o fixed (erroneously, as it now
appears) the era of the birth of Christ, and whose system of
chronology founded on this event has been accepted by all the nations
of Christendom. At the conclusion of this the first part of the
treatise we find some general remarks on the nature of the monastic
life, and some pictures of Vivarium and its neighbourhood, to which we
are indebted for some of the information contained in the preceding
pages. The book ends with a prayer, and contains thirty-three
chapters, the same number, remarks Cassiodorus (who is addicted to
this kind of moralising on numbers) that was reached by the years of
the life of Christ on earth.

[Footnote 88: 1. Octateuchus (Pentateuch, Joshua, Judges, Ruth).

2. Kings (Samuel and Kings, Chronicles).

3. Prophets (Four Major, including Daniel, and Twelve Minor).

4. Psalms.

5. Solomon (Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Canticles, Wisdom,
Ecclesiasticus).

6. Hagiographa (Tobias, Esther, Judith, Maccabees, Esdras).

7. Gospels.

8. Epistles of the Apostles (including that to the Hebrews).

9. Acts of the Apostles and Apocalypse.]

[Footnote 89: The remarks on Marcellinus Comes and Prosper are worth
transcribing: 'Hunc [Eusebium] subsecutus est suprascriptus
Marcellinus Illyricianus, qui adhuc patricii Justiniani fertur egisse
cancellos; sed meliore conditione devotus, a tempore Theodosii
principis usque ad finem imperii triumphalis Augusti Justiniani opus
suum, Domino juvante, perduxit; ut qui ante fuit in obsequio suscepto
gratus, postea ipsius imperio copiose amantissimus appareret.' [The
allusion to 'finem imperii Justiniani' was probably added in a later
revision of the Institutiones.] 'Sanctus quoque Prosper Chronica ab
Adam ad Genserici tempora et urbis Romae depraedationem usque
perduxit.']

The second part of the treatise, commonly called 'De Artibus ac
Disciplinis Liberalium Litterarum,' contains so much as the author
thought that every monk should be acquainted with concerning the four
liberal arts--Grammar, Rhetoric, Logic, Mathematics--the last of
which is divided into the four 'disciplines' of Arithmetic, Geometry,
Music, and Astronomy. As illustrating the relative importance of these
sciences (as we call them) as apprehended by Cassiodorus, it is
curious to observe that while Geometry and Astronomy occupy only about
one page, and Arithmetic and Music two pages each, Logic takes up
eighteen pages, Grammar two, and Rhetoric six.

[Sidenote: De