was founded by the Volsci a city named Lirium, on whose demolished site the Romans afterwards established a colony which they called Fregellæ; that Pyrrhus then laid this waste, so that in Strabo's age it was only a village. And indeed in the city of Pontecorvo many inscriptions are still preserved which pertain to Fregellæ; and in the neighbourhood, beyond the bridge, on the bank of the Liris, remains of an old city have been uncovered, extending 750 paces. In the middle of the ninth century there was solitude there and woodland; and since the character of those places seemed most suitable for building walls, about the year 870 Rodoaldus, gastald in the town of Aquino, built a castle beside the Pontecorvo, which, namely from the situation and name of that same bridge, kept the name Ponscurvus; by which words of Leo of Ostia [Chronicum Ostiense, lib. I, cap 38, ap. Muratori, Scriptt. rer. Ital. t. IV, p. 314.] it is intimated that the bridge had existed before: wherefore, because the Emperor Louis II, when about to expel the Saracens from Italy, came in the year 866 to Pontecorvo, it is certainly not necessary to assign the beginnings of that castle to before this year; but at the same time it is very likely that many houses had already existed there near the bridge before, as it pleased the excellent historian of Cassino to hold Tosti, Storia della badia di Monte-Cassino, tom . I, p. 49 et 50.. With what intent Rodoaldus did this is narrated by the Anonymous of Cassino, who in those matters lighted the way for Leo. Having done this, he says Ap. Grævium, Thesaurus antiq. et hist. Italiæ, tom. IX, part. I, col. 73., he withdrew himself from the jurisdiction of the Capuans, and for this reason he was vehemently harassed by the Capuans. And in fact, in order to protect himself from Pando, his lord, he was forced to enter into a pact with Magenolfus, a kinsman of the Empress Engelberga, by which both together should possess the new fortress. But discord shortly arose between them. Magenolfus shut up Rodoaldus with his sons in prison, nor did he release his former associate before he put on the monastic garment at Monte Cassino Ibid. col. 73 et 74. Cfr. Tosti, tom. I, pag. 49 et 50..

[14] and fortunes. In the year 946 Pontecorvo was reckoned a fief of the principality of Benevento [Cfr diploma Agapeti papæ II, cit. a Moroni, Dizionario di erudizione, t. V, p. 100, et t. LIV, p. 97.]; but at that time Landulf held the principalities of Benevento and Capua together; and so at the end of the tenth century, after Capua had been separated from Benevento in the year 982, Pontecorvo depended on Capua, as is established from the beginning of the diploma, where Count Guido calls Landulf, prince of Capua, his lord. Before Adinolfus, the father of Guido, no counts of Pontecorvo are known except Rodoaldus and Magenolfus; the following ones are given by Giovanni Battista Federici Degli antichi duchi e consoli o ipati de Gaeta, p. 56., Lorenzo Giustiniani Dizionario del regno di Napoli, t. VII, p. 244 et 245., and Gaetano Moroni Dizionario di erudizione, t. LIX, p. 98.. But at the beginning of the twelfth century that county came into the hands of Richard

II, prince of Capua, who sold it to the Cassinese for five hundred pounds, a very small price indeed. It is not my task to set out its various fortunes thereafter; nor is anyone unaware that in the year 1815, by article 103 of the treaty of Vienna, this county was restored to the Holy See, which had possessed it from the beginning of the fifteenth century with very diverse fortune Dizionario di erudizione, tom. LIV, p. 99 et seqq.. In the year 1725 Pope Benedict XIII made it a cathedral city, united to Aquino; whose bishop had long been accustomed to reside there.

[15] [The first counts promoted that town with admirable zeal; and perhaps in the same spirit were so easy in admitting Greek monks;] Those who first founded Pontecorvo, especially Magenolfus, took care with admirable skill that inhabitants should come to the new town and that these should be vigorous and industrious in war and at home; and this turned out so happily for them that the miracle which Romulus and Remus once brought forth on the bank of the Tiber seemed to be renewed on the Garigliano in the most mournful times of the middle age. The anonymous monk of Cassino, who was writing about the year 884, certainly could not approve the crimes by which the way had been paved for these prodigies; yet he cannot help adding with admiration about Magenolfus Ap. Grævium, t. IX, part. I, col. 74.: The rude and undisciplined people whom he found he taught to be most prudent in the manner of a palace; and those who previously knew nothing but onions and garlic, from them a hundred princely solidi are now required; and they even set out armed with a hostile army; so that they were strong in hand and in riches, since, when some necessity came upon them, they were able to pay to their prince or count a tax of a hundred solidi, weighing as much as 435 francs now weigh, and worth as much as 3,480 francs [Cfr Léber, Mémoires sur la fortune, etc. Académie des inscriptions, Mémoires étrangers, t. I, p. 269.]. After Magenolfus, Pontecorvo went on growing in citizens and wealth; and I rather think that the intention of the counts of that town in admitting Greek monks was that part of the neighbouring forests should be changed into fields and that country folk should fix their dwellings around the new monasteries.

[16] who moreover were always held in great veneration by the Latins. For the rest, the matter is very notable: while the princes of southern Italy were waging war with the Greeks in order to expel them from there, they at the same time greatly favoured the Greek monks. Thus when St. Nilus had come about the year 981 to Capua and had been received with honour by Pandulf, at that time prince, who had spent and was still spending a great part of his life in driving the Greeks out of Italy, and by the nobles; so that they had formed the plan of electing him as bishop for themselves (which would also have come to pass, had the prince not been cut off by death); then they called to themselves the superior of St. Benedict of Monte Cassino (this was the most holy Aligernus) and enjoined on him that he should grant to the blessed man whatever monastery he wished from among the small monasteries of our holy father Benedict. Carrying out this command, the Cassinese granted to St. Nilus and his companions the monastery of St. Michael, Vallelucium by name Acta SS., t. VII Septembris, p. 325 et seqq.. And when the Normans took possession of a great part of Magna Græcia and then of Sicily and expelled from there the Greek nobles and soldiers, the same thing was to be seen. For they raised up many cœnobia of Greeks with the greatest splendour Rodotà, del Rito greco in Italia, t. II, p. 81 et seqq.. The cause of this, I think, is that the Greek monks, conspicuous for their long thick beard, drawing all eyes upon them by the fullness and singularity of their garments, and instilling veneration into minds by a certain gravity of bearing which the Easterners display very readily, seemed in appearance more religious than the Latin monks. And from this (unless I am mistaken) in every age and even in recent times the people have seemed inclined to hold in a certain extraordinary reverence Eastern monks and bishops who came to the western parts. This perhaps also had some force in conferring the honours of the heavenly ones on many of them, whose names we have recorded elsewhere Acta SS., t. IX Octobris, p. 623.. On the contrary, Easterners of moderate temper, well aware of what was being done in their own asceteries, thought quite otherwise. Certainly St. Nilus, while he was staying among the Cassinese, admired their excellent discipline and well-ordered rule of living, and he praised their institutions more than ours, says his biographer Ib., t. VII Septembris, p. 326.; and yet twenty-five years before, monastic discipline there had utterly gone to ruin Agapeti papæ II epist. XVII, ap. Migne, Patrol. latina, t. CXXXIII, col. 913..

[17] [A little later the monastery of St. Peter of the Forest is likewise founded in the same place by the Greek monk St. Clinus. The fortunes of both.] By these things, however, I would not hint that it is right to question whether discipline flourished in the monastery of St. Nicius. On the contrary, I am fully persuaded that it flourished; and hence perhaps a little later St. Clinus easily obtained permission to build another in the same forest: so that a little before the beginning of the eleventh century there arose there the monastery of St. Paul, with St. Nicius as its author, and a little later that of St. Peter, with St. Clinus as its founder. Around both a village afterwards grew up Gattola, Hist. Cassin., part. I, p. 270 et 294.. But in the year 1093 Rainald, count of Pontecorvo, judged it opportune to dismiss the Greek monks; and therefore, since it was then the custom in Italy that princes should take away and give monasteries at their pleasure, compelled by divine inspiration, for the reward and salvation of his soul, and of his aforesaid father Guffridus and of his mother, that he might be able to find mercy and rest from his crimes before the most high Lord, he offered to the holy church and monastery of blessed Benedict, which is situated in the fortress of Monte Cassino, of which the lord Oderisius, the venerable abbot, was seen to be rector, one church and monastery, named after St. Paul the apostle, which is situated within the bounds of the aforesaid city of Pontecorvo, in the place of the Furesta Ib., p. 294.; and since in the diplomas of the monastery of St. Peter of the Forest Greek abbots do not appear after the year 1072 Ib., p. 270., it is very likely that this was given to Abbot Oderisius about the same time. In both the Cassinese monks persevered until the fifteenth century. Both likewise were provostships; and St. Paul's was made a parish church, still existing in the seventeenth century. But I would not dwell on these things any longer; since whoever wishes more can easily go to Gattola, who sets out at length the ecclesiastical and civil jurisdiction over both places.

[18] [The diploma by which Count Guido, divinely admonished to found a monastery for his sins, and finding the opportunity of James, who is also St. Nicius,] There now follows the diploma itself, of which we have spoken by way of preface so far, and by which Guido, count of Pontecorvo, granted to Abbot James (who, we said, seems to be the same as St. Nicius) whatever was necessary for founding the cœnobium of St. Paul of the Forest. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. In the sixth year of the principate of our lord Laydolf, glorious prince, in the month of November, in the twelfth indiction. And therefore I, Guido, by the providence of the Lord count of this city of Pontecorbo, and son of the late lord Adenolfus of good memory, declare that, being oppressed by many crimes, I began to think what and in what way to do, that my sins might be taken care of; and that the merciful and almighty One might come to my aid and that I might be able to flee from his wrath . When thinking such things I reflect, he himself was present to me and put it in my heart that for my so great iniquities I should construct a monastery; and because it pleased him, he directed before my face a spiritual man, namely you, lord James; in whose providence, in a desert and waste place, where it is called of the Furesta of the Fergili , which belongs to me by my rights, under your dominion and power I have proposed, for my soul, and the soul of the lord Adenolfus my father, and for the soul of the lady Mary my mother, and for the soul of Dofelgarda my wife, to make there in the same place in the said forest of the Sergili * a monastery, the which waste and desert place under my power with that permission, and making it for God our Lord Jesus Christ, under the presence and power of you, the said lord James, venerable abbot and monk of the race of the Greeks; that, God willing, through you there may henceforth be a monastery in that place.

[19] he grants lands on which it may be founded. And when in the same desert and hermit place a church is built, with this promise, by another writing and offering, I promise to confirm all that is contained here, and to place it in the same church upon the holy altar itself, without any retraction or evil device, with these boundaries and with these courses, as we declare at present; that the aforesaid place, enclosed by these boundaries, may remain for the use of the holy monastery itself, and may stand in your power, you above, lord James, and of your monks and your successors, pertaining through us to the defence and use of the holy monastery itself; removing, moreover, all doubt from our heart; and that from the present you may have leave and power to enter into the same place, and to labour, and to build the same place and holy monastery in accordance with this our promise, we declare the boundaries and appurtenances which from the present day we give in the said named place and holy monastery; namely, on the first side by these boundaries.

[20] He designates the limits, As it begins along the summit of the mount of St. Martin, and sinks down from that mountain into the valley, and as it crosses the stream of the Cuti, and goes straight into the dry wall, and in what way it goes straight above the little hill of Calilana, and from above the said little hill and goes straight into the road which comes from Gaeta, and in what way it crosses that road, and goes straight into the Petrusus ditch, which sinks from the well of Daversa. On another side the aforesaid ditch, as it continues to the foot of the toro of Giguanus and crosses that ditch straight into the cosa. On the third side the said cosa, as it sinks and joins itself into the Sergile * of Vitri. On the fourth side the said Sergile, and as it goes up to the ridge of the mount of Vitri, and goes straight to the head of the mount of St. Martin. And this aforesaid piece of land, by the indicated boundaries, and waters, mountains, and hills, and valleys, together with trees, and with all things having there within, beneath or above, and with its roads there

of entering and going out, with both banks, which we have granted to you for making mills, and for fishing, and with all the buildings which they shall have earned.

[21] the freedom of electing the abbot These boundaries and courses handed over by us in the above-written place, we desire that you may hold at present, and have dominion over in the customary manner, he gives; he decrees that only Greeks shall dwell there; that one abbot and another with his monks may have dominion over his monastery: whence we also bind ourselves to you, that neither we, nor our heirs, shall have leave to cast out of the above-written monastery or the above-written place, or to withdraw from your power, or to send in an outside abbot there by any grant, for all the days of your life; but when you die, from among those who remain and are with you let the brothers themselves choose such a one as they wish, and make him abbot. But this our promise remaining; and all that is read above, let it remain in your dominion and power and that of your monks and of your successors who shall be of your congregation; and let the holy monastery itself be of your Greek monks from now on, and for ever and ever.

[22] he takes from himself leave to revoke the donation; And if, which God forbid, and may the divine power avert it, whether you, whether we or our heirs or our successors should attempt to diminish anything from this our promise or grant, except for eleven modii, which we have sold in the junction itself of the Surgile * from the cosa, he must compound and give to the above-written holy monastery, or to its rectors or custodians, by way of penalty a thousand pounds of fine gold. And after the penalty has been paid, let this our grant and promise remain firm and stable in perpetuity. Meanwhile we promise this also, that if, which we do not wish, it should come about that either you or any of your monks should go out with all your movable goods, it shall be without any opposition from us or from our heirs.

[23] he forbids that the rule be turned from Greek into Latin; For if I, Count Guido, or my heirs, or their successors, should seek to break or remove this our grant or promise by any device, or should wish to diminish anything from the above-written holy monastery, or whoever thereafter shall wish to turn this rule which is called Attic into Latin, let him be accursed and excommunicated by God the Father almighty, and by his life-giving Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, let him be condemned, and by the Holy Spirit let him be confounded into the lowest depths of foul hell; let him be under the anathema of the three hundred and eighteen holy fathers *; let him have his part with Judas the traitor; let him be made the companion of the most impious Annas and Caiaphas, and Pontius Pilate, and Herod, and let him be maranatha here and in the future. Amen.

[24] finally he sees to it that the solemnities of law are observed. And let this charter, concerning all that it contains, remain firm and stable in perpetuity. And thus I, the above-named Count Guido, for the redemption of my soul and for the soul of the lord Adenolfus my father, and for the soul of the lady Mary my mother, and for the soul of Dafelgarda my wife, have done, and have ordered you, Magipertus the notary, to write it, at Pontecorbo. † I, the above-named Count Guido. † I, Rado, judge. † I, Bernard. † I, Radelgisus.

* valerem

* Fregella?

* Fregella?

* Fregella?

* Fregella?

* (of the First Council of Nicæa)

LESSONS ON ST. NICIUS,

From the manuscript collections of Father Manni.

The birth of St. Nicius. His coming to Monte Cassino. His dwelling in the monastery of St. Nicholas of Ciconia. The construction of the Greek monastery near Pontecorvo.

FROM MANUSCRIPTS.

First Lesson. After the divinity of our Saviour had been made known through the whole world, [St. Nicius, born from the island of Chalcia, having heard the words of the gospel,] and all heretical depravity at the same time had been put down, and the sun of justice shone through the parts of the globe everywhere on earth through his apostles and of their successors , while many were converted to the Catholic faith, some of them, fighting manfully for the integrity of the same faith, through divers kinds of torments assigned to them by the tyrants of the age, by scorning the glory of the world obtained that which is eternal; while others, although they did not endure martyrdom in the shedding of blood, yet voluntarily trampling down the pleasure of the body, crowned and supported by purity of heart and flesh, by vigils, fasts, assiduous prayers, and the other observances of God's commandments, equally purchased the eternal kingdom. From the * college of these, then, the blessed man Nicius, standing forth, from boyhood committed himself wholly to God; and delighted by nothing secular, he strove in every way to store up in his breast the divine precepts, by which he might be able to overcome the world and might deserve to become a member of him who said to his disciples: Rejoice, I have overcome the world. For such is the interpretation of his name. Nicius in Attic is said in Latin Victor. Now this man, by race a Chalcian ^a, when he had been bereft of his parents and was frequently visiting the thresholds of the churches, heard the Lord saying in them in the gospel: "If you wish to be perfect, sell all that you have, and come, follow me." Having heard this, drawing the divine precept to himself, he sold everything and bestowed it on the poor.

[2] [having overcome many temptations, he comes to Monte Cassino; but shortly afterwards he goes on to the neighbouring monastery of St. Nicholas of Ciconia;] Second Lesson. After this, taking the road, he prayed the Lord to direct him to such a place where he could fulfil what he had conceived in his mind; and so, wearied by long journeys, the ancient enemy heaped many mockeries on him, desiring to call him back from his resolve. But the holy father, arming himself with the sign of salvation, said: "The Lord is the protector of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? If my enemies should rise up against me, I will hope in the Lord. One thing I have asked of the Lord, this will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of my Lord all the days of my life." And so all that phantasm vanished like smoke. Therefore, making for the place appointed to him by the Lord of all places with a great vow of heart and mind, he arrived at the church of the most blessed Benedict, situated on Monte Cassino. Kindly received by the brothers, he was joined to the holy congregation, assiduously giving himself to prayer and contemplation. Then, not many days having rolled by, by counsel, by a nod , he said that in no way could Latin and Greek prayers and offices agree. And bringing this desire of his to light, he humbly set it before all the brothers, saying: "I ask, if it does not displease this congregation, that you deign to grant me some little cell, placed under our monastery, in which I may be able to make progress in serving the Lord." Having taken counsel, then, the brothers furnished him with a certain little cell, not far from the monastery, by name of blessed Nicholas; which is commonly called Ciconia ^b; in which the most holy father, staying, showed himself assiduous to the Lord. And when the fame of his sanctity was growing, very many, coming to him, asked to be joined to him, so that they might enjoy the blessing of so great a father.

[3] [from there to Aquino; where, no place fit for monastic uses having been found, he goes on to Pontecorvo. Here he is greatly helped by Count Guido and by the inhabitants in constructing the monastery of St. Paul of the Forest.] Third Lesson. Then he himself, dutiful father that he was, began to reprove himself within himself, saying: "Woe is me! How do I live, not labouring with my hands? According to the rule I have taken it up, nor any help to anyone? It behoves me to recall the voice of Paul saying: "Let him who does not labour not eat." And thus within himself, as has been said, he said: "I will go, and go around the province, and seek in the name of him who said: "Seek and you shall find," a place where I may be able to build an oratory for the daily ministry of the brothers." Some days therefore having passed, taking to the road, he came to Aquino ^c; and, the fame of his sanctity being known, very many with prayers ask that he should not absent himself from their territory, the noble citizens, as has been said, wishing to provide for him. Thence, having traversed each of the places and having found none suited to his request, humbly returning thanks to them , departing he set out from there to Pontecorvo, and there by Guido, then count of that city ^d, and by its citizens he is received as a father and venerated; and kindly obeying his wish, both the count himself and the citizens enjoin upon him: "Having traversed and searched out our territory, wherever you find a place fit and suitable for fulfilling your wishes, there, with our support, you shall have free power to accomplish what you seek, according to your direction." For he had opened to them his desire about establishing an oratory, as has been said above. And the man of the Lord, after very many acts of thanksgiving, signing himself with the sign of unity, began to investigate the places here and there carefully; and so he came to the place which is commonly called Foresta ^e. There, fixing his step, as he considers the amplitude of the place, he said: "As I see, this place is apt for waters, wood, stones, pastures, mountain lands, plains, fields, gardens to be cultivated; and here, God ordaining, we are well able to complete every workplace of the brothers." Returning to the city, he relates to the count and citizens what he had found; and they, filled with joy and exultation, on the morrow very early all go together to the place, carrying tools fit for the cutting of wood. Nor did they make an end of the work until they had cleared in the grove from trees, thorns, briars, and rocks as much as the bountiful father directed them. The place being therefore cleared and cleansed, with the support of him by whom the tower of David was raised against the face of the enemies, blessed Nicius, a true monk, built there a monastery to the honour of God and of blessed Paul the apostle; in which, regularly under the habit of the holy monastic religion, joined with the place to the brothers, he soldiered for the heavenly King.

[4] The count's swineherd is punished Fourth Lesson. Meanwhile the swineherd of the aforesaid count very often inflicted damage on the monastery; and, many times corrected by the brothers, he pressed on more sharply and worse in his evil actions day by day. because he had harassed him. And when the brothers had reported this to the father, gently admonishing them, he said: "Take care that no one presume to offend him even by a word. For God can both restrain him from our damage, and render us, stirred up by his inspirations, the freer to his service with pure minds." Which, reckon , according to the oracle of the man of God. When that wicked man had given himself to sleep in his bed , and after a little while tried to rise, by the just judgment of the supreme judge, his heels twisted, his legs bent (?), his knees drawn up, from agile slow, from proud humble, from a trickster he found himself pitiable and wretched. Fifth Lesson. Not far from the monastery which the venerable father himself had erected, but about two miles, there is a certain… The rest is lacking.

ANNOTATIONS.

* eorum successores

* irrogata

* eorum

* ubi?

* fatigato

* sitam

* divino?

* supply præbeo

* eis

* aggregatis

* delete

* factum

* supply iens