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memorable for a number of calamitous happenings, and suggests that the injury wrought by Vesuvius of which Rodulphus informs us may have fallen properly about that time. Bombs were projected on that occasion to a distance of three miles, issuing from a greater number of orifices than usual, and the noxious gases accompanying the eruption rendered the country round about uninhabitable.

An interval of thirty years ensued before the ninth eruption (1037), which was succeeded by a little over a century's repose. After 1139 no further disturbance is known to have taken place until early in the sixteenth century, although Mount Epomeo, in the neighboring island of Ischia, was active in the year 1302. Brief records of the ninth and tenth eruptions are found in monastic chronicles, compiled in near-by abbeys, and of noteworthy importance. Foremost should be mentioned the monastic histories written during the eleventh century at Monte Cassino, a famous abbey of ancient foundation and mother of all Benedictine monasteries, which shone like a light in the dark ages. Of