MONTECASSINO

MONTECASSINO. – Abbey in southern Lazio, founded around 529 by St Benedict of Nursia on the ancient acropolis that rises on the mountain, of which imposing curtain walls still remain today. After demolishing the buildings of pagan worship, St Benedict erected a chapel in honour of St John the Baptist on the altar of Apollo and transformed the temple of the same god into an oratory dedicated to St Martin. According to St Gregory, the proportions of the new monastery were vast; and thus more suited to the new monastic ideal of the Saint, who, abandoning the Eastern-style cenobitism already established at Subiaco, instituted a more integral one to be practised in a single and capacious monastery sufficient to itself both materially and spiritually, as appears from the Rule. At his death (547) the work was continued by his successors, of whom very little is known. St Gregory the Great alludes to the prestige attained by M. in so short a time, and confirmation of this may be seen even in the few names that have come down to us of some learned monks of that period: Marcus the poet, author of verses in praise of St Benedict, Sebastian, who wrote a life of St Jerome, and Abbot Simplicius. This initial development was violently cut short, barely more than thirty years after the founder’s death, by the destruction of the monastery at the hands of the Lombards of Zotone. The monks—all of whom escaped the massacre, as St Benedict had foretold—with their abbot Bonitus took refuge in Rome, and Pope Pelagius II assigned them a dwelling near the Lateran.

Meanwhile, only a few solitaries inhabited the mountain when Petronax of Brescia, around 717, was drawn there by a desire for solitude and urged on by Pope Gregory II. The revival of the abbey and of regular life, to which the monks of San Vincenzo al Volturno contributed in some measure and the strong personality of St Willibald, was furthered by Pope Zacharias, who recognised Petronax’s community as the heir of that of the 6th century, restored to M. the autograph of the Rule of St Benedict and the weight of bread and wine, and donated some precious manuscripts of Holy Scripture. In 748 he himself wished to consecrate the church erected over the tomb of St Benedict. The Beneventan duke Justinus donated lands near the abbey and established the first nucleus of the vast Cassinese patrimony, which later extended to over one hundred thousand hectares, with two outlets to the sea, ports, warehouses at Amalfi and Salerno, a small fleet of ten ships for trade with Ancona, Ravenna, Dalmatia and Apulia, and mines in Sardinia. Among the many vocations worthy of mention are those of the two kings who renounced their thrones, Carloman of the Franks and Rachis of the Lombards; the number of monks increased so greatly that already by 748 some were sent to Germany at the request of the Duke of Bavaria Utaire, others to Brescia in 759, and still others to France at the request of Charlemagne to Abbot Theobald (778–97). Within a few decades of its restoration, M. had become a centre of monastic life to which founders of monasteries from various parts of Europe resorted: Sturmius of Fulda, Pirminius of Reichenau, Ludger of Werden, Anselm of Nonantola, Adalard of Corvey. Its importance grew still further in the time of Charlemagne, who regarded the abbey as an advanced point of his policy in southern Italy; for this reason he granted it immunity and agreement in imperial defence. Greater lustre, however, came to it from its school, developed and perfected by Paul the Deacon; there were taught not only the sciences of the trivium and quadrivium, but also the Greek language, and much attention was given to writing, to the illumination of codices, and there was developed the script known by the name of ‘Beneventan’ or ‘Cassinese’, of which M. was from that time the most important centre. To this intellectual activity corresponded that of an architectural and artistic nature.

Monte, Filippo de. – Flemish polyphonist, b. at Malines in 1521 and d. at Prague in the summer of 1603. He was first at Naples, Rome, Antwerp, Genoa, and finally on 10 May 1568 he went to Vienna as director of the imperial chapel.

At the age of 79 (in 1600) he published his last collection (VII) of motets for five voices, and at 80 he still collaborated, with a madrigal, Il verno, in a collection of various authors (I diporti della villa, Venice 1601). In his vast output, besides madrigals, his motets and masses stand out, animated by efforts directed to save the languishing polyphony in a period of transition between the old Belgian polyphonic school and the new Italian monodic style, between which he forms a happy link. Among the masses, harmonious and vigorous, of an elevated and rich style, particular mention should be made of those entitled Emitte Domine, Si ambulavero, Quomodo dilexi, Ad modum, Benedicta es. De M. was highly esteemed by his contemporaries and successors. Many of his books of motets and masses were printed, during his lifetime, in Venice, Rome, Antwerp, etc. Many works remain still unpublished in the principal libraries of Europe. New reprints of his isolated compositions are found in recent collections.

Filippo Neri, Isidore and Eleanor of Portugal. An aesthete and patron, he was an excellent prefect of the Fabbrica di S. Pietro and earned particular merits for the internal decoration of the Basilica.

through the merit of Abbot Aligernus, who in his long government restored new life and prestige to the monastery. Along with the regular observance he restored and reorganised the patrimony, which he set on a path to greater productivity through contracts and concessions of lands to colonists and by giving impetus to trade among the dependencies of the abbey. Towards the end of the century, new foundations of monasteries were made through the work of the Cassinese: at Zara, in Poland and in Hungary; five monasteries arose in Tuscany, among which that of Florence. No wonder that saints and great monastic reformers resorted to M.: William of Dijon, founder of Fruttuaria, John of Gorze, Nilus of Grottaferrata, Odilo of Cluny, Adalbert of Prague. Intellectual activity too had resumed its vigour with the return of the monks to M., as attested by the Historia Langobardorum of Erchempert, the sermons and lives of the saints by Lawrence, and again the perfection of the ‘Beneventan’ script that had spread as far as Dalmatia; nor should the illuminated codices be forgotten, including those of the Capuan period, which already foreshadow the ornamental perfection of the Desiderian period. And the flowering of the Cassinese scriptorium, which not even the crisis provoked at the death of Aligernus in 986 by the violent intrusion of the unworthy abbot Manso was able to halt, grew ever more intense despite the struggles of the 11th century. Contested between pope and emperor, necessarily tied to the policy of the Capuan princes, viewed with suspicion and greed by neighbouring lords, the great abbey nevertheless managed to preserve its independence. Thus it first endured the wrath of Emperor Henry II for the alliance contracted with the Byzantines by Abbot Atenulf (1011–22), then the intrigues against Abbot Theobald (1022–38), elected in the presence of the Emperor and Pope Benedict VIII and therefore loyal to the Empire, by the Prince of Capua, desirous of reattaching the powerful monastery to his principality; and subsequently it had to defend its position and patrimony from the abuses of the Normans, especially through the work of the Bavarian abbot Richerius (1038–57).

The Investiture Controversy found in the abbacy of
Desiderius (1057–87), under whom Montecassino became a true artistic and cultural centre while collaborating with the papacy in defending the rights of the Church. Desiderius renewed the monastery’s buildings, rendering it one of the most beautiful in all the West. The church, renovated with the assistance of Byzantine artists, was solemnly consecrated by Alexander II in 1071. Desiderius’s work was continued by his successor Oderisius (1087–1105), who is also remembered for his aid to the First Crusade. During this period, the abbey produced a long line of illustrious figures: Frederick of the House of Lorraine; Alfanus, later Archbishop of Salerno; Constantine the African; the poet Guaiferius; Alberic of Settefrati and another Alberic (v.), later a cardinal; John of Gaeta, later Gelasius II (v.); Peter of Teano, perhaps the compiler of the Lombard laws; Leo of Ostia, author of the monastery’s chronicle, later continued by Peter the Deacon, who also composed hagiographical and historical writings; Amatus (v.), historian of the Normans and poet. Many in this age became cardinals, legates, and bishops from Montecassino, and within sixty years three popes emerged from its ranks: Stephen IX, Victor III, and Gelasius II, while other popes sought refuge or tranquillity there during their adversities: Nicholas II, Alexander II, Gregory VII, Urban II, Paschal II, and Callistus II. In the Investiture Controversy, the monks and abbots of Montecassino supported the Church and the papacy. Forced to side with one of the major contenders—pope, emperor, or Norman king—Montecassino often saw its patrimony damaged by the various armies: during the schism of Anacletus (1130), the struggles between Roger II and the Germans (1136), then between Roger and Pope Innocent II (1146), and most severely during William the Bad’s conflict with Pope Adrian IV, when the abbey, turned into a fortress, saw the monks expelled (1156). Abbot Rainald of Collemezzo (1137–66) took advantage of a brief period of peace to restore monastic life, so much so that a few years later King Barisone of Sardinia requested twelve monks from the abbot for the monastery of St Nicholas de Gurgo, praying that some might be suitable for holding important offices.

After early examples of churches built under Abbot Poton (771–78), a notable period of activity was that of Giusolf (797–817), to whom we owe the enlargement and richer decoration of Montecassino’s church, as well as the construction of the basilica and monastery of the Saviour on the mountain’s slopes, for which he employed the monk-architect Carioladus. In these and other contemporary buildings erected in dependencies of Montecassino, and also in the church of St Vincent at Volturno, scholars have noted specific characteristics of a true Cassinese school, whose influence extended beyond the Alps to Germigny-les-Prés and the island of Reichenau on Lake Constance. This period of calm and artistic productivity also fostered the growth of the monastery’s literary school, attended at times by Neapolitan clerics; the Idricus, author of a fine Latin grammar; the poets Theophanes, Bassacius, and Bertarius, who also composed treatises on various disciplines and sermons, continuing the intellectual activity of Paul the Deacon. To this time also belong the *Chronica s. Benedicti Casinensis*.

Bassacius and Bertarius were also abbots. Bassacius, together with Abbot James of Volturno, led an embassy to the Emperor to seek aid against Saracen devastations, but even more active was his successor Bertarius, who met repeatedly with Emperor Louis II and proposed a defensive league among the southern principalities against the invader. At the same time, Bertarius organized the monastery’s patrimony and gave it a definitive structure for the time, while fortifying strategic points. Yet all this activity could not prevent the Saracens from destroying Montecassino in 883, with Bertarius himself and many monks killed. Those monks who survived that massacre fared no better at the small monastery of Teano, which was burned in 896; along with many codices and charters, the autograph of the Rule was reduced to ashes, of which only a small part survived until the French devastation of 1799. A relaxation of discipline followed, deepened further in 914 when the monks, through the intrigues of the princes of Capua, transferred there. The return to Montecassino occurred in 949.

In its kingdom, they were appointed bishops and ambassadors to the imperial or Roman Curia. Abbot Roffred of La Cava (1188–1210), a staunch defender of the monastic patrimony but driven by excessive martial spirit, became embroiled in the struggle for the succession of the kingdom, first supporting Tancred and then Henry VI, for which he suffered exile and brought a harsh siege upon the monastery. Innocent III, who stayed at Montecassino for several days in 1208, entrusted him with safeguarding the kingdom’s rights against the Germans, and in his later years assigned him the reform of the abbey of St Paul in Rome. Among the illustrious visitors of the century was St Bernard of Clairvaux, who, together with Emperor Lothair III, attended the election of Abbot Guibald (1137) and on that occasion addressed the community.

After two sieges in 1229 and a lengthy vacancy, Montecassino was reduced to a fortress by Frederick II in 1239, while nearly all the monks went into exile. Only after the death of Manfred (1266) could Abbot Bernard Ayglerius, author of an *Expositio* of the Rule and already nominated by Urban IV in 1263, take possession. Before him, the abbey had been distinguished by such scholars as Peter of Atina, later Chancellor of the Church, who composed the *Glossae ad Decretum Gratiani*; Pandulf of St Stephen; Richard; Bernard of Castricciolo; Alexander, author of a hexameral poem in Latin; and above all Erasmus, of whom some theological treatises and sermons remain. From a few decades after Bernard were the two jurists Nicholas of Frattura, later abbot of St Vincent at Volturno and then professor at Naples, and Richard of St Angelo, both authors of commentaries on the Rule of St Benedict. The Celestines’ stay at Montecassino, introduced by Celestine V, was short-lived, but in 1322 John XXII erected the abbey as an episcopal see: the abbot, theoretically still elected by the monks, became bishop of the diocese, while the monks formed the cathedral chapter. In practice, however, the bishops were always appointed by the pope, were not even monks, and lived far from the abbey, facilitating the abuses and revolts of the vassals, the worst of which was that of Jacopo da Pignataro, who seized control of the monastery, squandered its patrimony, and drove out the monks, completing the devastation wrought shortly before by the Hungarians. The ruin was total, even materially, with the earthquake of 1349, which left scarcely anything of Desiderius’s work and that of his successors.

M. was restored by the Benedictine Pope Urban V, who, having stripped the abbots of their episcopal dignity, left the diocese, retaining for several years the title and office of abbot. All the Benedictine monasteries contributed to the rebuilding of the structures with a special tithe, and monks from Catania and Palermo joined the Cassinese community, so that within a short time regular life was once again held in honor. Andrea da Faenza (1369–73) reopened the series of monk-abbots, and the situation seemed to improve. But wars continued to afflict the abbey. After the final years of Pietro de Tartaris (1374–95), who had done much for the artistic revival of M., new difficulties befell the abbots, and two of them ended up in prison: Enrico (1396–1413) and Pirro (1414–42) Tomacelli. For four years the abbey was left with only twelve monks, after King Ladislaus expelled all the others. Yet even amid such turmoil, in 1440 five monks left M. for Montserrat at the request of King Alfonso of Aragon.

Hardly had the storm caused by the Carafa family abated—who had taken possession of M. as if it were their own fief under Abbot Antonio Carafa—when, in 1454, the commendatory system completed the disorder, and it was fortunate that it did not last beyond half a century. The commendatory abbots were: Cardinal Camerlengo Ludovico (1454–65), Paul II (1465–71), Giovanni d’Aragona (1471–85), and Giovanni de’ Medici (1486–1504). New violence and expulsions of monks occurred during King Ferrante’s war against Innocent VIII, and more severe still during the struggle between the French and the Spanish, which took place within the monastery itself. Finally, Pope Julius II, having suppressed the commendatory system, united the abbey with the Congregation of St. Justina of Padua by a bull of 1504, which also changed the name of the Congregation, which from that point onward was called Cassinese.

A period of peace and recollection then began for M., and over the next three centuries disturbances were rare. With regular life restored according to the statutes of the Congregation, studies and architectural and artistic activity flourished. In the latter, Ignazio Squaricalupi stood out among all others in the early 1500s, and a few decades later Angelo de Faggis, known as il Sangrino. It was chiefly to the latter that the abbey’s structures assumed the appearance they retained until their destruction in 1944. Sangrino, renowned for his learning, took part in the Council of Trent; as an elegant Latinist, he also held important positions under the popes of his time. Alongside him should be remembered other Cassinese men of letters: Onorato Fascitelli, Leonardo Sforza degli Oddi, Giovanni Battista Mormile, and Benedetto dell’Uva. In the same century flourished the jurists Gregorio da Viterbo and Benedetto Canofilo, the theologians Benedetto da S. Germano and Crisostomo di S. Gemignano (who was invited to take part in the Council of Trent), and the monastery’s chroniclers and archivists Placido Petrucci and Onorato de’ Medici. M. was one of the centers of study for the young men of the Cassinese Congregation. Besides the many pilgrims, the following also ascended M. in this century: St. Ignatius of Loyola, who stayed there for several days with Pietro Ortiz; St. Philip Neri; and Torquato Tasso.

Abbot Domenico Quesada (1650–53) began the reconstruction of the church according to a design by Cosimo Fassago; the dome had already been erected by the architect Orazio Torriani in 1613, and as early as 1545 a crypt had been constructed beneath the church, later adorned with paintings by Marco di Siena. The church, consecrated by Pope Benedict XIII in 1727, was decorated by artists of the Neapolitan school, including Luca Giordano, Francesco Solimena, De Matteis, De Mura, and Sebastiano Conca. But the most illustrious artist at M. during the Renaissance was Antonio da Sangallo the Younger, author of the monument to Pietro de’ Medici. Also worthy of mention are the two Bassano brothers, who painted a large altarpiece in the monks’ refectory depicting St. Benedict distributing the Rule, and Belisario Corenzio, who frescoed the dome.

To the 17th century in part and to the following century belong: Erasmo Gattola, noted for his works on the history of the abbey; the brothers Giovanni Battista and Placido Federici for their tradition of scholarly studies; and Casimiro Correale.

M. suffered sacking and devastation in 1799 at the hands of the French general Championnet’s soldiers, and only with the help of Pius VII were some of the damages repaired. But shortly afterward (1806), King Joseph Bonaparte suppressed the abbey, sold off its property, and declared it a “public establishment,” making the abbot its director and the monks its custodians in lay attire. Nor did the Bourbon restoration put an end to these troubles: M.’s support for the idea of Italian unification earned it suspicion and threats from the Neapolitan government, which first forbade the publication of a national periodical, *L’Ateneo italiano*, and then ordered the closure of the printing house. After the unification of Italy, M. still displayed lively intellectual activity, especially through the efforts of Luigi Tosti, author of many historical works. Also distinguished in their studies were Ottavio Fraja Frangipane and Sebastiano Kalefati. Tosti exerted himself to the utmost to prevent M.’s suppression in 1866, but the law was nonetheless published two years later. However, it proved possible to have the abbey declared a national monument, with the monks entrusted with its custody. Deprived of political power and authority through the loss of its patrimony, M. nonetheless retained its moral prestige, with a renewed monastic spirit. It continued its scholarly pursuits through the publication of documents from the archives, teaching in the schools of the diocesan seminary and the lay college, and establishing a meteorological and geodynamic observatory. The publications were produced in the abbey itself by its printing house and chromolithography workshop. Other scholars worthy of mention were Anselmo Caplet, Andrea Caravita, Odorisio Piscicelli-Taeggi, Giuseppe Quandel, Ambrogio Amelli, and Luigi Vaccari.

Artistic activity was not neglected either: in 1880 the sanctuary of the tower of St. Benedict was consecrated; the monks of the Beuron abbey worked on its decoration, and under the direction of Fr. Desiderius Lenz they later completely renewed the crypt in their style, which was consecrated in 1913. Nor did the total destruction wrought by the aerial bombardment of 15 February 1944 succeed in definitively halting the abbey’s industrious monastic activity. Reconstruction, already begun under Abbot Gregorio Diamare (d. 1945) with the aid of the Italian government, is now far advanced in recent years. A relic recognition of St. Benedict and St. Scholastica was carried out on 2 August 1950 at the initiative of Abbot Ildefonso Rea.

More than 1,000 codices and 40,000 parchments, along with the entire collection of printed works including 250 incunabula, survived the destruction of the library and archive.

The cultural activity of M.’s monks, so intense in the Middle Ages, has not diminished in modern times. Now-famous publications include *I codici e le arti a Montecassino* by A. Caravita (3 vols., 1869–71); the *Bibliotheca Casimira* (5 vols., 1873–96); *La paleografia artistica di Montecassino* (2 vols., 1876–77) and *Le miniature nei codici cassinesi* (1887) by O. Piscicelli-Taeggi; and the *Codicum Casinensium manuscriptorum catalogus* by M. Inguanez (3 vols., 1915–41). Highly valued by historians and diplomatic scholars are the series *Miscellanea Cassinese*, which had reached volume 26 by 1950, and the *Tabularium Casinense*, which includes, besides the *Codex diplomaticus Cajetanus* by A. Caplet, four *Regesti cassinesi* published by Inguanez.

The diocese of M. — It gradually took shape, as happened with other abbeys, through the territories that were progressively assigned to the monastery. Over these lands the abbot indeed exercised spiritual care, also by virtue of the privilege of exemption from the authority of the Ordinary, obtained by the abbey itself. When John XXII elevated M. to a diocese, these rights were consolidated and assumed an aspect that was not lost even with the suppression of the bishopric. Now M. is an abbazia nullius. To the ancient territory in 1608 Pope Innocent XII annexed that of the abbey of S. Vincenzo al Volturno, though the effective transfer occurred only in 1700; in 1834 the prepositura of Atina was also united to the Cassinese diocese. In this way the present diocese of M. extends into Abruzzi, Molise, Lazio, and Campania.

It has a surface area of 1,000 sq. km. with a population of 110,000 inhabitants distributed across 70 parishes served by 75 priests; it has 22 religious institutes, 18 educational institutions of which 15 are kindergartens and 3 orphanages, 1 major and 1 minor seminary with 38 students. — See pl. XCII.