ABSTRACT
When morning came, and the vast scale of the wretched disaster was clear beneath the ruin both of men and of other things, everyone of one accord Latins, Greeks, Syrians, Armenians, strangers and pilgrims, claimed the earthquake had happened because of their own sins. At once they took advantage of good advice and had recourse to the very church of St Peter the apostle, seeking the protection of his eternal patronage. For certain men who hated fasting and loved lavish banquets, slaves to gluttony for enticing foods, were eager to copy the life and life-style not of those who live well but of those who eat well. Some indeed were influenced to unchastity and frequented houses of ill-fame, they strove even to pollute the respect of the public audience with shameless words, sowing doubt, and they were reckoned rather disgusting or scandalous.
