tures, and other sacred learning, as
he was before in profane literature.

His superior ordered him to make frequent exhortations to the religious,
and as he had acquired a very great character for virtue and learning,
Guy, abbot of Pomposia, begged his superior to send him to instruct his
monastery, which consisted of a hundred monks. Peter stayed there two
years, preaching with great fruit, and was then called back by his
abbot, and sent to perform the same function in the numerous abbey of
St. Vincent, near the mountain called Pietra Pertusa, or the Hollow
Rock. His love for poverty made him abhor and be ashamed to put on a new
habit, or any clothes which were not threadbare and most mean. His
obedience was so perfect, that the least word of any superior, or signal
given, according to the rule of the house, for the performance of any
duty, made him run that moment to discharge, with the utmost exactness,
whatever was enjoined. Being recalled home some time after, and
commanded by his abbot, with the unanimous consent of the hermitage, to
take upon him the government of the desert after his death, Peter's
extreme reluctance only obliged his superior to make greater use of his
authority till he acquiesced. Wherefore, at his decease, in 1041, Peter
took upon him the direction of that holy family, which he governed with
the greatest reputation for wisdom and sanctity. He also founded five
other numerous hermitages; in which he placed priors under his
inspection. His principal care was to cherish in his disciples the
spirit of solitude, charity, and humility. Among them many became great
lights of the church, as St. Ralph, bishop of Gubio, whose festival is
kept on the 26th of June, St. Dominick, surnamed Loricatus, the 14th of
October; St. John of Lodi, his successor in the priory of the Holy
Cross, who was also bishop of Gubio, and wrote St. Peter's life; and
many others. He was for twelve years much employed in the service of the
church by many zealous bishops, and by four popes successively, namely:
Gregory VI., Clement II., Leo IX., and Victor II. Their successor,
Stephen IX., in 1057, prevailed with him to quit his desert, and made
him cardinal bishop of Ostia. But such was his reluctance to the
dignity, that nothing less than the pope's {450} threatening him with
excommunication, and his commands, in virtue of obedience, could induce
Peter to submit.

Stephen IX. dying in 1058, Nicholas II. was chosen pope, a man