Page:Elizabeth Elstob - An English-Saxon homily on the birth-day of St. Gregory.djvu/86

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An Homily on the


þæslice bealcode჻ On geonglicum gearum þa þa his geoguð æfter gecynde woruld þing lu- fian sceolde. þa ongan he hine sylfne to gode geðeodan & to eðle þæs uplican hifes mid eallum gewilnungum onðian჻ Witodlice æfter his fæder forðsiðe he ar- ærde six munuclif on	agreeable Eloquence poured out. In his younger Years, when his Youth might na- turally make him love the things of this World, then began he to dedicate him- self to God, and with all his Desires to breath after the Inheritance of a Hea- venly Life. For after his ^[1] Father's departure he e- rected ^[2] six Monasteries in

↑ The Saxon Homily rightly makes use of fæder in this place, not following Paulus Diaconus, who has it Parentum obitu; for it was after the Death of his Father only, that he erected these Monasteries, his Mother Silvia living some time after, as has been well observed by the Benedictines of the Congregation of St. Maurr, from J. Diac. lib. 1. cap. 9. See their Life of Greg. lib. i. c. 2. §. vi.
↑ As to the number of Monasteries the Historians generally agree. The seventh, which is said to be built within the Walls of the City of Rome, was dedicated to the Honour of St. Andrew the Apostle, and situate near the Church of St. John and St. Paul on Mount Scaurus. In this, having taken upon him the Monastick Habit, he lived under the Government of two venerable Abbots, Hilarion and Maximiunus; after these, tho' unwillingly, he was prevailed upon to take that
Government upon himself. See Johan. Diac. in the Life of S. Greg. lib. i c. vi.

Baronius, in the Year 581. n. 8. will have it, that Gregory had for his Instructor in the Monastick Discipline no other than Valentius or Valentio; to whom, having struck Hilarion out of the Catalogue, succeeded Maximianus, Pretiosus, and Probus. But with this Account the Learned Benedictines of St. Maur are in no wise pleased; who after an ingenious Disquisition of the matter, give us this Series of the Abbots of St. Andrews; Hilarion, Valentius, Maximianus; who prefixed in the Monastery at the time when Gregory was made Legat:

[1] The Saxon Homily rightly makes use of fæder in this place, not following Paulus Diaconus, who has it Parentum obitu; for it was after the Death of his Father only, that he erected these Monasteries, his Mother Silvia living some time after, as has been well observed by the Benedictines of the Congregation of St. Maurr, from J. Diac. lib. 1. cap. 9. See their Life of Greg. lib. i. c. 2. §. vi.

[p6-2] As to the number of Monasteries the Historians generally agree. The seventh, which is said to be built within the Walls of the City of Rome, was dedicated to the Honour of St. Andrew the Apostle, and situate near the Church of St. John and St. Paul on Mount Scaurus. In this, having taken upon him the Monastick Habit, he lived under the Government of two venerable Abbots, Hilarion and Maximiunus; after these, tho' unwillingly, he was prevailed upon to take that
Government upon himself. See Johan. Diac. in the Life of S. Greg. lib. i c. vi.

Baronius, in the Year 581. n. 8. will have it, that Gregory had for his Instructor in the Monastick Discipline no other than Valentius or Valentio; to whom, having struck Hilarion out of the Catalogue, succeeded Maximianus, Pretiosus, and Probus. But with this Account the Learned Benedictines of St. Maur are in no wise pleased; who after an ingenious Disquisition of the matter, give us this Series of the Abbots of St. Andrews; Hilarion, Valentius, Maximianus; who prefixed in the Monastery at the time when Gregory was made Legat:

[1]

[2]