VALUABLE DISCOVERY.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume VII, Issue 372, 4 June 1880, Page 19

VALUABLE DISCOVERY.

(Special Correspondent of the Pilot.) On the steep -sides of the Simbrivian Hills, 26 miles beyond Tivotf znC^ 1 . from Rome, St. Benedict established his first monastery. Th.^. -is the first home of the monks of the West. Its foundation dates back nearly 14 centuries. "Nothing can exceed the solemn grandeur of its situation, perched upon huge crags, and with the roaring river below. The monastery was founded in the sth century by the Abbot Honoratus, the sainted successor of Benedict, and though repeatedly attacked and burnt by the Lombards, the Saracens, and by its own neighbours, it always rose again from its ashes more splendid than ever." It is almost unnecessary to say that it, as all Benedictine Monasteries have been and are was a seat of learning. In 1464 the first printing-press in Italy was established here by Sweynheim and Paunartz, and the first book printed was "Lactantius de Divinis Institutionibus," a copy of which edition the monks will show you still in their great library. And now, when the monks of this monastery are preparing to celebrate the 14th centenary of the birth of St. Benedict, their patron and founder, a valuable collection of ancient codices are brought to light by one of the fathers. Tbe Rev. Dom Paolino Manciana, a Cassineuse Benedictine, after long and patient research, has had his labours crowned with success ; and amongst other codices has some of St. Thomas Aquinas written by the Saint's own hand. Amone the autographs are the following : — 1. Various works of St. Isadore, Augustine, Jerome, Bernard, Anselm of Canterbury, Cassian, Percasius, Radberto, Bonaventure, etc. 2. A complete course of Lenten Sermons, a valuable unpublished work on the " Casa spituale" and the other work published, Dearticvlis fidei et Saoramentis Eocletiac ad IJpiscopum Panoramitanum. 3. Many Queestiones disjyutatae, of which three are unpublished. Of these three the first two concern the immortality of the rational soul. Amongst the codices of the Holy Doctor annotated and discovered recently by the diligence of this Benedictine Father, are found : — 1. About a thousand sermons or collations Be tempore et de Sanctis. Many of these are written throughout as they were recited or dictated by the Holy Doctor, others are only dictated or reported in brief by his disciples, amongst whom those best remembered are Fra Pietra da Andria and Fra Reginaldo, to whom learning owes several of the works of St. Thomas which are already in circulation. 2. Very many collations, or reasonings of the Angelic Doctor to the students of the Sorbonne, according to the custom of those times, a custom introduced by St. Thomas's master Albertus Magnus. These collations are a real treasure of wisdom. The Saint reasons therein according to his mode with that clearness oMdea and facility of discourse which are admired in all the works produced by that mighty intellect. Every discourse may be justly described as a perfect treatise on doctrine and Christian morals. 3. Amongst the codices annotated by the Saint are found also the Glossae super Evangelium Lucae which formed part of a work of his heretofore unknown, and which was composed by him before the Catena aurea ; there are found here also the codex of the Catena aurea itself, and a commentary of St. Thomas on the Epistles of St. Paul, amongst which is that addressed to the Romans. Amongst other codices, recently discovered by the illustrious Manciana, not annotated by St. Thomas but contemporary with him, are those containing some of his works previously unpublished, as for example, two complete Lenten Courses marvellous for the profound and most extensive learning which the Holy Doctor spread with full hands on various subject?. Ihe authenticity of these precious codices has been unanimously recognised by the most illustrious paleographers, amongst whom it snffices to mention the Abbe Uccelli. The handwritings of the Holy Doctor, existing in the codices recently discovered, were photographed, and, on being confronted with other autographs from the same hand existing in the Library of the Vatican, in the National Library of Naples and in the Monte Casino Archives, were recognised as being pertectly alike. At the expense of the Benedictine Monks an album has been formed containing the photographic reproduction of the autograph annotations made by Saint Thomas in the famous Bible of Viterbo. This valuable collection will be presented to the Holy Father on Sunday March 7th at the grand audience to be given on that day to the Tktholic philosophers and scientists of the world. furthermore announced that the monks of the Abbey of MomKCassino will publish within a short space of time the sermons and unpublished works of the great doctor which have recently been discovered in the Archives of Subiaco. A Roman journal commenting on these facts remarks : — We have no need of many words to praise the labours of the illustrious discoverer. The service which he has rendered to science is of such a nature as to win applause even from bis very enemies, and from those who so wrongly declaim about the ignorance and idleness of the monks. This is a service which adds a new glory to the well-deserving and illustrious Order of Monte Cassino which nobly follows the glorious traditions ©f its great founder, gathering in the silence of the cloister and diffusing throughout the world the treasures of science and of civilization. P. L. CONNELLAN.

The Earl of Sandwich, who is the owner of the St. Holme estate, Huntingdon,, has, in consequence of the serious floods which have occurred during the last two years, instructed his agents to intimate to the tenants of the estate that at the next rent audit he will return the whole of the last year's rent. His lordship has further intimated that the rental will be reduced in all cases, viz., from £2 ss. to £1 18s. per acre.