of deep
penetration, of great virtue and learning, and very liberal in alms, as
our saint testifies, who assisted him in obliging John, bishop of
Veletri, an antipope, set up by the capitaneos or magistrates of Rome,
to quit his usurped dignity. Upon complaints of simony in the church of
Milan, Nicholas II. sent Peter thither as his legate, who chastised the
guilty. Nicholas II. dying, after having sat two years and six months,
Alexander was chosen pope, in 1062. Peter strenuously supported him
against the emperor, who set up an antipope, Cadolaus, bishop of Parma,
on whom the saint prevailed soon after to renounce his pretensions, in a
council held at Rome; and engaged Henry IV., king of Germany, who was
afterwards emperor, to acquiesce in what had been done, though that
prince, who in his infancy had succeeded his pious father, Henry III.,
had sucked in very early the corrupt maxims of tyranny and irreligion.
But virtue is amiable in the eyes of its very enemies, and often disarms
them of their fury. St. Peter had, with great importunity, solicited
Nicholas II. for leave to resign his bishopric, and return to his
solitude; but could not obtain it. His successor, Alexander II., out of
affection for the holy man, was prevailed upon to allow it, in 1062, but
not without great difficulty, and the reserve of a power to employ him
in church matters of importance, as he might have occasion hereafter for
his assistance. The saint from that time thought himself discharged, not
only from the burden of his flock, but also from the quality of
superior, with regard to the several monasteries, the general inspection
of which he had formerly charged himself with, reducing himself to the
condition of a simple monk.

In this retirement he edified the church by his penance and compunction,
and labored by his writings to enforce the observance of discipline and
morality. His style is copious and vehement, and the strictness of his
maxims appears in all his works, especially where he treats of the
duties of clergymen and monks. He severely rebuked the bishop of
Florence for playing a game at chess.[1] That prelate acknowledged his
amusement to be a faulty sloth in a man of his character, and received
the saint's remonstrance with great mildness, and submitted to his
injunction by way of penance, namely: to recite three times the psalter,
to wash the feet of twelve poor men, and to give to each a piece of
money. He shows those to be guilt