ABSTRACT
In the summer of 1202, Pope Innocent III and his court abandoned the fetid and mosquito-laden city of Rome for the salubrious retreat of the Benedictine abbey at Subiaco. A curial official reports on the set of splendid tents the court set up and the papal officials who swam like fish in the adjacent lake. The pope himself we are told enjoyed gargling with the icy water: ‘The third Solomon loved to freely put his holy hands into it and take a frigid gargle so that it might provide medical aid for the twofold need of human life [i.e. the inner and outer] with its double power.’2 During this retreat the pope took the opportunity to preach a sermon to the Subiaco community about visio dei, that is, how God can be seen both in this life and in the next, taking as his text the beatitude, ‘Blessed are the pure of heart for they shall see God’ (Matthew 5:8).3
