d him. Now when Gualberto
heard it, he was first very much astonished and then more angry, so that
he went presently to take Giovanni out of that place; but he would not,
for before his father he cut off his hair and clothed himself in a habit
which he borrowed. Then, seeing his purpose, his father let him alone.
So for some four years Giovanni lived a monk at S. Miniato; when, the
old Abbot dying, his companions wished to make him their Abbot, but he
would not, setting out immediately with one companion to search for a
closer solitude. And to this end he went to Camaldoli to consult with S.
Romualdo; but even there, in that quiet and ordered place, he did not
seem to have found what he sought. So he set out again, not without
tears, coming at last, on this side of Casentino, upon this high valley,
Acqua Bella, as it was then called, because of its brooks. It belonged,
with all the forest, to the Contessa Itta dei Guidi, the Abbess of S.
Ellero, who gladly presented Giovanni with land for his monastery, and
that he built of timber. Nor was he alone, for he had found there
already two hermits, who agreed to join him; so under the rule of St.
Benedict the Vallombrosan Order was founded.[133] Of S. Giovanni's work
in Florence, of his fight with Simony and Nicolaitanism, this is no
place to speak. He became the hero of that country; yet such was his
humility that he never proceeded further than minor orders, and, though
Abbot of Vallombrosa, was never a priest. He founded many houses, S.
Salvi among them, while his monks were to be found at Moscetta,
Passignano, and elsewhere in Tuscany and Umbria; while his Order was the
first to receive lay brothers who, while exempt from choir and silence,
were employed in "external offices." It was in July 1073 that he fell
sick at Passignano, and on the 12th of that month he died there. Pope
Celestine III enrolled him among the saints in 1193. After S. Giovanni's
death the Order seems to have flourished by reason of the bequests of
the Countess Matilda.

There is but little of interest in the present buildings at Vallombrosa,
which date from the seventeenth century; nor does the church itself
possess anything of importance, unless it be the relic of S. Giovanni
enshrined in a casquet of the sixteenth century, a work of Paolo
Soliano.

About three hundred feet above the monastery is the old Hermitage--the
_Celle_--now an hotel. Here those who sought solitude and silence found
their wa