Peter Damian

“ The Hymn "De Gloriâ Paradisi," ascribed usually to Cardinal Peter Damiani, and printed in the Rome, Leyden, and Paris editions of his works, is unquestionably the noblest literary production of the century in which he lived. It is described in the title as being gathered out of the writings of Augustine of Hippo; from the "Liber Meditationum," no doubt, in which it is included, though under protest, by the Benedictine editors. Yet a much larger portion of its contents is found in the Cardinal's own prose works, "Institutio Monialis," cap. xvi. ”

“ Nay, several persons openly blamed the pious ceremonies in question, during the times of Cardinal Damian; for it was too alarming a practice, for Men not to be concerned at its sudden progress; it was an exercise of too ticklish a nature, for them to suffer themselves [212] to fall asleep on its introduction, or too interesting in its consequence, for them not to be roused by the rattling of the blows.
Among those who thus condemned voluntary flagellations, the most conspicuous was Peter Cerebrosus, a Monk who lived in those times, and was moreover a friend to Cardinal Damian. ”

“ Better far than the triple cord of mingled mythology, scholasticism, and Scripture with which Dante seeks to lift our thoughts to heaven. Damiani justly observes, in the passage of his prose works, from which I have made several extracts already, that "there is more in the thing itself than the mind can conceive, yet more in the mind conceived than can by any language be expressed." ”

“ Here speaks the hermit temper, by the mouth of a supreme exponent. If Hildebrand, who compelled all men to his purposes, kept Peter Damiani in the world, that ascetic soul did not cease to yearn for the hermit life. His skilful pen served it untiringly. Its temper, its merits, and its grounds, appear with unique clarity in the writings [Pg 369] of him who, sore against his will, was the Cardinal-Bishop of Ostia. [445]
“The solitary life is the school of celestial doctrine and the divine arts (artes divinae) ,” says Damiani, meaning every word. “For there God is the whole that is learned. ”

“ Severely addicted, as I must be supposed to be, to versification of the stricter and more classical order, I must confess my sympathy with those who take extreme delight in the sacred Latin poetry of the Middle Ages, in which that language seems for the first time to have put forth its full power, and, in wholly discarding imitation, to have become inimitable itself. ”

“ The unseen, unheard, inconceivable joys can be faintly expressed by the reproduction in one of the three most glorious revelations of Scripture—The Garden of Eden, the Holy Land with its Temple, the Church of Christ ”

“ Theologically such compositions are entirely unobjectionable; for the finest examples, like Damiani's Hymn, are as uniformly evangelical, and as purely scriptural, as the readers of the pious effusions of Watts, or Wesley, or John Newton, of which we are here so perpetually reminded, could themselves desire. They have little in common with the Church of Rome. They reflect none of her manifold corruptions; and she has done what she could to diminish their surpassing purity and power. ”

“ The composition is styled by the Benedictine editors of Augustine, in one place, a "Hymnus," in another, "Rhythmus." The Cardinal himself speaks of his "Rhythmici Versus;" so we may conclude "Hymnus Rhythmicus" to be the title the author would have himself approved. The distinction, however, between rhythm and verse, thus seemingly assumed, cannot be maintained as regards the Trochaic measure, which at no period of Latin literature submitted itself of necessity to the trammels of regular scansion, as it always did in the written poetry of the Greeks. ”

“ Yet Damiani was no modern man, nor was he antique, but very fearful of the classics. Having been a rhetorician and grammarian, when he became a hermit-monk he made Christ his grammar (mea grammatica Christus est) . [53] at the world, and writhing under his own contamination, he cast body and soul into the ascetic life. That was the harbour of escape from the carnal temptations which threatened the soul's hope of pardon from the Judge at the Last Day. Therefore Peter is fierce in execration of all lapses from the hermit-life, so rapturously praised with its contrition, its penitence, and tears. ”

“ Such also is the celebrated "Pange lingua gloriosi prœlium certaminis" of Venantius Fortunatus, written in the sixth century, and other trochaic hymns earlier than the time of Damiani. But the truth is, that Latin verse composition in general, except when it forced itself to the adoption of Greek models, retained its own native rhythmical character, subject to no rule but that of accentual pronunciation. Such are the trochaics of the Latin dramatists, tragic and comic alike; as, for instance, the familiar line of Terence:—
"Homo sum, humani nihil a me alienum puto;" ”

“ See also Damiani, in our Preface, p. 1.
Vv. 37–39. There is a great variety in the reading of the first of these lines. That of all the editions, except those of Leyden and Paris, scarcely gives any sense,—quid nescire nequeunt. By reading qui, and taking the three lines together, we elicit that "those who know Him who knoweth all things, and, therefore, are ignorant themselves of nothing, who read the secrets of each other's hearts, have the same will, and are perfectly unanimous always." Our disagreement is owing to our ignorance; if we knew more, there would be less difference of opinion ”

“ A number of hermits dwelt in a community known as the Hermitage of the Holy Cross of Fonte Avellana, near Faenza; Peter became one of them shortly before his thirtieth year. They lived ascetically, two in a cell together, spending their time in watching, fasting, and prayer: thus they fought the Evil [Pg 263] One. Damiani was not satisfied merely with following the austerities practised at Fonte Avellana. Quickly he surpassed all his fellows, except a certain mail-clad Dominic, whose scourgings he could not equal. His chief asceticism lay in the temper of his soul. ”

“ It sees behind it that little stadium of mortal life, already traversed; it sees before it the range of endless aeons. That flown moment which it has lived it perceives to be an instant; it contemplates the infinite length of time to come." [45]
From Damiani's stricken thoughts upon the wickedness of the age, we may turn to the more personal disclosures of one who wrote himself Petrus peccator monachus. There is one tell-tale letter of confession to his brother Damianus, whom he loved and revered:
"To my lord Damianus, my best loved brother, Peter, sinner and monk, his servant and son. ”

“ Damiani's triplets do not, however, always keep themselves entirely distinct as regards their subject-matter; and I venture to print them as I find them arranged in the Cardinal's works, and in the Benedictine editions of Augustine: the more so because they better adapt themselves thus for translation, rhymed triple trochaics being a less suitable medium, and the alternative of eight and seven syllable divisions of the lines, which Mr. ”

“ Our Andrew needn't be ashamed of his people."
"And then God aided him to make his way."
"And why should He not aid our Andrew?"
"Don Damian was a gentleman from the beginning, and when he went from here he had a good education and was used to good society, and then he inherited his broadcloth, which is a great help in getting beyond the mud walls of our village!"
"Bah! Nisca, you shouldn't believe all you hear! Aren't we all of us sons of Adam, with five fingers on each hand?" ”

“ The Sabbath, like Melchisedec, was to be without beginning of days or end of life. "Nam et in ipso mundi nascentis exordio, cum unumquemque diem Scriptura mane præfigat, et vespere; jam cum ad Sabbatum pervenit, neutrum horum nominat, ut illud quasi sine initio esso vel fine prorsus ostendat." Letter to Hildebrand and Stephen, (Ep. II. v.) V. 30. Compare Isaiah xii. 3:—"With joy shall ye draw water out of the well of salvation;" also John iv. 10, and vii. 37, 38. V. 31. All but the Leyden edition have existendi ”

“ It was an hour before any sound was heard, and Peter began to get very anxious lest the "reds" should have gone past before he arrived. At last far away along the road they saw a dull glow, and in another ten minutes made out a number of lights.
"They have got torches and lanterns," he said to Jamieson, who was standing next to him. "Now, my lads, all crouch or kneel down as you like. You have got your muskets slung behind you?"
"Ay, ay, sir," ran along the line.
"Remember not a shot is to be fired until the ladies are in our hands. ”

“ He sent him first to Florence, then to a famous school in Parma, where he had for his master the celebrated Ivo. The brilliant qualities of Damian were rapidly developed, and soon he became professor where he had been a pupil. He afterwards gave up the world and became a religious, and was, in course of time, not only a remarkable man, but a great saint. He was charged by the Holy See with affairs the most important, and died clothed in the Roman purple. He is still a great light in the Church, and his writings are always full of piety and erudition. ”

“ Every sensation died in Peter. He stood in the darkness, hearing small noises of water, the light patter of soot dislodged from the chimney, the creak and rustle of a house deserted.
When his eyes were used to the dark, he moved towards a glimmer from the hall-door. He could not yet believe what he saw. He expected the silence of his dream to break. Mechanically he went through the house, standing at last under the eaves of Miranda's attic-room. ”

“ In six months he knew the Quartier to the core. He met men who were utter blackguards, whose selfish, cold-blooded brutality filled him with loathing; he met women with the soul of the cat. But the Quartier as a whole was sound-hearted; Peter himself was too sound-hearted not to know. He met Youth at work, his own kind of work. They were all going to do something great presently,—and presently many of them did. The very air he breathed stimulated him. Here were comrades, to whom, as to himself, art was the one supremely important thing in the universe. ”

“ Peter put himself, as well as his best literary powers, into this Vita Romualdi, and made it one of the most vivid of mediaeval Vitae sanctorum. If Romuald was a hermit in the flesh, Damiani had the imagination to make the hermit spirit speak. [10]
"Against thee, unclean world, we cry, that thou hast an intolerable crowd of the foolish wise, eloquent as regards thee, mute as to God. Wise are they to do evil; they know not how to do good. ”

“ Sometimes I wonder why God has given me so much happiness. I don't deserve it any more than anyone else. Peter, all my worries are behind me; in front of me is joy. I seem to have stepped on to a little green island of content, set in the midst of a sun-kissed ocean. The waves lap the shores lovingly; the breezes linger in our hair with a caress. You and I are alone, Dimbie. ”

“ Sir Dominick was very dumb, but he was terrible in his dependence, and Peter would not have encouraged him by so much curiosity nor reassured him by so much deference had it not been for the young man’s complete acceptance of the impossibility of getting out of a tight place by exposing an individual. It didn’t matter that the individual was dead; it didn’t matter that he was dishonest. Peter felt him sufficiently alive to suffer; he perceived the rectification of history so conscientiously desired by Mr. Locket to be somehow for himself not an imperative task. ”

“ When our friends are taken away, we remember every little kind word, or look, or smile they ever gave us—things we hardly noticed while they were alive; and Daisy could remember only kindness, only smiles and pleasant words. She thought no one could ever have had so good a father as Peter was to her, and that no little girl could be so lonely and wretched as she was now.
Who was there left to call her up in the morning before the birds, and to make her garden tools, and swing her in the boughs, and listen to her stories at night about the rabbits and flowers? ”

“ Peter never saw this building, my dear."
"No, papa, I don't think it. But he saw the Mediterranean - just so, - and he had the same sky over him, and the same shores before him."
"The same sky, Daisy? What is the sky?"
"Yes papa, I know; but there is a difference. This Syrian sky is not like the sky over Florence nor like the sky over Melbourne. And this is what Peter saw."
"You are a delicious travelling companion, Daisy," said papa. "Your mother is good, but you are better. Well, take me with you now in your journey into the past." ”

“ Then for a second Sam's kind eyes sank down deep into mine and smoldered there. I know he was praying for Peter as the rest cheered. Then he bent and called out:
"Next. Up—up, boys! Steady!"
My eyes misted for a second, and Peter's pale face rose before them in the mist. Peter is a man of dreams, for whom was being harnessed all this sinew and brawn of reality. And men must plow and plant and reap and hew and lift for their vision-bringers, and women must do it also. It is only right. I am willing. ”

“ Her ladyship and Miss Dormer were absent from town, paying a visit; and Mr. Dormer was also away, or was on the point of going away for the day. Miss Bridget was in London, but was out; Peter's informant mentioned with earnest vagueness that he thought she had gone somewhere to take a lesson. On Peter's asking what sort of lesson he meant he replied: "Oh I think—a—the a-sculpture, you know, sir." Peter knew, but Biddy's lesson in "a-sculpture"—it sounded on the butler's lips like a fashionable new art—struck him a little as a mockery of the helpful spirit in which he had come to look her up. ”