tuated among the 'sweet recesses of Mons Castellius[74],'
the latter among the well-watered gardens which took their name from
the Vivaria (fish-ponds) that Cassiodorus had constructed among them
in connection with the river Pellena[75]. Baths, too, especially
intended for the use of the sick, had been prepared on the banks of
the stream[76]. Here in monastic simplicity, but not without comfort,
Cassiodorus ordained that his monks should dwell. The Rule of the
order--in so far as it had a written Rule--was drawn from the writings
of Cassian, the great founder of Western Monachism, who had died about
a century before the Vivarian monastery was founded. In commending the
writings of Cassian to the study of his monks, Cassiodorus warns them
against the bias shown in them towards the Semi-Pelagian heresy, and
desires them to choose the good in those treatises and to refuse the
evil. Whatever the reason may have been, it seems clear that
Cassiodorus did not make the Rule of Benedict the law of his new
monastery; and indeed, strange as the omission may appear, there is, I
believe, no allusion to that great contemporary Saint, the 'Father of
Monks,' in the whole of his writings.

[Footnote 74: 'Nam si vos in monasterio Vivariensi divina gratia
suffragante coenobiorum consuetudo competenter erudiat, et aliquid
sublimius defaecatis animis optare contingat, habetis mentis Castelli
secreta suavia, ubi velut anachoritae (praestante Domino) feliciter
esse possitis' (De Inst. Div. Litt. xxix.).]

[Footnote 75: 'Invitat vos locus Vivariensis monasterii ... quando
habetis hortos irriguos, et piscosi amnis Pellenae fluenta vicina, qui
nec magnitudine undarum suspectus habetur, nec exiguitate temnibilis.
Influit vobis arte moderatus, ubicunque necessarius judicatur et
hortis vestris sufficiens et molendinis.... Maria quoque vobis ita
subjacent, ut piscationibus variis pateant; et captus piscis, cum
libuerit, vivariis possit includi. Fecimus enim illic (juvante Deo)
grata receptacula ubi sub claustro fideli vagetur piscium multitudo;
ita consentanea montium speluncis, ut nullatenus se sentiat captum,
cui libertas eat escas sumere, et per solitas se cavernas
abscondere.']

[Footnote 76: 'Balnea quoque congruenter aegris praeparata corporibus
jussimus aedificari, ubi fontium perspicuitas decenter illabitur, quae
et potui gratissima cognoscitur et lavacris.']

[Sidenote: Probably never Abbot.]

Though the founder and patron of these tw