" And again: "Writing with three fingers,
they thus symbolize the virtues of the Holy Trinity; using a reed,
they thus attack the craft of the Devil with that very instrument
which smote the Lord's head in his Passion." But all literature was
his care. That the copyists might write correctly, he digested the
works of half a dozen grammarians into a treatise on orthography.
Further, that the books of the monastery might wear "a wedding
garment" (his own phrase), he designed a great variety of bindings,
which were kept as patterns.
There, at the foot of Moscius, did these brethren and their founder
live and work. But on the top of the mountain was another retreat,
known as Castellense, for those monks who--_divina gratia
suffragante_--desired a severer discipline, and left the
coenobitic house to become anchorites. Did these virtuous brothers
continue their literary labours? One hopes so, and one is glad that
Cassiodorus himself seems to have ended his life down in the valley
by the Pellena.
A third class of monks finds mention, those in whom "_Frigidus
obstiterit circum praecordia sanguis_," quotes the founder.
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