Without
more words, he dismissed him.
That day he sat in the open air, in a gallery whence he could survey
a great part of the monastic buildings, and much of the mountain
summit on its western side. For an hour he had the companionship of
Marcus, who, pointing to this spot and to that, instructed Basil in
the history of what he saw, now and then reciting his own verses on
the subject. He told how Benedict, seeking with a little company of
pious followers for a retreat from the evil of the world, came to
ruined Casinum, and found its few wretched inhabitants fallen away
from Christ, worshipping the old gods in groves and high places.
Here, on the mountain top, stood temples of Jupiter, of Apollo, and
of Venus. The house of Apollo he purified for Christian service, and
set under the invocation of the Holy Martin. The other temples he
laid low, and having cut down the grove sacred to Apollo, on that
spot he raised an oratory in the name of the Baptist. Not without
much spiritual strife was all this achieved; for--the good Marcus
subdued his voice--Satan himself more than once overthrew what the
monks had built, and, together with the demons whom Benedict had
driven forth, often assailed the holy band with terrors and
torments.
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