Beneventum

“ The city of Beneventum had, however, it is supposed, palmed off on the emperor the body of Saint Paulinus of Nola which rests in the church dedicated to the apostle by the side of that of Saint Adelbert the apostle of the Slavs. The Franciscans came to the isola sacra in the sixteenth century, and one of the friars of Saint Bartholomew's is the popular dentist of the poor from all quarters. ”

“ Venusian inscriptions of the time of the Roman republic, and Beneventane inscriptions recently brought to light, (33) show that Venusia as well as Rome had its plebs and its tribunes of the people, and that the chief magistrates of Beneventum bore the title of consul at least about the time of the Hannibalic war. Both communities are among the most recent of the Latin colonies with older rights: we perceive what pretensions were stirring in them about the middle of the fifth century. ”

“ To find one’s way through such an accumulation requires the sagacity and good memory of an archivist like the present one, whose patience is only equalled by his wish to oblige. Beneventum is full of such excellent priests, who are ready to spend their leisure moments in aiding you in your researches. ”

“ Bendidium, a temple of Diana Bendis. Livy, bk. 38, ch. 41.
Bendis, a name of Diana among the Thracians and their northern neighbours. Strabo, bk. 9. Her festivals, called Bendidia, were introduced from Thrace into Athens.
Beneventum, a town of the Hirpini, built by Diomedes, 28 miles from Capua. Its original name was Maleventum, changed into the more auspicious word of Beneventum, when the Romans had a colony there. It abounds in remains of ancient sculpture above any other town in Italy. Pliny, bk. 3, ch. 11.
Benthesicyme, a daughter of Neptune the nurse of Eumolpus. Apollodorus, bk. ”

“ Those elders of the house, Eadwig and Blæcman and Farman, had told him how in those days there had been a mighty famine in the land of Apulia, how the then Archbishop of Beneventum had travelled through foreign lands to seek help for his starving flock, how he brought with him a precious relic, the arm of the apostle Bartholomew, and how, having passed through Italy and Gaul, he was led to cross the sea by the fame of the wealth of 610 England and of the piety and bounty of Emma its Lady. ”

“ The Duchy of Beneventum seems to have been divided into gastaldata, divisions of territory similar to the civitates of Lombardy, but presided over by a gastald instead of by a dux or comes. In the charter of division made between the dukes of Beneventum and of Salerno in the year 851—v. Muratori, Ant. Ital. Diss. X.—are mentioned "integra gastaldata, seu ministeria Tarentum, Latinianum, Cusentia, etc." And, at an earlier date, Paulus Diaconus—De Gest. Long., Lib. V., cap. 29—tells of a certain "Alzeconis Dux de Bulgaris," to whom Grimoald, Duke of Beneventum, gives "ad habitandum ... ”

“ Cadoc, goes on to tell how, having been previously warned in a vision, he is carried off in a cloud to Beneventum, where he is immediately chosen abbot and named Sophias, and on the bishop's death is chosen to succeed him. Being asked in a dream what form of death he preferred, he chose martyrdom, and accordingly was killed by a soldier while saying mass on the following day. ”

“ Adrian excommunicated William. After the departure of Frederick, Adrian collected his vassals and mercenaries and marched south to Beneventum, a papal possession, where he remained until June, 1156. It was during this time that John of Salisbury spent three months with him, and obtained from him the famous Donation of Ireland (see page 158) . The fortune of war favoured William. He captured Brundusium, with an immense store of provisions and munitions of war, and five thousand pounds' weight of gold that the Greek Emperor, Manuel I, intended for his ally the Pope. ”

“ I admire the man, but I look in vain for the God. Consider, Benvenuto, that you are not an artist simply, but a Christian as well. My heart, you know, has often bled; that is to say, alas! my heart has often doubted; and I, too, have shaken off my depression when I saw Jesus holding out his hand to me, and have heard the sublime words, "Wherefore hast thou doubted?" Ah, Benvenuto, your image of him is less beautiful than he. In his celestial countenance there was the sadness of the afflicted father, and the clemency of the king who pardons. ”

“ After this she could recall but one more thing—the vision of the majestic figure of Benoni standing against a background of black smoke upon the lofty cloister-roof and defying the Romans before he plunged headlong in the flames beneath. Of her rescue on the roof of the Gate Nicanor, of her being carried before Titus Cæsar in the arms of Gallus, and of his judgment concerning her she recollected nothing. Nor, indeed, did she ever attain to a clear memory of those events, while the time between them and the recovery of her reason by the seashore in the garden at Tyre always remained a blank. ”

“ It was far more likely that Prothero, getting it heaven knows where, had spluttered it out and forgotten it, leaving it to germinate in the mind of his friend....
This lordly, this kingly dream became more and more essential to Benham as his life went on. When Benham walked the Bisse he was just a youngster resolved to be individually brave; when he prowled in the jungle by night he was there for all mankind. With every year he became more and more definitely to himself a consecrated man as kings are consecrated. ”

“ There is no instruction to be had in Aquitaine, and but little in Francia. Lombardy, where I learned most, is the cradle of knowledge." So the satire makes Benedict speak of himself. Then it makes a monk sketch Benedict's sojourn at a convent in Angouleme: "He knows more than any man I ever saw. We have heard his chatter the whole day. O quam loquax est! He is never tired. Wherever he may be, standing, sitting, walking, lying, words pour from his mouth like water from the Tigris. He orders the whole convent about as if he were Abbot. Monks, laity, clergy, do nothing without his nod. ”

“ In that way I shall be out of danger, and shall know the result immediately, whether it be a victory or a defeat."
"Very well, so be it," replied Benvenuto; "it is understood, of course, that we shall not go forth to kill others, or to be killed ourselves, without first fulfilling the pious duty of listening to mass. We will go together to the church of the Grands Augustins, which is nearer than any other to the Hôtel de Nesle, and will leave thee there, little one." ”

“ At this fatal turn of affairs he immediately dismounted and flung himself prostrate before the dead fly, and in presence of the abbot confessed his sin in thus killing a creature of God, which he was unable to restore to life again. The abbot smiled benignly, and imposed a very light penance for the offence. St. Benno, born at Hildesheim and Bishop of Meissen, was an enthusiastic reviver of church music. When the Pope excommunicated his king, Benno ordered two of his canons to throw the keys of his minster into the river Elbe. ”

“ My nobleman was attended by thirty brave fellows, all well armed; a circumstance which Messer Benvegnato had not anticipated. When we came into the hall, he walking first, I following, he spake to this effect: "God save you, gentlemen; we have come to see you, I and Benvenuto, whom I love like my own brother; and we are ready to do whatever you propose." Messer Benvegnato, seeing the hall fill with such a crowd of men, called out: "It is only peace, and nothing else, we ask of you." Accordingly he promised that the governor of Rome and his catchpoles should give me no trouble. ”

“ Though I might here enlarge on the productions of Benvenuto, who always shewed himself a man of great spirit and vivacity, bold, active, enterprising, and formidable to his enemies,—a man, in short, who knew as well how to speak to princes as to exert himself in his art,—I shall add nothing further, since he has written an account of his life and works, and a treatise on goldsmith's work as well as on casting statues and many other subjects, with more art and eloquence than it is possible for me to imitate. ”

“ There was nothing which the rich fazender refused his son. Benito was possessed of a cheerful disposition, an active mind, a lively intelligence, and qualities of heart equal to those of his head. At the age of twelve he was sent into Para, to Belem, and there, under the direction of excellent professors, he acquired the elements of an education which could not but eventually make him a distinguished man. Nothing in literature, in the sciences, in the arts, was a stranger to him. ”

“ As she approached the club at the corner she saw Benham come out of the door; and stopping the car she waited, smiling, until he joined her. While she watched him cross the pavement, she rejoiced in the thoroughbred fineness and thinness of his appearance—in his clear-cut Roman features and in the impenetrable reticence of his expression. Yes, she loved him as well as she could love any man; and that, she told herself, with a touch of cynical amusement, was just so much and no more, just enough to bring happiness, but not enough to bring pain. ”

“ Benham sat up in bed and repeated his negative faith, while little Hopkins, the Bishop's son, being less certain about the accuracy of Providence than His aim, edged as far as he could away from Benham's cubicle and rolled his head in his bedclothes.
“And anyhow,” said Benham, when it was clear that he was not to be struck dead forthwith, “you show a poor idea of your God to think he'd kill a schoolboy for honest doubt. ”

“ After wavering between suicide and the monastery of Grande-Chartreuse, Doctor Benassis stopped by chance in the poor village of l'Isere, five leagues from Grenoble. He remained there until he had transformed the squalid settlement, inhabited by good-for-nothing Cretins, into the chief place of the Canton, bustling and prosperous. Benassis died in 1829, mayor of the town. All the populace mourned the benefactor and man of genius. [The Country Doctor.]
BENEDETTO, an Italian living at Rome in the first third of the nineteenth century. A tolerable musician, and a police spy, "on the side." ”

“ Three times Benedict bade him rise—still he lay prone. Then the Saint left his seat and came and raised Totila up and led him to the house and talked long and earnestly with him, reproving him for the wrong he had done, and showing him that he must treat his conquered subjects kindly and justly. Also St. Benedict, mercifully moved thereto by the sincerity of the Barbarian, told him what lay in store for him. “You shall enter Rome; you shall cross the sea; nine years you shall reign, and in the tenth you shall die.” ”

“ Pilgrim whispered—'whatever The Plague-Spot is.'
The next moment Jane Map was shaking hands effusively with Henry. 'I just adore you!' she told him. 'And your Love in Babylon—oh, Mr. Knight, how do you think of such beautiful stories?'
John Pilgrim sank into a chair and closed his eyes.
'Oh, you must take it! you must take it!' cried Jane to John, as soon as she learnt that a piece based on Love in Babylon was under discussion. 'I shall play Enid Anstruther myself. Don't you see me in it, Mr. Knight?'
'Mr. Knight's terms are twice mine,' John Pilgrim intoned, without opening his eyes. ”

“ Already when Benham came to London he had begun to dream of possibilities that went beyond the accidental states and empires of to-day. Prothero's mind, replete with historical detail, could find nothing but absurdity in the alliances and dynasties and loyalties of our time. “Patched up things, Benham, temporary, pretentious. All very well for the undignified man, the democratic man, to take shelter under, all very well for the humourist to grin and bear, all very well for the crowd and the quack, but not for the aristocrat—No!—his mind cuts like steel and burns like fire. ”

“ It seemed to Benham for a moment as though Prothero had got to the bottom of the question, and then he perceived that he had only got to the bottom of himself. Benham was pacing the floor.
He turned at the open window, held out a long forefinger, and uttered his countervailing faith.
“Even if he is ridiculous, Prothero, a man may still be an aristocrat. A man may anyhow be as much of an aristocrat as he can be.” ”

“ Benedix was still more astonished when he heard that name. The memory of his love, which he had most conscientiously laboured to suppress, now rushed so impetuously into his heart, that he wept and sobbed aloud, and was utterly incapable of pronouncing a single word. This heart-rending sight excited the compassion of our kind monk to such a degree, that he was resolved to bring the matter at once to an end.
“Poor Benedix,” he said, “be calm and undismayed; thou shalt not die. I have been informed that thou art guiltless of the robbery, and that thy hand is unsoiled by crime ”

“ Benedict, said: 'Holy Benedict, why do you hesitate to do what the Lord has commanded you?' At this, the venerable Benedict laid his hand on the fetters, and they fell in pieces, so that the prisoner's feet were released without his being sensible of any act, the saint appearing to have shattered his chains by his word alone. ”

“ Enter Benedetto.
Ben. Why, Teresa! dawdling here, while the maids— Exit Teresa.
Mi. Tis the same! how fortunate!—worthy old man—
Ben. Is it you, father? why, you were out, when his excellence went this evening to—
Mi. I was at home—but the prior’s suspicions—I was a prisoner; and—but this is no time for explanation—lead me to your lord! away.
Ben. Impossible, father! all the grandees of Messina—a banquet, a ball—dont you hear the music? but doubtless tomorrow—
Mi. Tomorrow will be too late! alas! perhaps it is too late already! perhaps at this very moment Venoni is no more! ”