ne probably were fellow professors
at Salerno, for we know that Desiderius himself and many of his fellow
Benedictines taught in the undergraduate department there. Desiderius
enjoyed the reputation of being one of the most learned men of the time
when his election to the abbacy at Monte Cassino took him away from
Salerno. His departure was a blow to Constantine, who had learned by
years of friendship that to be near his intimate friend, the pious
scholarly Benedictine, was a solace in life and a never failing
incentive to his own intellectual work. Desiderius seems, indeed, to
have been a large factor in influencing the great physician to write his
books rather than devote himself to oral teaching, since the circulation
of his writing would confer so much more of benefit on a greater number
of people. Perhaps another element in the situation was that Desiderius
was desirous of having the learned physician, the travelled scholar, at
Monte Cassino, for the sake of his influence on the scholarship of the
abbey, and for the incentive that he would be to the younger monks to
apply themselves to the varied field of knowledge which the Benedictines
had chosen for themselves at this time.

Whatever hopes of mutual solace and helpfulness and of the joys of
intimate close friendship may have been in the minds of these two most
learned men of their time, they were destined to be grievously
disappointed. Only a few years after Constantine's entrance into the
monastery at Monte Cassino Desiderius was elected Pope. The humble
Benedictine did not want to take the exalted position, but it was
plainly shown to him that it was his duty, and that he must not shirk
it. Accordingly, under the name of Pope Victor III, he became one of the
great Popes of the eleventh century. One might think that he could have
summoned Constantine to Rome, but perhaps he knew that his friend would
prefer the quietude of the cloister, and then, too, probably he wanted
to allow him the opportunity to accomplish that writing for which
Constantine and himself had planned when the great physician entered the
monastery.

All that we know for sure is that some twenty years of Constantine's
life were spent as a monk in Monte Cassino, where he devoted his time
mainly to the writing of his books. One bond of union there was. Each of
the works, as soon as completed, was sent off to the Pope as long as he
lived. On the other hand, though busy with his Papal duties, Pop