For these there was labour in the garden, and to console them Cassiodorus recites from a Psalm: "Thou shalt eat the labour of thy hands; happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee." A smile is on the countenance of the humane brother.

He did his utmost, indeed, for the comfort, as well as the spiritual welfare, of his community.

Baths were built "for the sick" (heathendom had been cleaner, but we must not repine); for the suffering, too, and for pilgrims, exceptional food was provided--young pigeons, delicate fish, fruit, honey; a new kind of lamp was invented, to burn for long hours without attention; dials and clepsydras marked the progress of day and night.
Among the monastic duties is that of giving instruction to the peasantry round about.

They are not to be oppressed, these humble tillers of the soil, for is it not written that "My yoke is easy, and my burden light"?
But one must insist that they come frequently to religious service, and that they do not _lucos colere_--worship in groves--which shows that a heathen mind still lingered among the people, and that they reverenced the old deities.

Benedict, the contemporary of Cassiodorus (we have no authority for supposing that they knew each other), when he first ascended the mount above Casinum, found a temple of Apollo, with the statue of the god receiving daily homage.