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Old English Libraries, The Making, Collection, and Use of Books

During the Middle Ages

by Ernest A. Savage

January, 1999 [Etext #1615]

The Project Gutenberg Etext of Old English Libraries, by Savage

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OLD ENGLISH LIBRARIES

THE MAKING, COLLECTION, AND USE OF BOOKS

DURING THE MIDDLE AGES

by ERNEST A. SAVAGE

PREFACE

WITH the arrangement and equipment of

libraries this essay has little to do: the

ground being already covered adequately

by Dr. Clark in his admirable monograph on The

Care of Books. Herein is described the making,

use, and circulation of books considered as a means

of literary culture. It seemed possible to throw a

useful sidelight on literary history, and to introduce

some human interest into the study of bibliography,

if the place held by books in the life of the Middle

Ages could be indicated. Such, at all events, was

my aim, but I am far from sure of my success in

carrying it out; and I offer this book merely as

a discursive and popular treatment of a subject

which seems to me of great interest.

The book has suffered from one unhappy circumstance.

It was planned in collaboration with my

friend Mr. James Hutt, M.A., but unfortunately,

owing to a breakdown of health, Mr. Hutt was only

able to help me in the composition of the chapter

on the Libraries of Oxford, which is chiefly his work.

Had it been possible for Mr. Hutt to share all the

labour with me, this book would have been put

before the public with more confidence.

More footnote references appear in this volume

than in most of the series of "Antiquary's Books."

One consideration specially urged me to take this

course. The subject has been treated briefly, and

it seemed essential to cite as many authorities as

possible, so that readers who were in the mood might

obtain further information by following them up.

In a book covering a long period and touching

national and local history at many points, I cannot

hope to have escaped errors; and I shall be grateful

if readers will bring them to my notice.

I need hardly say I am especially indebted to

the splendid work accomplished by Dr. Montague

Rhodes James, the Provost of King's College, in

editing The Ancient Libraries of Canterbury and

Dover, and in compiling the great series of descriptive

catalogues of manuscripts in Cambridge and

other colleges. I have long marvelled at Dr. James'

patient research; at his steady perseverance in an

aim which, even when attained--as it now has been--

could only win him the admiration and esteem of

a few scholars and lovers of old books.

I have to thank Mr. Hutt for much general

help, and for reading all the proof slips. To Canon

C. M. Church, M.A., of Wells, I am indebted for

his kindness in answering inquiries, for lending me

the illustration of the exterior of Wells Cathedral

Library, and for permitting me to reproduce a plan

from his book entitled Chapters in the Early History

of the Church of Wells. The Historic Society of

Lancashire and Cheshire have kindly allowed me

to reproduce a part of their plan of Birkenhead

Priory. Illustrations were also kindly lent by the

Clarendon Press, the Cambridge University Press,

Mr. John Murray, Mr. Fisher Unwin, the Editor

of The Connoisseur, and Mr. G. Coffey, of the Royal

Irish Academy. A small portion of the first chapter

has appeared in The Library, and is reprinted by

kind permission of the editors. Mr. C. W. Sutton,

M.A., City Librarian of Manchester, has been in

every way kind and patient in helping me. So too

has Mr. Strickland Gibson, M.A., of the Bodleian

Library, especially in connexion with the chapter on

Oxford Libraries. Thanks are due also to the

Deans of Hereford, Lincoln, and Durham, to Mr.

Tapley-Soper, City Librarian of Exeter, and to

Mr. W. T. Carter, Public Librarian of Warwick;

also to my brother, V. M. Savage, for his drawings.

The general editor of this series, the Rev. J. Charles

Cox, LL.D., F.S.A., gave me much help by reading

the manuscript and proofs; and I am grateful to him

for many courtesies and suggestions.

ERNEST A. SAVAGE

CONTENTS

I. THE USE OF BOOKS IN EARLY IRISH MONASTERIES

II. THE ENGLISH MONKS AND THEIR BOOKS

III. LIBRARIES OF THE GREAT ABBEYS--BOOK-LOVERS AMONG

THE MENDICANTS--DISPERSAL OF MONKISH LIBRARIES

IV. BOOK MAKING AND COLLECTING IN THE RELIGIOUS

HOUSES

V. CATHEDRAL AND CHURCH LIBRARIES

VI. ACADEMIC LIBRARIES: OXFORD

VII. ACADEMIC LIBRARIES: CAMBRIDGE

VIII. ACADEMIC LIBRARIES: THEIR ECONOMY

IX. THE USE OF BOOKS TOWARDS THE END OF THE

MANUSCRIPT PERIOD

X. THE BOOK TRADE

XI. THE CHARACTER OF THE MEDIEVAL LIBRARY, AND

THE EXTENT OF CIRCULATION OF BOOKS

OLD ENGLISH LIBRARIES

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTORY--THE USE OF BOOKS IN

EARLY IRISH MONASTERIES

"What tyme pat abbeies were first ordeyned

and monkis were first gadered to gydre."

--Inscribed in MS. of Life of Barlaam and Josaphat,

Peterhouse, Camb.

Section I

To people of modern times early monachism must seem

an unbeautiful and even offensive life. True piety

was exceptional, fanaticism the rule. Ideals which

were surely false impelled men to lead a life of idleness and

savage austerity,--to sink very near the level of beasts, as

did the Nitrian hermits when they murdered Hypatia in

Alexandria. But this view does not give the whole truth.

To shut out a wicked and sensual world, with its manifold

temptations, seemed the only possible way to live purely.

To get far beyond the influence of a barbaric society, utterly

antagonistic to peaceful religious observance, was clearly the

surest means of achieving personal holiness. Monachism

was a system designed for these ends. Throughout the

Middle Ages it was the refuge--the only refuge--for the

man who desired to flee from sin. Such, at any rate, was

the truly religious man's view. And if monkish retreats

sheltered some ignorant fanatics, they also attracted many

representatives of the culture and learning of the time.

This was bound to be so. At all times solitude has been

pleasant to the student and thinker, or to the moody lover

of books.

By great good fortune, then, the studious occupations

which did so much to soften monkish austerities in the

Middle Ages, were recognised early as needful to the system.

Even the ascetics by the Red Sea and in Nitria did not

deprive themselves of all literary solace, although the more

fanatical would abjure it, and many would be too poor to

have it. The Rule of Pachomius, founder of the settlements

of Tabenna, required the brethren's books to be kept in a

cupboard and regulated lending them. These libraries are

referred to in Benedict's own Rule. We hear of St. Pachomius

destroying a copy of Origen, because the teaching in it was

obnoxious; of Abba Bischoi writing an ascetic work, a copy of

which is extant; of anchorites under St. Macarius of Alexandria

transcribing books; and of St. Jerome collecting a

library summo studio et labore, copying manuscripts and studying

Hebrew at his hermitage even after a formal renunciation

of the classics, and then again, at the end of his life, bringing

together another library at Bethlehem monastery, and

instructing boys in grammar and in classic authors. Basil

the Great, when founding eremitical settlements on the

river Iris in Pontus, spent some time in making selections

from Origen. St. Melania the younger wrote books which

were noted for their beauty and accuracy. And when

Athanasius introduced Eastern monachism into Italy, and

St. Martin of Tours and John Cassian carried it farther

afield into Gaul, the same work went on. In the cells

and caves of Martin's community at Marmoutier the

younger monks occupied their time in writing and sacred

study, and the older monks in prayer.[1] Sulpicius Severus

(c. 353-425), the ecclesiastical historian, preferred retirement,

literary study, and the friendship and teaching of

St. Martin to worldly pursuits. At the famous island

community of Lerins, in South Gaul, were instructed

some of the most celebrated scholars of the West, among

them St. Hilary. "Such were their piety and learning that

all the cities round about strove emulously to have monks

from Lerins for their bishops."[2] Another centre of studious

occupation was the monastery of Germanus of Auxerre;

while near Vienne was a community where St. Avitus

(c. 525) could earn the high reputation for holiness and

learning which won him a metropolitan see. Many other facts

and incidents prove the literary pursuits of the Gallic ascetics;

as, for example, the reputation the nuns of Arles in the

sixth century won for their writing; and the curious story

of Apollinaris Sidonius driving after a monk who was

carrying a manuscript to Britain, stopping him, and there

and then dictating to secretaries a copy of the precious

book which had so nearly escaped him.[3]

[1] Healy, 46.

[2] Healy, 50.

[3] Sandys, i. 245

Section II

Monachism of this Eastern type came from Gaul to

Ireland.[1] St. Patrick received his sacred education at

Marmoutier; under Germanus at Auxerre; and possibly

at Lerins. His companions on his mission to Ireland, and

the missionaries who followed him, nearly all came from

the same centres. Naturally, therefore, the same practices

would be observed, not only in regard to religious discipline

and organisation, but in regard to instruction and study.

Even the mysterious Palladius, Patrick's forerunner, is said

to have left books in Ireland.[2] But the earliest important

references to that use of books which distinguishes the

educated missionary from the mere fanatical recluse are in

connexion with Patrick. Pope Sixtus is said to have

given him books in plenty to take with him to Ireland.

Later he is supposed to have visited Rome, whence he

brought books home to Armagh.[3] He gave copies of

parts of the Scriptures to Irish chieftains. To one Fiacc

he gave a case containing a bell, a crosier, tablets, and a

meinister, which, according to Dr. Lanigan, may have been

a cumdach enclosing the Gospels and the vessels for the

sacred ministry, or, according to Dr. Whitley Stokes,

simply a credence-table.[4] He sometimes gave a missal

(lebar nuird). He had books at Tara. On one occasion

his books were dropped into the water and were "drowned."

Presumably the books he distributed came from the Gallic

schools, although his followers no doubt began transcribing

as opportunity offered and as material came to hand.

Patrick himself wrote alphabets, sometimes called the

"elements"; most likely the elements or the A B C of the

Christian doctrine, corresponding with the "primer."[5]

[1] On the connection between Eastern and Celtic monachism, see

Stokes (G.T.).

[2] Stokes (W.), T. L., i. 30; ii. 446.

[3] Ib. ii. 421; ii. 475.

[4] D. N. B., xliv. 39; Stokes (W.), T. L., i, 191.

[5] Abgitorium, abgatorium; elementa, elimenta. Stokes (W.), T.

L., i. cliii.; also). 111, 113, 139, 191, 308, 320, 322, 326,

327, 328.

This was the dawn of letters for Ireland. By disseminating

the Scriptures and these primers, Patrick and

his followers, and the train of missionaries who came

afterwards,[1] secured the knowledge and use of the Roman

alphabet. The way was clear for the free introduction of

schools and books and learning. "St. Patrick did not do

for the Scots what Wulfilas did for the Goths, and the

Slavonic apostles for the Slavs; he did not translate the

sacred books of his religion into Irish and found a national

church literature.... What Patrick, on the other hand, and

his fellow-workers did was to diffuse a knowledge of Latin

in Ireland. To the circumstance that he adopted this line

of policy, and did not attempt to create a national

ecclesiastical language, must be ascribed the rise of the

schools of learning which distinguished Ireland in the

sixth and seventh centuries."[2]

[1] In 536, fifty monks from the Continent landed at

Cork.--Montalembert, ii. 248n. Migrations from Gaul were frequent

about this time.

[2] Bury, 217; cp. 220.

Mainly owing to the labours of Dr. John Healy, we

now know a good deal about the somewhat slow growth

of the Irish schools to fame; but for our purpose it will do

to learn something of them in their heyday, when at last

we hear certainly of that free use of books which must

have been common for some time. From the sixth to the

eighth century Ireland enjoyed an eminent place in the

world of learning; and the lives and works of her scholars

imply book-culture of good character. St. Columba was

famed for his studious occupations. Educated first by

Finnian of Moville, then by another tutor of the same

name at the famous school of Clonard, he journeyed to

other centres for further instruction after his ordination.

From youth he loved books and studies. He is represented

as reading out of doors at the moment when the murderer

of a young girl is struck dead. In later life he realized

the importance of monastic records. He had annals

compiled, and bards preserved and arranged them in the

monastic chests. At Iona the brethren of his settlement

passed their time in reading and transcribing, as well as in

manual labour. Very careful were they to copy correctly.

Baithen, a monk on Iona, got one of his fellows to look

over a Psalter which he had just finished writing, but

only a single error was discovered.[1] Columba himself

became proficient in copying and illuminating. He could

not spend an hour without study, or prayer, or writing, or

some other holy occupation.[2] He transcribed, we are told,

over three hundred copies of the Gospels or the Psalter--a

magnification of a saint's powers by a devout biographer,

but significant as it testifies to Columba's love of

studious labours, and shows how highly these ascetics

thought of work of this kind. On two occasions, being a

man as well as a saint, he broke into violence when crossed

in his love of books. One story tells how he visited a holy

and learned recluse named Longarad, whose much-prized

books he wished to see. Being denied, he became wroth

and cursed Longarad. "May the books be of no use to

you," he cried, "nor to any one after you, since you withhold

them." So far the tale is not improbable, but a little

embroidery completes a legend. The books became unintelligible,

so the story continues, the moment Longarad

died. At the same instant the satchels in all the Irish

schools and in Columba's cell slipped off their hooks on to

the ground.

[1] Joyce, i. 478

[2] Adamnan, lib. ii. c. 29, iii. c. 15 and c. 23.

A quarrel about a book, we are told, changed his

career. He borrowed a Psalter from Finnian of Moville,

and made a copy of it, working secretly at night. Finnian

heard of the piracy, and, as owner of the original, claimed

the copy. Columba refused to let him have it. Then

Diarmid, King of Meath, was asked to arbitrate. Arguing

that as every calf belonged to its cow, so every copy of a

book belonged to the owner of the original, he decided in

Finnian's favour. Columba thought the award unjust, and

said so. A little later, after another dispute with Diarmid

on a question of monastic immunity, he called together his

tribesmen and partisans, and offered battle. Diarmid was

defeated. For some reason, not quite clear, these quarrels led

to Columba's voluntary exile(c. 563). He sailed from Ireland,

and landed upon the silver strand of Iona, and to the end of

his days his work lay almost entirely amid the heather-covered

uplands and plains of this little island home.[1] Iona became

a renowned centre of missionary work, quite overshadowing

in importance the earlier "Scottish" settlement

of Whitherne or Candida Casa. Pilgrims went thither

from Ireland and England to receive instruction, and

returned to carry on pioneer work in their own homeland.

Thence went forth missionaries to carry the Christian

message throughout Scotland and northern England.

Perhaps, too, here was planned the expedition to far-off

Iceland. "Before Iceland was peopled by the Northmen

there were in the country those men whom the Northmen

called Papar. They were Christian men, and the people

believed that they came from the West, because Irish

books and bells and crosiers were found after them, and

still more things by which one might know that they were

west-men, i.e. Irish."[2]

[1] Dr Skene says the Psalter incident "bears the stamp of

spurious tradition"; so does the Longarad story; but it is

curious how often sacred books play a part in these tales.

[2] Henderson, Norse Influence on Celtic Scotland, 5-6.

Not only to the far north, but to the Continent, did the

Irish press their energetic way. In Gaul their chief missionary

was Columban (c. 543 - 615), who had been educated at

Bangor, then famous for the learning of its brethren. His

works display an extensive acquaintance with Christian

and Latin literature. Both the Greek and Hebrew

languages may have been known to him, though this

seems improbable and inconceivable.[1] In his Rule he

provides for teaching in schools, copying manuscripts, and

for daily reading.[2]

[1] Moore, Hist. of Ireland, i. 266.

[2] Healy, 379; Stokes (M.) 2, 118. Ergo quotidie jejunandum

est, sicut quotidie orandum est, quotidie laborandum, quotidie

est legendum.

The monasteries of Luxeuil, Bobio, and St. Gall,

founded by him and his companions on their mission in

Gaul and Italy, became the homes of the most famous

conventual libraries in the world--a result surely traceable

to the example set by the Irish ascetics, and to the tradition

they established.[1]

[1] A ninth century catalogue of St. Gall mentions thirty-one

volumes and pamphlets in the Irish tongue--Prof. Pflugk-Harttung,

in R. H. S. (N. S.), v. 92. Becker names only thirty, p. 43. At

Reichenau, a monastery near St. Gall, also famous for its

library, there were "Irish education, manuscripts, and

occasionally also Irish monks." "One of the most ancient

monuments of the German tongue, the vocabulary of St. Gall,

dating from about 780, is written in the Irish character."

Other Irish monks are better known for their literary

attainments than for missionary enterprise. St. Cummian,

in a letter written about 634, displays much knowledge of

theological literature, and a good deal of knowledge of a

general kind.[1] Another monk named Augustine (c. 650)

quotes from Eusebius and Jerome in a work affording many

other evidences of learning.[2] Aileran (c. 660), abbot of

Clonard, wrote a religious work which proves his acquaintance

with Jerome, Philo, Cassian, Origen, and Augustine.[3]

[1] D.C.B. sub nom.

[2] Stokes (G. T.), 221.

[3] Ib. 220.

An Englishman supplies valuable evidence of the state of

Irish learning. Aldhelm's (c. 656-709) works prove him to

have had access in England to a good library; while in one

learned letter he compares English schools favourably with

the Irish, and declares Theodore and Hadrian would put Irish

scholars in the shade. Yet he is on his mettle when communicating

with Irish friends or pupils; he clearly reserves

for them the flowers of his eloquence.[1] The Irish schools

were indeed successful rivals of the English schools, and

Irish scholars could use libraries as good, or nearly as good,

as that at Aldhelm's disposal. At this time the attraction

which Ireland and Iona had for English students was extra-

ordinary. English crowded the Irish schools, although

the Canterbury school was not full.[2] The city of Armagh

was divided into three sections, one being called Trian-

Saxon, the Saxon's third, from the great number of Saxon

students living there.[3]

[1] Haddan, 267.

[2] Hyde, 221.

[3] Joyce, Short Hist of I., 165.

In 664 many English, both high and low in rank, left

their native land for Ireland, where they sought instruction

in sacred studies, or an opportunity to lead a more ascetic

life. Some devoted themselves faithfully to a monkish

career. Others applied themselves to study only, and for

that purpose journeyed from one master's cell to another.

The Irish welcomed all comers. All received without

charge daily food: barley or oaten bread and water, or

sometimes milk--cibus sit vilis et vespertinus--a plain meal,

once a day, in the afternoon. Books were supplied, or

what is more likely, waxed tablets folded in book form.

Teaching was as free as the open air in which it was

carried on.[1]

[1] Bede, H. E., iii. 27; Healy, 101; Stokes (G. T.), 230.

Among the English at one time or another taking advantage

of Irish hospitality were Gildas (c. 540), first native

historian of England;[1] Ecgberht, presbyter, a Northumbrian

of noble birth; Ethelhun, brother of Ethelwin, bishop

of Lindsay; Oswald, king of Northumbria; Aldfrith,

another Northumbrian king, who was educated either in

Ireland or Iona; Alcuin, who received instruction at

Clonmacnoise;[2] one named Wictberht, "notable . . . for his

learning and knowledge, for he had lived many years as

a stranger and pilgrim in Ireland"; and St. Willibrord, who

at the age of twenty journeyed to Ireland for purposes of

study, because he had heard that learning flourished in

that country.[3]

[1] Camb. Lit., i. 66.

[2] Healy, 272.

[3] Alcuin, Willibrord, c. 4.

Section III

Most of the references we have made above belong to

the sixth and seventh centuries, usually regarded as the

best age of Irish monachism. But the Irish enjoyed their

reputation unimpaired for a long time. Just before and

after the Northmen descended on their land in 795, we find

them making their mark abroad, not so much as missionaries

but as scholars and teachers.[17]

[1] See full account, R. H. S. (N. S.), v. 75.

A few instances will suffice. "The Acts of Charles,

written by a monk of St. Gallen late in the ninth century,

tells us of two Scots from Ireland,' who lighted with the

British merchants on the coast of Gaul,' and cried to the

crowd, If any man desireth wisdom, let him come unto us

and receive it, for we have it for sale.' They were soon invited

to the court of Charles. One of them, Clement, partly

filled the place of Alcuin as head of the palace school."[1]

His reputation soon became widespread, and the abbot of

Fulda sent several of his most capable monks to him to

learn grammar.[2] His companion, Dungal, went on to Italy.

He enjoyed a full share of the learning of his time; was a

student of Cicero and Macrobius; knew Virgil well; and

had some Greek.[3] A few fine books were bequeathed

by him to the Irish monastery of Bobio, where copies

were written and distributed through Italy. According

to the learned Muratori, in one of these manuscripts

is an inscription proving Dungal's ownership.[4] One

of the books so bequeathed was the famous Antiphonary

of Bangor, now in the Ambrosian library at Milan.

[1] Sandys, i. 480.

[2] R. H. S. (N. S.), v. 90.

[3] Sandys, i. 480; Stokes (M.) 2, 210.

[4] "Sancte Columba tibi Scotto tuns incola Dungal

Tradidit hunc librum, quo fratrum corda beentur.

Qui leges ergo Deus pretium sit muneris, org."--Healy, 392.

Clement and Dungal were not the only Irishmen of

note on the Continent. One, Dicuil, was an exponent of

geography. He founded his treatise (c. 825) on Caesar,

Pliny, and Solinus; he quotes and names many other

writers, including fourteen Greek; and generally impresses

us with his earnest studentship. An Irish monk named

Donatus wandered to Italy and became bishop of Fiesole

(c. 829); he, too, was a scholar acquainted with Virgil, a

teacher of grammar and prosody, and a lecturer on the

saints.[1] Sedulius, the commentator, an Irish monk of

Liege, copied Greek psalters, wrote Latin verses, knew

Cicero's letters, the works of Valerius Maximus, Vegetius,

Origen, and Jerome; was well acquainted with mythology and

history, and perhaps had some Hebrew.[2] Another Irishman,

John the Scot (Joannes Scotus Erigena), became the most

eminent scholar of his time: he alone, among all the learned

men Charles the Bald had about him, was able to translate

from Greek (c. 858-860). Well might Eric of Auxerre, writing

to Charles, express his astonishment at this train of

philosophers from Ireland, that barbarous land on the

confines of the world.[3] All these wanderers, and many

more, must have been responsible for the dissemination of

the books produced by Irish hands; and, in fact, many

manuscripts of Celtic origin and early in date, are still on

the Continent, or have been found there and brought to

Ireland.[4]

[1] Stokes (M.)2, 206-7, 247.

[2] Sandys, i. 463.

[3] Moore, Hist. of I., i. 299; Boll. Iul. t. vii. 222.

[45] The following, among others, are still on the Continent:

Gospels of Willibrord (Bibl. Nat. Lat. 9389, 739), Gospel of St.

John (Cod. 60 St. Gall c. 750-800); Book of Fragments (No. 1395,

St. Gall, c. 750-800); The Golden Gospels (Royal library,

Stockholm, 871); Gospels of St. Arnoul, Metz

(Nuremberg Museum, 7th c.).--Cp. Maclean, 207-8; Hyde, 267.

In some respects the evidence of book-culture in

Ireland in these early centuries is inconsistent. The jealous

guard Longarad kept over his books, the quarrel over

Columba's Psalter, and the great esteem in which scribes

were held,[1] suggest a scarcity of books. The practice of

enshrining them in cumdachs, or book-covers, points to a

like conclusion. On the other hand, Bede tells us the

Irish could lend foreign students books, so plentiful were

they. His statement is corroborated by the number of

scribes whose deaths have been recorded by the annalists,

the Four Masters, for example, note sixty-one eminent

scribes before the year 900, forty of whom belong to the

eighth century.[17] In some of the monasteries a special

room for books was provided. The Annals of Tigernach

refer to the house of manuscripts.[3] An apartment of this

kind is particularly mentioned as being saved from the

flames when Armagh monastery was burned (1020).

Another fact suggesting an abundance of books was the

appointment of a librarian, which sometimes took place.[4]

Although a special book-room and officer are only to be

met with much later than the best age of Irish monachism,

yet we may reasonably assume them to be the natural

culmination of an old and established practice of making

and using books.

[1] Adamnan, 365n.

[2] Hyde, 220; Stokes (M.), 10, "Connachtach, an Abbot of Iona

who died in 802, is called in the Irish annals a scribe most

choice.' "--Trenholme, Iona, 32.

[3] Tech-screptra; domus scripturarum.

[4] Leabhar coimedach. Adamnan, 359, note m.

Such statements, however, are not necessarily contradictory.

Manuscripts over which the cleverest scribes

and illuminators had spent much time and pains would be

jealously preserved in cases or shrines; still, when we

remember how many precious fruits of the past must have

perished, the number of beautiful Irish manuscripts extant

goes to prove that books even of this character could not

have been extraordinarily rare. "Workaday" copies of

books would be made as well, in comparatively large

numbers, and would no doubt be used very freely. Besides

books properly so called, the religious used waxed tablets

of wood, which were sometimes called books. St. Ciaran,

for example, wrote on staves, which are called in one place

his tablets, and in two other places the whole collection of

his staves is called a book.[1] Such tablets were indeed

books in which the fugitive pieces of the time were

written.[2] Considering all things, Bede was without doubt

quite correct in saying the Irish had enough books to lend

to foreign students.

[1] Joyce, i. 483

[2] At vero hoc audiens Colcius tempus et horan in tabula

describers.--Adamnan, 66. Columba is said to have blessed one

hundred polaires or tablets (Leabhar Breac, fo. 16-60; Stokes

(M.), 51). The boy Benen, who followed Patrick, bore tablets on

his back (folaire, corrupt for polaire).--Stokes (W.), T. L., 47.

Patrick gave to Fiacc a case containing a tablet. Ib. 344. An

example of a waxed tablet, with a case for it, is in the Museum

of the Royal Irish Academy. The case is a wooden cover, divided

into hollowed-out compartments for holding the styles. This

specimen dates from the thirteenth or fourteenth century. Slates

and pencils were also in use for temporary purposes.--Joyce, i.

483.

Section IV

Our account of the work accomplished by the Irish

monks would be incomplete without reference to their

writing, illuminating, and book-economy, the relics of which

are so finely rare.

The old Irish runes gave place slowly to the Roman

alphabet, which came into use, as we have already observed,

after St. Patrick's mission. This new writing was in two

forms--round and pointed--but both were derived from the

Roman half-uncial style. The clear and beautifully-shaped

Irish round hand is closely akin to the half-uncial character

of fifth and sixth century Latin writings found on the

Continent. The Book of Kells, written probably at the end

of the seventh century, is the finest example of the

ornamental Irish round hand. St. Chad's Gospels, now at

Lichfield, written about the same time, is a manuscript of

like character, but not so good. A later manuscript, the

Gospels of MacRegol, which dates from the beginning of

the ninth century, shows marked deterioration in the writing.

The Irish pointed style, used for quicker writing, is but

a modified, pointed variety of the round hand, the letters

being laterally compressed. This hand appears in some

pages of the Book of Kells, but the best example is in the

Book of Armagh.[1]

[1] See Thompson, 236, where Irish calligraphy is fully dealt

with; Camb. Lit., i, 13.

Although the Roman alphabet was introduced by

Augustine at the Canterbury school, it wholly failed to

have any effect on the native hand from that source. On

the other hand, when, in the seventh century, Northumbria

was converted by Irish missionaries, the new Christians

copied the Irish writing, so well, indeed, that the earliest

specimens extant can hardly be distinguished from the

beautiful penmanship of the Irish. The Book of Durham,

generally called the Lindisfarne Gospels, of about 700,

is an exquisite Northumbrian example of the Irish round

hand, in the characteristic broad, heavy-stroke letters.

Another good specimen of this style is the eighth century

manuscript of Bede's Ecclesiastical History, in Cambridge

University Library.

Irish illumination is as characteristic as the writing.

Pictures and drawings of the human figure are not so

common as in the work of other schools, and when they

do appear are not often good. Still, some of them, as the

scenes from the life of Christ in the Book of Kells, are quite

unlike the illuminations of any other school; while the

portraits of the Evangelists in the same book, in the Book

of MacRegol, and in the Lindisfarne Gospels, are singularly

interesting. Floral work is also rare. But in geometrical

ornament, beautifully symmetrical--diagonal patterns, zigzags,

waves, lozenges, divergent spirals, intertwisted and

interwoven ribbon and cord work--and in grotesque

zoological forms,--lizards, snakes, hounds, birds, and dragons'

heads,--the Irish school attained their highest artistic

development. Their art is striking, not for originality, not

for its beauty, which is nevertheless great, but for painstaking.

Knowing but one style of making a book beautiful,

they lavished much time and loving care to achieve their

end. The detail is extraordinarily minute and complicated.

"I have counted," writes Professor Westwood, "[with

a magnifying glass] in a small space scarcely three-quarters

of an inch in length by less than half an inch in width, in

the Book of Armagh, no less than 158 interlacements of a

slender ribbon pattern formed of white lines edged with

black ones." But, this intricacy notwithstanding, the designs

as a whole are usually bold and effective. In the best kind

of Irish illumination gold and silver are not used, but the

colours are varied and brilliant, and are employed with

taste and discretion; while the occasional staining of a leaf

of vellum with a fine purple sometimes adds beauty and

much distinction to an excellent design.

Of intricate geometrical ornament and grotesque figures,

the illumination representing the symbols of the Four

Evangelists (fo. 290) of the Book of Kells is perhaps the

best example. Of divergent spirals and interlaced ribbon

work the frontispiece of St. Jerome's Epistle in the Book of

Durrow affords notable examples. Two of the peculiar

features of Irish decoration--the rows of red dots round a

design and the dragon's head--appear in the earliest, or

nearly the earliest, Irish manuscript extant, namely, the

Cathach Psalter, now in the Museum of the Royal Irish

Academy. Whether the essential and peculiar features of

this ornamentation are purely indigenous, as Professor

Westwood contends, or whether they are of Gallo-Roman

origin, as Fleury argues, is a moot point, calling for

complicated discussion which would be out of place

here.

The amount of illumination in the existing manuscripts

varies, but the pages chosen for illuminating are nearly

always the same. In the Book of Kells the illuminations

consist of three portraits of the Evangelists, three scenes

from the life of Christ, three combined symbols of the four

Evangelists, eight pages of the Eusebian canons, and many

initials. The Book of Durham contains four portraits of

the Evangelists, six initial pages, one ornamental page

before each Gospel, and before St. Jerome's Epistle, and

eight pages of the Eusebian canons. The Book of Durrow

has sixteen illuminated pages: four of the symbols of the

Evangelists, six pages of initials, one ornamental page at

the frontispiece, one before the letter of St. Jerome, and

one before each Gospel.

The oldest Irish manuscript in existence is probably

the Domnach Airgrid, or manuscript of the Silver Shrine,

also called St. Patrick's Gospels. Dr. Petrie believed the

Domnach to be the identical reliquary given by St. Patrick

to St. Mac Cairthinn, when the latter was put in charge of

the see of Clogher, in the fifth century. "As a manuscript

copy of the Gospels apparently of that early age is found

with it, there is every reason to believe it to be that identical

one for which the box was originally made."[1] But both

case and manuscript are now held to be somewhat later in

date. Another very early manuscript is the sixth century

fragment of fifty-eight leaves of a Latin Psalter, styled the

Cathach or "Battler." For centuries this fragment has been

preserved in a beautiful case as a relic of Columba; as, indeed,

the actual cause of the dispute between Columba and

Finnian of Moville.

[1] Trans. R. I. Acad., vol. xviii. 1838,

Section V

Two features of book-economy, although not peculiar

to Ireland, are rarely met with outside that country. The

religious used satchels or wallets to carry their books about

with them. We are told Patrick once met a party of

clerics and gillies with books in their girdles; and he gave

them the hide he had sat and slept on for twenty years to

make a wallet.[1] Columba is said to have made satchels,

and to have blessed them. When these satchels were not

carried they were hung upon pegs set in the wall of the

cell or the church or the tower where they were preserved.[2]

We have already noted the legend which tells how all the

satchels in Ireland slipped off their pegs when Longarad

died. A modern writer visiting the Abyssinian convent

of Souriani has seen a room which, when we remember the

connection between Egyptian and Celtic monachism, we

cannot help thinking must closely resemble an ancient

Irish cell.[3] In the room the disposition of the manuscripts

was very original. "A wooden shelf was carried in the

Egyptian style round the walls, at the height of the top of

the door.... Underneath the shelf various long wooden pegs

projected from the wall; they were each about a foot and

a half long, and on them hung the Abyssinian manuscripts,

of which this curious library was entirely composed. The

books of Abyssinia are . . . enclosed in a case tied up

with leathern thongs; to this case is attached a strap for

the convenience of carrying the volume over the shoulders,

and by these straps the books were hung to the wooden

pegs, three or four on a peg, or more if the books were

small; their usual size was that of a small, very thick

quarto. The appearance of the room, fitted up in this style,

together with the presence of long staves, such as the

monks of all the Oriental churches lean upon at the time of

prayer, resembled less a library than a barrack or guardroom,

where the soldiers had hung their knapsacks and

cartridge boxes against the wall." The few old Irish

satchels remaining are black with age, and the characteristic

decoration of diagonal lines and interlaced markings is

nearly worn away. Two of them are preserved in England

and Ireland: those of the Book of Armagh, in Trinity

College, Dublin, and of the Irish Missal in Corpus Christi

College, Oxford. The wallet at Oxford looks much like

a modern schoolboy's satchel; leather straps are fixed to

it, by which it was slung round the neck. The Armagh

wallet is made of one piece of leather, folded to form a case a

foot long, a little more than a foot broad, and two and a half

inches thick. The Book of Armagh does not fit it properly.

Interlaced work and zoomorphs decorate the leather. Remains

of rough straps are still attached to the sides.

[1] Stokes (W.), T. L., 75. The terms used for satchels are

sacculi (Lat.), and tiag, or tiag liubhair or teig liubair (Ir.).

There has been some confusion between polaire and tiag, the

former being regarded as a leather case for a single

book, the latter a satchel for several books. This distinction is

made in connection with the ancient Irish life of Columba, which

is therefore made to read that the saint used to make cases and

satchels for books (polaire ocus tiaga), v. Adamnan, I l 5. Cf.

Petrie, Round Towers, 336-7. But the late Dr. Whitley Stokes

makes polaire or polire, or the corruption folaire, derive from

pugillares = writing tablets.--Stokes (W.), T. L., cliii. and

655. This interpretation of the word gives us the much more

likely reading that Columba made tablets, and satchels for books.

[2] Stokes (M.), 50.

[3] Curzon, Monasteries of the Levant, 66.

The second special feature of Irish book-economy

was the preservation of manuscripts in cumdachs or rectangular

boxes, made just large enough for the books they

were intended to enshrine. As in the case of the wallet,

the cumdach was not peculiar to Ireland, although the

finest examples which have come down to us were made

in that country.[1] They are referred to several times in

early Irish annals. Bishop Assicus is said to have made

quadrangular book-covers in honour of Patrick.[2] In the

Annals of the Four Masters is recorded, under the year 937,

a reference to the cumdach of the Book of Armagh, or the

Canon of Patrick. "Canoin Phadraig was covered by

Donchadh, son of Flann, king of Ireland." In 1006 the

Annals note that the Book of Kells--"the Great Gospel of

Columb Cille was stolen at night from the western erdomh

of the Great Church of Ceannanus. This was the principal

relic of the western world, on account of its singular cover;

and it was found after twenty nights and two months, its gold

having been stolen off it, and a sod over it."[3] These cumdachs

are now lost; so also is the jewelled case of the Gospels

of St. Arnoul at Metz, and that belonging to the Book of Durrow.

[1] Mr. Allen, in his admirable volume on Celtic Art, p. 208, in

this series, says cumdachs were peculiar to Ireland. But they

were made and used elsewhere, and were variously known as capsae,

librorum coopertoria (e.g.... librorumque coopertoria; quaedam

horum nuda, quaedam vero alia auro atque argento gemmisque

pretiosis circumtecta.--Acta SS., Aug. iii. 659c), and thecae.

Some of these cases were no doubt as beautifully decorated as the

Irish cumdachs. William of Malmesbury asserts that twenty pounds

and sixty masks of gold were used to make the coopertoria

librorum Evangelii for King Ina's chapel. At the Abbey of St.

Riquier was an "Evangelium auro Scriptum unum, cum capsa argentea

gemmis et lapidibus fabricata. Aliae capsae evangeliorum duae ex

auro et argento paratae."--Maitland, 212. In 1295 St. Paul's

Cathedral possessed a copy of the Gospels in a case (capsa)

adorned with gilding and relics.--Putnam, i. 105-6.

[2] Leborchometa chethrochori, and bibliothecae

qruadratae.--Stokes (W.), T. L., 96 and 313.

[3] Stokes (M.), 90.

By good hap, several cumdachs of the greatest interest

are still preserved for our inspection. One of them, the

Silver Shrine of the so-called St. Patrick's Gospels, is a

very peculiar case. It consists of three covers. The first

or inner, is of yew, and was perhaps made in the sixth or

seventh century. The second, of copper, silver-plated, is

of later make. The third, or outermost, is of silver, and

was probably made in the fourteenth century. The

cumdach of the Stowe Missal (1023) is a much more

beautiful example. It is of oak, covered with plates of

silver. The lower or more ancient side bears a cross

within a rectangular frame. In the centre of the cross is a

crystal set in an oval mount. The decoration of the four

panels consists of metal plates, the ornament being a

chequer-work of squares and triangles. The lid has a

similar cross and frame, but the cross is set with pearls and

metal bosses, a crystal in the centre, and a large jewel at

the end of each arm. The panels consist of silver-gilt

plates embellished with figures of saints. The sides, which

are decorated with enamelled bosses and open-work designs,

are imperfect. On the box are inscriptions in Irish, such

as the following: "Pray for Dunchad, descendant of Taccan,

of the family of Cluain, who made this"; "A blessing of

God on every soul according to its merit"; "Pray for

Donchadh, son of Brian, for the king of Ireland"; "And

for Macc Raith, descendant of Donnchad, for the king of

Cashel."[1] Other cumdachs are those in the Royal Irish

Academy for Molaise's Gospels (c. 1001-25), for Columba's

Psalter (1084), and those in Trinity College, Dublin, for

Dimma's book (1150) and for the Book of St. Moling.

There are also the cumdachs for Cairnech's Calendar and

that of Caillen; both of late date. The library of St. Gall

possesses still another silver cumdach, which is probably Irish.

[1] Stokes (M.), 92-3.

These are the earliest relics we have of what was

undoubtedly an old and established method of enshrining

books, going back as far as Patrick's time, if it be correct

that Bishop Assicus made them, or if the first case of the

Silver Shrine is as old as it is believed to be. The

beautiful lower cover of the Gospels of Lindau, now in

Mr. Pierpont Morgan's treasure-house, proves that at least

as early as the seventh century the Irish lavished as much

art on the outside of their manuscripts as upon the inside.[1]

It is natural to make a beautiful covering for a book which

is both beautiful and sacred. All the volumes upon which

the Irish artist exercised his talent were invested with

sacred attributes. Chroniclers would have us believe they

were sometimes miraculously produced. In the life of

Cronan[2] is a story telling how an expert scribe named

Dimma copied the four Gospels. Dimma could only

devote a day to the task, whereupon Cronan bade him

begin at once and continue until sunset. But the sun did

not set for forty days, and by that time the copy was

finished. The manuscript written for Cronan is possibly

the book of Dimma, which bears the inscription: "It is

finished. A prayer for Dimma, who wrote it for God, and

a blessing."[3]

[1] See La Bibliofilia, xi. 165.

[2] Acta SS. Ap., iii. 581c.

[3] Healy, 524.

It was believed such books could not be injured. St.

Ciaran's copy of the Gospels fell into a lake, but was

uninjured. St. Cronan's copy fell into Loch Cre, and remained

under water forty days without injury. Even fire

could not harm St. Cainnech's case of books.[1] Nor is it

surprising they should be looked upon as sacred. The

scribes and illuminators who took such loving care to make

their work perfect, and the craftsmen who wrought beautiful

shrines for the books so made, were animated with the

feeling and spirit which impels men to erect beautiful

churches to testify to the glory of their Creator. As

Dimma says, they "wrote them for God."

[1] Other instances are cited in Adamnan, book ii., chap 8.

CHAPTER II. THE ENGLISH MONKS AND THEIR BOOKS

"There are delightful libraries, more aromatic than stores of

spicery; there are luxuriant parks of all manner of volumes;

there are Academic meads shaken by the tramp of scholars; there

are lounges of Athens; walks of the Peripatetics; peaks of

Parnassus; and porches of the Stoics. There is seen the surveyor

of all arts and sciences Aristotle, to whom belongs all that is

most excellent in doctrine, so far as relates to this

passing sublunary world; there Ptolemy measures epicycles and

eccentric apogees and the nodes of the planets by figures and

numbers...." Richard De Bury, Philobiblon, Thomas' ed. 200

Section I

The Benedictine order established monastic study on

a regular plan. Benedict's forty-eighth rule is clear

in its directions. "Idleness is hurtful to the soul.

At certain times, therefore, the brethren must work with

their hands, and at others give themselves up to holy

reading." From Easter to the first of October the monks

were required to work at manual labour from prime until

the fourth hour. From the fourth hour until nearly the

sixth hour they were to read. After their meal at the

sixth hour they were to lie on their beds, and those who

cared to do so might read, but not aloud. After nones

work must be resumed until evening. From October the

first until the beginning of Lent they were to read until

the ninth hour. At the ninth hour they were to take their

meal and then read spiritual works or the Psalms.

Throughout Lent they were required to read until the

third hour, then work until the tenth. Every monk was

to have a book from the library, and to read it through

during Lent. On Sundays reading was their duty throughout

the day, except in the case of those having special

tasks. During reading hours two senior brethren were

expected to go the rounds to see that the monks were

actually reading, and not lounging nor gossiping. But

the brethren were not allowed to have a book or tablets

or a pen of their own.

Benedict's inclusion of these directions was of capital

importance in the advance of monkish learning. Being

milder and more flexible, communal instead of eremitical,

and so altogether more humane and attractive, his Rule

gradually took the place of existing orders. And as the

change came about, ill-regulated theological study gave

way to superior methods of learning, solely due to the

better organisation and greater liberality of the Benedictine

order.

Benedictinism came to England with Augustine (597).

The Rule, however, does not seem to have been strictly or

consistently observed for a long time. But the studious

labours of the monks remained just as important a part of

their lives as they would have been had the monasteries

closely followed Benedict's directions. Especially would

this be the case in the seventh century, and afterwards,

during the time continental monachism was in rivalry

with the Celtic missionaries.

Section II

From the first we hear of books in connexion with Canterbury.

Gregory the Great gave to Augustine, either just

before his English mission, or sent to him soon afterward,

nine volumes, which were put in St. Augustine's monastery

--the monastery of SS. Peter and Paul, beyond the walls.

Being for church purposes, the books were very beautiful

and valuable. There was the Gregorian Bible in two

volumes, with some of its leaves coloured rose and

purple, which gave a wonderful reflection when held to

the light; the Psalter of Augustine; a copy of the

Gospels called the Text of St. Mildred, upon which a

countryman in Thanet swore falsely and, it is said, lost

his sight; as well as another copy of the Gospels; a

Psalter, with plain silver images of Christ and the four

Evangelists on the cover; two martyrologies, one adorned

with a silver figure of Christ, the other enriched with silver-

gilt and precious stones; and an Exposition of the Gospels

and Epistles, also enriched with gems.[1] Some of these

books were kept above the altar. Bede also records the

gift by Gregory to Augustine of "many manuscripts,"

and his authority is unimpeachable, as he derived his

knowledge of Canterbury affairs from written records and

information supplied by Albinus, first English abbot of

Augustine's house.[2] This monastery "was thus the mother-

school, the mother-university of England,... at a time when

Cambridge was a desolate fen, and Oxford a tangled forest

in a wide waste of waters. They remind us that English

power and English religion have, as from the very first, so

ever since, gone along with knowledge, with learning, and

especially with that learning and that knowledge which

those old manuscripts give--the knowledge and learning

of the Gospel."[3] Few books would be treasured more

carefully and treated with greater reverence by English

churchmen and book lovers than these "first books of the

English church," if any of them could be found. They are

referred to as existing when William Thorne wrote his

chronicle (c. 1397),[4] and Leland tells us he saw and

admired them; but after his time nearly all trace of them

is lost.[5]

[1] Hist. mon. S. Augustini, Cant., 96-99, "Et haec sunt

primitiae librorum totius ecclesiae Anglicanae," 99.

[2] H. E., i. 29.

[3] Stanley, Hist. Mem. of C. (1868), 42.

[4] Hist. mon. S. Aug., xxv.

[5] B. M. Reg. I. E vi. may be a part of the Gregorian Bible, or

the second

copy of the Gospels mentioned above, if this second copy is not

Corpus Christi,

Camb. 286. Corpus C. 286 is a seventh century book, certainly

from St. Augustine's;

it was probably brought to England in the time of Theodore, and

though it

may be one of the books referred to above, is, therefore, not

Augustinian.

The Psalter bearing the silver images is "most likely" Cott.

Vesp. A. I, an

eighth century manuscript; it is, therefore, not Augustinian,

although it may be a

copy of the original Psalter given by Gregory.--James, lxvi.

No further hint of books occurs until Theodore became

Archbishop more than seventy years later. Theodore, who

had been educated both at Tarsus and Athens, where he

became a good Greek and Latin scholar, well versed in secular

and divine literature, began a school at Canterbury for the

study of Greek, and provided it with some Greek books.

None of these books has been traced with certainty. Some

may have existed in Archbishop Parker's time. "The Rev.

Father Matthew," says Lambarde, in his Perambulation of

Kent, . . . "showed me, not long since, the Psalter of David,

and sundry homilies in Greek, Homer also, and some other

Greek authors, beautifully written on thick paper with the

name of this Theodore prefixed in the front, to whose

library he reasonably thought (being led thereto by show

of great antiquity) that they sometime belonged." The

manuscript of Homer, now in Corpus Christi Library,

Cambridge, did not belong to Theodore, but to Prior

Selling, of whom we shall hear later. But possibly the

famous Graeco-Latin copy of the Acts, now in the Bodleian

Library, belonged either to Theodore or to his companion,

Hadrian.[1]

[1] Known as Codex E, or the Laudian Acts (Laud. Gr. 35). Bede

refers to a Greek manuscript of the Acts in his Retractationes;

possibly this is the actual copy. The last page of the book bears

the signature "Theodore"; did Archbishop Theodore bring the

volume to England?" It is at least safe to say that the presence

of such a book in England in Bede's time can hardly be

entirely independent of the influence of Theodore or of Abbot

Hadrian."--James (M. R.), xxiii.

Theodore, with Hadrian's help, not only started the

Canterbury School, but encouraged similar foundations in

other English monasteries. In southern England, however,

Canterbury remained the centre of learning, and many

ecclesiastics were attracted to it in consequence. Bede

amply proves its efficiency as a school. And forasmuch as

both Theodore and Hadrian were "fully instructed both in

sacred and in secular letters, they gathered a crowd of

disciples, and rivers of wholesome knowledge daily flowed

from them to water the hearts of their hearers; and, together

with the books of Holy Scripture, they also taught

them the metrical art, astronomy, and ecclesiastical arithmetic.

A testimony whereof is, that there are still living

at this day some of their scholars, who are as well versed in

the Greek and Latin tongues as in their own, in which they

were born."[1] Elsewhere he mentions some of these scholars

by name. Albinus, already referred to as the first English

abbot of St. Augustine's, "was so well instructed in literary

studies, that he had no small knowledge of the Greek tongue,

and knew the Latin as well as the English, which was his

native language."[2] "A most learned man" was another

disciple, Tobias, bishop of Rochester, who, besides having

a great knowledge of letters, both ecclesiastical and general,

learned the Greek and Latin tongues "to such perfection,

that they were as well known and familiar to him as his

native language."[3]

[1] H. E., iv. 2, tr. Sellar.

[2] Ib. v. 20.

[3] Ib. v. 23.

Canterbury's most notable scholar was Aldhelm, the

first bishop of Sherborne. In him were united the

learning of the Canterbury and the Irish monks, for he

studied first under Maildulf, the Irish monk and scholar

who founded and gave his name to Malmesbury, and then

under Hadrian. When he went to be consecrated an incident

befell him which at once shows his zeal for learning, and casts

a welcome ray of light on the importation of books. While

at Canterbury he heard of the arrival of ships at Dover, and

thither he journeyed to see whether they had brought

anything in his way. He found on board plenty of books,

among them one containing the complete Testaments. He

offered to buy it, but his price was too low; although,

afterwards, when it was believed his prayers had delivered the

owner from a storm, he secured it on his own terms.[1]

[1] This copy was still at Malmesbury in the twelfth century.--W.

of Malmesbury, Ang. Sacr., ii. 21.

Aldhelm at length became abbot of Malmesbury

(c. 675), and under him it grew to much greater eminence,

and attracted a large number of students. Here, in the

solitude of the forest tract, he passed his time in singing

merry ballads to win the ear of the people for his more

serious words, playing the harp, in teaching, and in reading

the considerable library he had at hand. Bede describes

him as a man "of marvellous learning both in liberal and

ecclesiastical studies." Judging by his writings he was in

these respects in the forefront of his contemporaries, although

his learning was heavy and pretentious. From them also

it is perfectly evident he could make use not only of the

Bible, but of lives of the saints, of Isidore, of the

Recognitions

of Clement, of the Acts of Sylvester, of writings by Sulpicius

Severus, Athanasius, Gregory, Eusebius, and Jerome, as well

as of Terence, Virgil, Horace, Juvenal, Persius, and Prosper,

and some other authors.[1]

[1] Sandys, i. 466; Camb. Eng. Lit., i. 75.

Section III

Meanwhile Northumbria had become one of the leading

centres of learning in Europe, almost entirely through the

labours and influence of Irish missionaries. St. Aidan, an

ascetic of Iona who journeyed to Northumbria at King

Oswald's request, founded Lindisfarne, which became the

monastic and episcopal capital of that kingdom. Aidan

required all his pupils, whether religious or laymen, to read

the Scriptures, or to learn the Psalms. The education of

boys was a part of his system. Wherever a monastery was

founded it became a school wherein taught the monks who

had followed him from Scotland. Cedd, the founder and

abbot of Lastingham, was Aidan's pupil, so was his brother,

the great bishop Ceadda (Chad), who succeeded him in his

abbacy. At Lindisfarne was wrought by Eadfrith (d. 721) the

beautiful manuscript of the Gospels now preserved in the

British Museum, and a little later the fine cover for it.

Lastingham, founded on the desolate moorland of North

Yorkshire, "among steep and distant mountains, which

looked more like lurking-places for robbers and dens of

wild beasts, than dwellings of men," upheld the traditions

of the Columban houses for piety, asceticism, and studious

occupations. Thither repaired one Owini, not to live idle,

but to labour, and as he was less capable of studying, he

applied himself earnestly to manual work, the while better-

instructed monks were indoors reading.

In many directions do we observe traces of Aidan's

good work. Hild, the foundress of Whitby Abbey, was for

a short time his pupil. Her monastery was famous for having

educated five bishops, among them John of Beverley, and

for giving birth, in Caedmon, to the father of English poetry.

"Religious poetry, sung to the harp as it passed from hand

to hand, must have flourished in the monastery of the abbess

Hild, and the kernel of Bede's story concerning the birth of

our earliest poet must be that the brethren and sisters on

that bleak northern shore spoke to each other in psalms

and hymns and spiritual songs.' "[1] of Melrose, an offshoot

of Aidan's foundation, the sainted Cuthbert was an inmate.

At Lindisfarne, where "he speedily learned the Psalms and

some other books," the great Wilfrid was a novice. Of his

studies, indeed, we know little: he seems to have sought

prelatical power rather than learning. But he and his

followers were responsible for the conversion of the

Northumbrian church from Columban to Roman usages, and the

introduction of Benedictinism into the monasteries; and

consequently for bringing the studies of the monks into line

with the rules of Benedict's order.

[1] Camb, Eng., Lit., i. 45.

Such progress would have been impossible had not the

rulers of Northumbria from Oswald to Aldfrith been friendly

to Christianity. Aldfrith had been educated at Iona, and

was a man of studious disposition. His predecessor had

advanced Northumbria's reputation enormously by giving

Benedict Biscop (629-90) sites for his monasteries of Wearmouth

and Jarrow.[1] We know enough of this Benedict to

wish we knew very much more. He suggests to us enthusiasm

for his cause, and energy and foresight in labouring for it.

Naturally, Aldhelm's writings have gained him far more

attention in literary histories than the Northumbrian has

received. But the influence of Benedict, a man of much

learning, wide-travelled, was at least as great and as far-

reaching Lerins, the great centre of monachism in Gaul,

and Canterbury under Theodore, had been his schools. On

six occasions he flitted back and forth to Rome, and to go

to Rome, in those days, was a liberal education, both in

worldly and spiritual affairs. Not a little of his influence

was the direct outcome of his book-collecting. From all

his journeys to Rome he is said to have returned laden

with books. He certainly came back from his fourth

journey with a great number of books of all kinds.[2] He

also obtained books at Vienne. His sixth and last journey

to Rome was wholly devoted to collecting books, classical

as well as theological. When he died he left instructions

for the preservation of the most noble and rich library he had

gathered together.[3] "If we consider how difficult, fatiguing,

. . . even dangerous a journey between the British Islands

and Italy must have been in those days of anarchy and

barbarism, we can appreciate the intensity of Benedict's

passion for beautiful and costly volumes."[4] The library he

formed was worthy of the labour, we cannot doubt: possibly

was the best then in Britain. It served as the model for

the still more famous collection at York. The scholarship

of Bede, who used it in writing his works, proclaims its

value for literary purposes.[5] Bede tells us he always

applied himself to Scriptural study, and in the intervals of

observing monastic discipline and singing daily in the

church, he took pleasure in learning, or teaching, or writing.[6]

The picture of Bede in his solitary monastery, leading a

placid life among Benedict's books, poring over the beautifully-

wrought pages with the scholar's tense calm to find

the material in the Fathers and the historians, and to seek

the apt quotation from the classics, must always flash to the

mind at the mere mention of his name.[7] Every fact in

connexion with his work testifies to the excellent equipment

of his monastery for writing ecclesiastical history, and to

the cordial way in which the religious co-operated for the

advancement of learning and research.

[1] These foundations were regarded as one house, the inmates

being bound together by "a common and perpetual affection and

intimacy."

[2] "Innumerabilem librorum omnis generis copiam

apportavit."--Vitae Abbatum, Section 4.

[3] "Copiosissima et nobilissima bibliotheca."--Ib. Section 11.

[4] Lanciani, Anc. Rome, 201.

[5] Ceoffrid, Benedict Biscop's successor, added a number of

books to the library, among them three copies of the Vulgate, and

one of the older version. One copy of the Vulgate Ceolfrid took

with him to Rome (716) to give to the Pope. He died on the way.

The codex did not go to Rome; now, it is in the Laurentian

Library, Florence, where it is known as the Codex Amiatinus. The

writing is Italian, or at any rate foreign, so it must have been

imported, or written at Jarrow by foreign scribes. This volume is

the chief authority for the text of Jerome's translation of the

Scriptures.

[6] H. E., v. 24

[7] Bede frequently quotes Cicero, Virgil, and Horace; usually

selecting some telling phrase, e.g. "caeco carpitur igni" (H. E.

ii. 12). In his De Natura rerum he owes a good deal to Pliny and

Isidore. In his commentaries on the Scriptures he displays an

extent of reading which we have no space to give any

idea of. His chronologies were based on Jerome's edition of

Eusebius, on Augustine and Isidore. In his H. E. he uses "Pliny,

Solinus, Orosius, Eutropius Marcellinus Comes, Gildas, probably

the Historia Brittonum, a Passion of St. Alban, and the Life of

Germanus of Auxerre by Constantius"; while he refers to

lives of St. Fursa, St. Ethelburg, and to Adamnan's work on the

Holy Places. Cf. Sandys, i. 468; Camb. Lit., i. 80-81. Bede also

got first-hand knowledge: the Lindisfarne records provided him

with material on Cuthbert; information came to him from

Canterbury about Southern affairs and from Lastingham about

Mercian affairs. Nothelm got material from the archives at Rome

for him.

Section IV

Canterbury, Malmesbury, Lindisfarne, Wearmouth and

Jarrow, and York were like mountain-peaks tipped with gold

by the first rays of the rising sun, while all below remains

dark. Yet while not indicative of widespread means of

instruction, the existence of these centres, and the character

of the work done in them, suggests that at other places the

same sort of work, on a smaller and less influential scale,

soon began. At Lichfield, on the moorland at Ripon, in

"the dwelling-place in the meadows" at Peterborough, in

the desolate fenland at Crowland and at Ely, on the banks

of the Thames at Abingdon, and of the Avon at Evesham,

in the nunneries of Barking and Wimborne, at Chertsey,

Glastonbury, Gloucester, in the far north at Melrose, and

even perhaps at Coldingham, Christianity was speeding its

message, and learning--such as it was, primitive and

pretentious--caught pale reflections from more famous places.

Now and again definite facts are met with hinting at a spreading

enlightenment. Acca, abbot and bishop of Hexham,

for example "gave all diligence, as he does to this day,"

wrote Bede, "to procure relics of the blessed Apostles and

martyrs of Christ.... Besides which, he industriously gathered

the histories of their martyrdom, together with other

ecclesiastical

writings, and erected there a large and noble library."

Of this library, unfortunately, there is not a wrack left

behind. A tiny school was carried on at a monastery near

Exeter, where Boniface was first instructed. At the

monastery of Nursling he was taught grammar, history,

poetry, rhetoric, and the Scriptures; there also manuscripts

were copied. Books were produced under Abbess Eadburh

of Minster, a learned woman who corresponded with

Boniface and taught the metric art. Boniface's letters

throw interesting light on our subject. Eadburh sent him

books, money, and other gifts. He also wrote home asking

his old friend Bishop Daniel of Winchester for a fine

manuscript of the six major prophets, which had been written

in a large and clear hand by Winbert: no such book, he

explains, can be had abroad, and his eyes are no longer

strong enough to read with ease the small character of

ordinary manuscripts. In another letter written to

Ecgberht of York is recorded an exchange of books, and

a request for a copy of the commentaries of Bede.

A decree of the Council held at Cloveshoe in 747,

pointing out the want of instruction among the religious,

and ordering all bishops, abbots, and abbesses to promote

and encourage learning, whether it means that monkish

education was on the wane or that it was not making such

quick progress as was desired, at any rate does not mean

that England was in a bad way in this respect, or that she

lagged behind the Continent. On the contrary, England

and Ireland were renowned homes of learning in

Western Europe. Perhaps a few centres on the mainland

could show libraries as good as those here; but certainly

no country had such scholars. England's pre-eminence was

recognized by Charles the Great when he invited Alcuin

to his court (781).

Alcuin was brought up at York from childhood. In

company with Albert, who taught the arts and grammar

at this northern school, Alcuin visited Gaul and Rome to

scrape together a few more books. On returning later he

was entrusted with the care of the library: a task for which

he was well fitted, if enthusiasm, breaking into rime, be a

qualification:--

"Small is the space which contains the gifts of heavenly Wisdom

Which you, reader, rejoice piously here to receive;

Better than richest gifts of the Kings, this treasure of Wisdom,

Light, for the seeker of this, shines on the road to the

Day."[1]

[1] Tr. in Morley, Eng. Writers, ii. 160.

York could not retain Alcuin long. Fortunately, just when

dissensions among the English kings, and the Danish raids

began to harass England, and to threaten the coming

decline of her learning, he was invited to take charge of a

school established by Charles the Great. Charles had

undertaken the task of reviving literary study, well-nigh

extinguished through the neglect of his ancestors; and he

bade all his subjects to cultivate the arts. As far as he

could he accomplished the task, principally owing to the

aid of the English scholar and of willing helpers from

Ireland.

Alcuin was soon at the head of St. Martin's of Tours

where he was responsible for the great activity of the

scribes in his day. He persuaded Charles to send a

number of copyists to York. "I, your Flavius," he writes,

"according to your exhortation and wise desire, have been

busy under the roof of St. Martin, in dispensing to some

the honey of the Holy Scriptures. Others I strive to

inebriate with the old wine of ancient studies; these I

nourish with the fruit of grammatical knowledge; in the

eyes of these again I seek to make bright the courses of

the stars.... But I have need of the most excellent books

of scholastic learning, which I had procured in my own

country, either by the devoted care of my master, or by

my own labours. I therefore beseech your majesty . . .

to permit me to send certain of our household to bring

over into France the flowers of Britain, that the garden of

Paradise may not be confined to York, but may send some

of its scions to Tours." What the "flowers of Britain"

were at this time Alcuin has told us in Latin verse. At

York, "where he sowed the seeds of knowledge in the

morning of his life," thou shalt find, he rimes:--

"The volumes that contain

All the ancient fathers who remain;

There all the Latin writers make their home

With those that glorious Greece transferred to Rome,--

The Hebrews draw from their celestial stream,

And Africa is bright with learning's beam."

Then, after including in his metrical catalogue the names

of forty writers, he proceeds:--

"There shalt thou find, O reader, many more

Famed for their style, the masters of old lore,

Whose many volumes singly to rehearse

Were far too tedious for our present verse."[1]

[1] Tr. in West, Alcuin, 34-35.

A goodly store indeed in such an age.

Section V

Sunlight and shadow follow one another rapidly across

England's early history. The migration of York's renowned

scholar took place six years before the Viking

irruptions began, and about twelve years before a heavy

blow was struck at Northumbrian learning by the ravaging

and destruction of the monasteries of Lindisfarne, and

Wearmouth and Jarrow. After this there was but little

peace for England. Kent was often attacked. In 838

the marauders fell upon East Anglia. Between 837 and

845 they made various fierce attacks upon Wessex. In

851 the pillage of Canterbury and London was a severe

blow to the English. About fifteen years later, at the

hands of the Danes, Melrose, Tynemouth, Whitby, and

Lastingham shared Wearmouth's fate. Of York and its

library we hear no more. Peterborough and its large

collection of sacred books perished at the hands of the

same raiders as those who burnt Crowland (870). So bad

grew affairs that Alfred the Great, writing to Bishop

Werfrith, bewailed the small number of people south of the

Humber who understood the English of their service, or

could translate from Latin into English. Even beyond

the Humber there were not many; not one could he

remember south of the Thames when he began to reign.

And he bethought himself of the wise men, both church

and lay folk, formerly living in England, and how zealous

they were in teaching and learning, and how men came

from abroad in search of wisdom and instruction. Apparently

some decline from this standard had been noticeable

before ruin completely overtook the monasteries. He

remembered how, before the land had been ravaged and

burnt, "its churches stood filled with treasures and books,

and with a multitude of His servants, but they had very

little knowledge of the books, and could not understand

them, for they were not written in their own language....

When I remembered all this, I much marvelled that the

good and wise men who were formerly all over England,

and had perfectly learnt all these books, did not wish to

translate them into their own tongues." By way of

remedying this omission, he translated Cura Pastoralis into

English. "I will send a copy to every bishopric in my

kingdom; and on each there is a clasp worth 50 mancus.

And I command in God's name that no man take the clasp

from the book or the book from the minster; it is uncertain

how long there may be such learned bishops as now are,

thanks be to God, nearly everywhere."[1]

[1] Tr. in King's Letters, ed. Steele (1903), I. Cf. Bodl. MS

Hatton, 20;

Cott. MS. Otho B 2; Corpus C. C., Camb. MS. 12.

This letter, written in 890, marks the revival of interest

in letters under Alfred. In adding to his own knowledge,

and in promoting education among his people, he was

assiduous and determined. During the leisure of one

period of eight months, Asser seems to have read to him

all the congenial books at hand, Alfred's custom being to

read aloud or to listen to others reading. Asser was a

Welsh bishop, brought to Wessex to help the king in his

work. For the same purpose Archbishop Plegmund[1] and

Bishop Werfrith were brought from Mercia. Other scholars

came from abroad. One named Grimbald, a monk from

St. Bertin, came to take charge of the abbey of Hyde,

Winchester, which Alfred had planned. John, of Old-Saxony,

a learned monk of the flourishing Westphalian Abbey of

Corvey--where a library existed in this century,[2]--was made

by Alfred abbot of Athelney monastery and school. Perhaps

John, called the Scot or Erigena, also came, but we do

not know certainly. Alfred also introduced teachers, both

English and foreign, into his monasteries, his aim being to

provide the means of educating every freeborn and well-to-

do youth. During the whole of the latter part of his reign

the copying of manuscripts went on, though with only

moderate activity.

[1] MS. Cott. Tib. B xi.--a copy of Alfred's version of the Cura,

or what is left of it--has been connected with Archbishop

Plegmund, the evidence being a Saxon inscription on the

manuscript Wanley, however, doubted the conclusiveness of

this evidence, which, together with most of the text, was lost in

the fire of 1731. --James, xxiii-iv.

[2] Sandys, i. 484.

That Alfred, amid the cares of a troublesome kingship,

could find time to devote to this work, and realised

the importance of vernacular literature, is one of the chief

signs of his greatness. What he did had a lasting influence

upon our literature. He tapped the wellspring of English

prose. Mainly owing to his initiative, from his day till the

Conquest all the literature of importance was in the

vernacular, and the impulse so given to the language as a

literary vehicle was strong enough to preserve it from

extinction during the Norman domination, when it was

superseded as the court and official language. But, so far

as the making and circulation of books is concerned, the

"revival" under Alfred did not prosper. The necessary

machinery was almost entirely wanting. The monastic

schools, the great--the only--means of disseminating the

learning of the time, were few in number and not very

influential. For Athelney, a small monastery, Alfred had

difficulty in finding monks at all: he had to get them from

abroad; while the rule in this house does not seem to have

been wholly satisfactory. At the time of his death (c. 901)

monachism was in a bad way. Fifty years later its plight

would seem to have been worse. Only two houses,

Abingdon and Glastonbury, could be really called monastic.

"In the middle of the tenth century the Rule of St.

Benedict, the standard of monasticism in Western

Christendom, was, according to virtually contemporary

authority, completely unknown in England. This will not

appear strange if we consider that it was never very

generally or strictly carried out here, that the Danish

invasions had broken the continuity of monastic life, and

that not many years earlier the very existence of the Rule

had been forgotten in not a few continental monasteries."[1]

Although England always responded to the slightest effort

to affect her culture, as the long deer grass waves an

answer to every breath of the wind, yet the surprising

eminence of some of the churchmen in the latter half of the

century and the excellence of their work cannot be

accounted for if the influence of Alfred's reign had utterly

died out. But it had not. Only the machinery was

defective. The driving power remained, latent but ready

for action. One indication of a surviving interest in these

matters at this time is the gift of some nine books to

St. Augustine's Abbey by King Athelstan--an interesting

little collection including Isidore de Natura Rerum, Persius,

Donatus, Alcuin, Sedulius, and possibly a work by Bede.

The machinery, however, was soon to be improved.

Dunstan, Oswald, Edgar, and Ethelwold set matters right

by reforming and extending the monastic system, and

by making it the means of encouraging education and

learning.

[1] Hunt, Hist. of Eng. Church, i. 326.

The leaders were Dunstan and Ethelwold. In youth

the former was renowned for his eagerness in studying, and

for the wealth and knowledge he acquired. He was a

"lover of ballads and music," "a hard student, an indefatigable

worker, busy at books"; spending his leisure in reading

sacred authors, and in correcting manuscripts, sometimes

at daybreak. He was also very skilful at working in metal

and at drawing and illuminating. Maybe the picture of

him kneeling before the Saviour which is preserved in the

Bodleian Library is by his own hand; this, however, is not

certain.[1] But some relics of his literary work were

preserved at Glastonbury until the Reformation--passages

transcribed from Frank and Roman law books, a pamphlet

on grammar, a mass of Biblical quotations, a collection of

canons drawn from Dunstan's Irish teachers, a book on

the Apocalypse, and other works.[2] He entirely reformed

Glastonbury and made it a flourishing school, where the

Scriptures, ecclesiastical writings, and grammar were taught.

Ethelwold was a Glastonbury scholar and assistant to

Dunstan. Glastonbury, and Abingdon, where he became

Abbot, and Winchester, to which see he was consecrated,

were the centres whence, during the sixty years succeeding

Edgar's accession, some forty monasteries were founded

or restored. Winchester became pre-eminent. Ethelwold

himself was a teacher of grammar. It was his delight to

teach boys and young men, and to help them in their

translations; hence it came to pass that many of his pupils

became abbots and bishops.[3] A curious story is told in

illustration of his studious disposition. One night, when

reading after prolonged watching, sleep overcame him, and

as he slept the candle fell on the page and remained burning

there until a brother came along and snatched it up,

when the book by a miracle was found to be uninjured.[4]

A vignette of pure and true tnedievalism: the long and

solitary watching, the saintly pursuit of divine wisdom, the

wide-open book, with the bold and beautiful text, and the

quaint decoration, wrought by loving hands, and the inevitable

miracle,--the suggestion of a Divine Providence

watching over and protecting all that is sacred.

[1] Strutt, Saxon Antiq., i. 105, pl. xviii. The picture is in a

large volume containing part of a grammar and certain other

pieces used at Glastonbury.--MS. Auct. F. iv. 32. Over the

picture is the inscription: Pictura et scriptura

hujus paginae subtus visa est de propria muanu Sci. Dunstani.

[2] Stubbs, Mem. of Dunstan, cx.-cxii.

[3] Chron. Mon. de Abingdon, ii. 263.

[4] Ibid., ii. 265.

Some beautiful examples of work of this period have been

preserved. "Winchester" work is a familiar and expressive

term in illumination, and nobody will ask why this is so if

they have seen a manuscript executed there towards the

end of the tenth century. The Benedictional and Missal

of Archbishop Robert, which is certainly English, and most

likely an example of New Minster work, is illuminated with

miniatures, foliated and architectural borders, and capitals

and letters of gold, in virile workmanship. A still finer

example--the finest example of Old Minster craft--is the

Benedictional of Ethelwold, now in the Duke of Devonshire's

library. The versified dedication, inscribed in letters

of gold, tells us, in substance--"The Great Aethelwold . . .

illustrious, venerable and mild . . . commanded a certain

monk subject to him to write the present book: he ordered

also to be made in it many arches elegantly decorated and

filled up with various ornamented pictures expressed in

divers beautiful colours, and gold."[1] Godeman, abbot of

Thorney, was the scribe, but the illuminator is unknown.

Each full page has nineteen lines of writing, with letters

nearly a quarter of an inch long. Alternate lines in gold,

red, and black occur once or twice in the same page. There

are thirty miniatures and thirteen fully illuminated pages,

some of these having framed borders, foliated, others columns

and arches. The figures are remarkably well drawn, the

drapery being especially good. The whole is in a fine

state of preservation, especially the gold ornaments; the

gold used was leaf upon size, afterwards well burnished.

Of the rival craftsmanship at New Minster we have a

splendid example in the Golden Book of Edgar, so called

on account of its raised gold text.[2] Work of this grand

character is the best testimony to the noble spirit of

monachism in the days of Ethelwold.

[1] Archaeologia, xxiv. I9.

[2] B. M. Cott. Vesp., A. viii., written 966.

One of Ethelwold's pupils was Aelfric, who became

Archbishop of Canterbury in 995. He was responsible for

the canon requiring every priest, before ordination, to have

the Psalter, the Epistles, the Gospels, a Missal, the Book

of Hymns, the Manual, the Calendar, the Passional, the

Penitential, and the Lectionary. On his death he bequeathed

all his books to St. Albans.[1]

[1] Hook, Archbishops, i. 453 (1st ed.).

Another pupil of the same name is still more famous.

This scholar's grammar, with its translated passages, his

glossary--the oldest Latin-English dictionary--and his

conversation-manual of questions and answers, with interlinear

translations, suggest that he must have done much

to make the study of Latin easier and more congenial;

while his homilies display his art in making knowledge

popular, and prove him to be the greatest master of

English prose before the Conquest.

Several other interesting and suggestive facts belonging

to this period have been preserved for us. Abbot Aefward,

for example, gave to his abbey of Evesham many sacred

books and books on grammar (c. 1035): here, at any rate,

progress was real.[1] At a manor of the abbey of Bury St.

Edmunds were thirty volumes, exclusive of church books

(1044-65).[2] Bishop Leofric also obtained over sixty books

for Exeter Cathedral about sixteen years before the Conquest,

a collection to which we must refer later.

[1] Chron. Abb. de E., 83.

[2] James 1, 5-6.

CHAPTER III. LIBRARIES OF THE GREAT ABBEYS--BOOK-LOVERS

AMONG THE MENDICANTS--DISPERSAL OF MONKISH LIBRARIES

Section I

The Conquest wrought both good and evil to literature

--evil because the Normans thought books written

in the vernacular unworthy of preservation;[1] good

because the change brought to the country settled government,

and to the church an opportunity for reformation.

Lanfranc was the moving spirit of reform, both in church

administration and in the learning of its members. While

still in Normandy he had built up a reputation for the

monastic school at Bec, and probably had a share in

collecting the excellent library that we know the monastery

possessed in the twelfth century.[2] When he was appointed

to the see of Canterbury he continued to work for the same

ends, although his primacy can have left him little leisure.

A fresh beginning had to be made in Canterbury. In

1067 a fire destroyed the city, including the cathedral and

almost the whole of the monastic buildings; and in this

disaster many "sacred and profane books" were burned.

It was Lanfranc's task to repair this loss. He brought

books with him,[3] and introduced some changes and more

method in the making and use of them. In the customary

of the Benedictine order which he drew up to correspond

with the best monastic practice, he included minute

instructions about lending and reading books. He was also

responsible in the main for the substitution of the continental

Roman handwriting for the beautiful Hiberno-Saxon hand.

In another respect his influence was more beneficial. Both

at Bec and in England he aimed to turn out accurate texts

of patristic books, and the better to achieve this end he

himself corrected manuscripts. In the abbey of St. Martin

de Secz at one time there was a copy of the first ten

Conferences of Cassian with his corrections; and in the

library of Mans is a St. Ambrose which was overlooked by

him.[4] Happily he was in a position to lend texts to monks

for transcribing, and his help in this direction was sought

by Abbot Paul of St. Albans. Recent research by Dr.

Montagu James suggests that Lanfranc's work for the

Canterbury library was a good deal more practical and

influential than has been usually believed. Among the

survivors of the Canterbury collections at Trinity College,

Cambridge, and elsewhere, "are some scores of volumes

undoubtedly from Christ Church, all of one epoch," the

eleventh and twelfth centuries, and all written in hands

modelled on an Italian style. "Another distinguishing

mark," writes Dr. James, "in these volumes is the employment

of a peculiar purple in the decorative initials and

headings.... The nearest approaches I find to it in

England are in certain manuscripts which were once at

St. Augustine's Abbey, and in others which belonged to

Rochester. It can be shown that books did occasionally

pass from Christ Church to St. Augustine's, and it can also

be shown that certain of the Rochester books were written

at Christ Church." All these books, therefore, Dr. James

believes, were given by Lanfranc or produced under his

direction.[6]

[1] Most old English poems are preserved in unique manuscripts,

sometimes not complete, but in fragments; two fragments, for

example, were found in the bindings of other books.--Warton, ii.

7. In 1248, only four books in English were at Glastonbury, and

they are described as old and useless.--John of G., 435;

Ritson, i. 43. About fifty years later only seventeen such books

were in the big library at Canterbury.--James (M. R.), 51. A

striking illustration of the disuse of the vernacular among the

religious is found in an Anglo-Saxon Gregory's Pastoral Care,

which is copiously glossed in Latin, in two or three hands.

This manuscript, now in Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, No.

12, came from Worcester Priory.--James 17, 33.

[3] Becker, 199, 257

[4] In an eleventh century manuscript in Trinity College Library,

Cambridge (MS. B. 16, 44), is an inscription, perhaps by Lanfranc

himself, recording that he brought it from Bec and gave it to

Christ Church.

[5] At the end of the manuscript of Cassian is written: "Hucusque

ego Lanfrancus correxi."--Hist. Litt. de la France, vii. 117. At

the end of the Ambrose (Hexaemeron) the note reads, "Lanfrancus

ego correxi."

[6] James (M. R.), xxx.

Lanfranc also encouraged original composition, for

Osbern, monk of Canterbury, compiled his lives of St.

Dunstan, St. Alphege, and St. Odo under his eye.

In this work of bookmaking and collecting Lanfranc

was supported or his example was followed by other monks

from Normandy: by Abbot Walter of Evesham, who made

many books;[1] by Ernulf of Rochester, who compiled the

Textus Roffensis; and by many others. At this time grew

up the practice of using English houses to supply books

for Norman abbeys; this partly explains the number of

manuscripts of English workmanship now abroad. A

manuscript preserved in Paris contains a note by a canon

of Ste-Barbe-en-Auge referring to Beckford in Gloucestershire,

an English cell of his house, whence books were sent

to Normandy.[2]

[1] Chron. Abb. de Evesham, 97.

[2] Library of Ste. Genevieve, Paris, MS. E. 1. 17, in 40, fol.

61. The note reads: Quia autem apud Bequefort victualium copia

erat, scriptores etiam ibi habebantur quorum opera ad nos in

Normaniam mittebantur.--Library, v. 2 (1893).

From Lanfranc to the close of the thirteenth century,

was the summer-time of the English religious houses. The

Cluniac or reformed Benedictines settled here about 1077.

In 1105 the Austin Canons first planted a house in this

country. The White Monks, another reformed Benedictine

order, entered England in 1128, and in the course of four

and twenty years founded fifty houses. Soon after, in 1139,

the English Gilbertines were established, then came the

White Canons, and in 1180 the Carthusian monks. The land

was peppered with houses. In less than a century and a half,

from the Conquest to about 1200, it is estimated that no

fewer than 430 houses were founded, making, with 130

founded before the Conquest, 560 in all.[1] Many were

wealthy: some were powerful, because they owned much

property, and popular because, like Malmesbury, they were

"distinguished for their delightful hospitality' to guests

who, arriving every hour, consume more than the inmates

themselves."[2] The Cluniacs could almost be called a

fashionable order.

[1] Stevenson, Grosseteste, 149.

[2] Gesta R. Angl., lib. v.; Camb. Lit., i. 159-60.

During this prosperous age some of the great houses

did their best work in writing and study. Thus to pick

out one or two facts from a string of them. In 1104

Abbot Peter of Gloucester gave many books to the abbey

library. In 1180 the refounded abbey of Whitby owned

a fair library of theological, historical, and classical

books.[1]

About the same time Abbot Benedict ordered the transcription

of sixty volumes, containing one hundred titles,

for his library at Peterborough.[2] By 1244, in spite of

losses in the fire of 1184, Glastonbury had a library of

some four hundred volumes, historical books consorting

with romances, Bibles and patristical works almost crowding

out some forlorn classics.[3] Nearly half a century later

Abbot John of Taunton added to Glastonbury forty volumes,

a notable gift in those days of costly books, while Adam

of Domerham tells us he also made a fine, handsome, and

spacious library.[4] In 1277 a general chapter of the

Benedictines ordered the monks, according to their capabilities,

to study, write, correct, illuminate, and bind books,

rather than to labour in the field.[5]

[1] Surtees S., Ixix. 341.

[2] Merryweather, 96-7.

[3] Joh. Glaston, Chronica, ed. Hearne (1726), ii. 423-44;

Merryweather, 140.

[4] Librariam fecit optimum pulcherrimum et copiosum.--Holmes,

Wells and Glastonbury, 229.

[5] MS. Twyne, Bodl. L., 8, 272.

To such facts as these should be added the record of

the Canterbury, Dover, and Bury libraries, the histories of

which have been so admirably written by Dr. M. R. James.[1]

Of the library of St. Albans Abbey we have not such a

fine series of catalogues. Yet no abbey could have a

nobler record. From Paul (1077) to Whethamstede

(d. 1465) nearly all its abbots were book-lovers.[2] Paul

built a writing-room, and put in the aumbries twenty-

eight fine books (volumina notabilia), and eight Psalters,

a Collectarium, books of the Epistles and Gospels for

the year, two copies of the Gospels adorned with gold

and silver and precious stones, without speaking of

ordinals, customaries, missals, troparies, collectaria, and

other books. Here, as everywhere, the library began with

church books: later, easier circumstances made the stream

of knowledge broader, if shallower. The next abbot also

added some books. Geoffrey, the sixteenth abbot, was

the author of a miracle play, an industrious scribe, and

the donor of some books finely illuminated and bound.

His successor, at one time the conventual archivist, loved

books equally well, and got together a fair collection.

Great Abbot Robert had many books written--"too many

to be mentioned."[3] Simon, the next abbot (1167), a

learned and good-living man who encouraged others to learn,

was especially fond of books, and had many fine manuscripts

written for the painted aumbry in the church. He

repaired and improved the scriptorium. He also made a

provision whereby each succeeding abbot should have at

work one special scribe, called the historiographer, an

innovation to which we owe the matchless series of

chronicles of Roger of Wendover, Matthew Paris, William

Rishanger, and John of Trokelowe. In a Cottonian

manuscript is a portrait of Abbot Simon at his book-trunk,

a picture interesting because it illustrates his predominant

taste for books, as well as one method--then the usual method

--of storing them.

[1] James, and James 1.

[2] In the fine MS. Cott. Claud. E. iv. (Gesta Abatum) is a

series of portrait miniatures of the abbots, and in most cases

they are represented as reading or carrying books, or with books

about them.

[3] Fecit etiam scribi libros plurimos, quos lougum esset

enarrare.

John, worthy follower of Simon, was a man of learning,

who added many noble and useful books to St. Albans'

store. William of Trompington (1214) distinguished himself

by giving to the abbey books he had taken from his

prior. Abbot Roger was a better man, and gave many

books and pieces; but John III and IV and Hugh are

barren rocks in our fertile valley, for apparently they did

nothing for the library. Richard of Wallingford did worse

than nothing. He bribed Richard de Bury with four

volumes, and sold to him thirty-two books for fifty pounds

of silver, retaining one-half of this sum for himself, and

devoting the other moiety to Epicurus--"a deed," cries the

chronicler, "infamous to all who agreed to it, so to make

the only nourishment of the soul serve the belly, and upon

any account to apply spiritual dainties to the demands of

the flesh."[1] Abbot Michael de Mentmore, who had been

educated at Oxford, and became schoolmaster at St. Albans,

encouraged the educational work of the abbey by making

studies for the scholars. As he also ordered the morning

mass to be celebrated directly after prime, or six o'clock,

instead of at fierce, or about nine, to allow the students

more time, it is safe to assume he was more zealous than

popular. He also gave books which cost him more than

L 100. His successor, Thomas, enlarged his own study,

and bought many books for it; and, with the assistance of

Thomas of Walsingham, then preceptor and master of the

scriptorium, he built a writing-room at his own expense.

[1] Some of the books were restored, others were resold to the

abbey.

But Whethamstede was St. Albans' greatest book-loving

abbot. An ardent book-lover, especially fond of

finely-illuminated volumes, he indulged his passion for

manuscripts, and for conventual buildings, vestments, and

property, until he got the abbey into debt, and was led to

resign. After the death of his successor, Whethamstede

was re-elected. In his time no fewer than eighty-seven

volumes were transcribed.[1] In 1452-53 he built a new

library at a cost of more than L 150. Another library was

erected for the College of the Black Monks at Oxford, for

L 60.[2] It was described as a "new erection of a library

joyning on the south-side of the chapel, containing on each side

five or more divisions, as it may be partly seen to this day

by the windows thereof, to which he gave good quantity of

his own study, and especially those of his own composition,

which were not a few, and to deter plagiaries and others

from abusing of them, prefixt these verses in the front

of every one of the same books, as he did also to those that

he gave to the publick library of the University:

"Fratribus Oxoniae datur in munus liber iste

Per patrem pecorum prothomartyris Angligenarum;

Quem, si quis rapiat raptim, titulumve retractet,

Vel Judae laqueum, vel furcas sentiat; Amen

[1] A lot of forty-nine, with prices attached, is given in

Annales a J. Amund., ii. 268 et seq.

[2] Gloucester House, now Worcester College.

"In other books which he gave to the said library these:

"Discior ut docti fieret nova regia plebi

Culta magisque Deae datur hic fiber ara Minervae,

His qui Diis dictis libant holocausta ministris

Et circa bibulam sitinnt prae nectare limpham

Estque librique loci, idem dator, actor et unus."[1]

[1] Dugdale, iv. 405.

This, in brief, is the story of St. Albans' tribute to

learning. In most monasteries the same kind of work

went on, in a more circumscribed fashion, and without the

same distinction of finish, which could probably only be

attained at the big places where expert scribes and illuminators

could be well trained.[2]

[2] For St. Albans see Gesta Abbatum., i. 58, 70, 94, 106, 179,

184; ii. 200, 306, 363; iii. 389, 393

Section II

Fortunately, just when the great houses had attained

the summit of their prosperity, and were beginning the

slow decline to dissolution, learning and book-culture were

freshly encouraged by the coming of the Friars.

The Black Friars settled at Canterbury and in London,

near the Old Temple in Holborn, in 1221. The Grey Friars

were at London, Oxford, and Cambridge in 1224, and by

1256 they were in forty-nine different localities.[1] lt is

strange how the latter order, founded by a man who forbade

a novice to own a Psalter, came to be as earnest in

buying books as the Benedictines were in copying them.

St. Francis' ideal, however, was impossible. The peripatetic

nature of their calling, and their duty of tending the sick,

compelled many friars to learn foreign languages, and to

acquire some medical knowledge. Books were, therefore,

useful to them, if not essential; as indeed St. Francis

ultimately recognized. However, they could not own books

themselves, but only in common with other members of the

convent. If a friar was promoted to a bishopric, he had to

renounce the use of the books he had had as a friar; and

Clement IV forbade the consecration of a bishop until he

had returned the books to his friary. When a book was

given to a friar--and this often happened--he was in duty

bound to hand it to his Superior. But if the friar was a

man of parts the gift was devoted to acquiring books for

his studies, or to giving him other necessary assistance;

the duty, it was held, which the Superior owed him.[2] But

these principles do not seem to have been strictly observed.

In little more than thirty years after St. Francis' death it

was found necessary to draw up rules forbidding the

brethren to own books except by leave from the chief officer

of the order, or to keep any books which were not regarded

as the property of the whole order, or to write books, or

have them written for sale.[3]

[1] Mon, Fr., ii., viii.

[2] Bryce, i. 440n, 29.

[3] Clark, 62.

By the end of the thirteenth century the Mendicants

of Oxford were fairly well provided with books. Michael

Scot came to Oxford, at the time of the greatest literary

activity of the brethren, and introduced to them the physical

and metaphysical works of Aristotle (1230).[1] Adam de

Marisco seems to have been responsible for the first considerable

additions to the collection. From his brother, Bishop

Richard, he had already received a library; possibly this,

with his own books, came into possession of the convent.

Then out of love for him, Grosseteste left his writings or

his library--it is not clear which--to the Grey Friars.[2]

This gift may have formed part--it is not certain--of the

two valuable hoards existing in the fifteenth century in the

same friary, one the convent library, open only to graduates,

the other the Schools library, for seculars living among the

brethren for the sake of the teaching they could get. In

these collections were many Hebrew books, which had been

bought upon the banishment of the Jews from England

(1290).[3] Such books were not often found in the abbeys,

although some got to Ramsey, where Grosseteste's influence

may be suspected.

[1] These works would be Latin translations based upon Arabic

versions Opus Majus, iii. 66; Camb. Lit., i. 199; Gasquet 3, 156.

[2] Close roll, 10 Hen. III, m. 6 (3rd Sep.); Trivet, Annales,

243; Mon. Fr., i. 185; Stevenson, 76; O. H. S., Little, 57.

[3] Wood, Hist. Ant. U. Ox. (1792), i. 329.

The White Friars also had a library at Oxford, wherein

they garnered the works of every famous writer of their

order. They are praised for taking more care of their

books than the brethren of other colours.[1] In later times,

at any rate, some cause for the complaint against the Grey

Friars existed. They appear to have sold many manuscripts

to Dr. Thomas Gascoigne (c. 1433). He ultimately gave

them to the libraries of Lincoln, Durham, Balliol, and Oriel

Colleges. As the friars' mode of life grew easier and the

love of learning less keen, they got rid of many more books.

In Leland's time the library had melted away. After

much difficulty he was allowed to see the book-room,

but he found in it nothing but dust and dirt, cobwebs

and moths, and some books not worth a threepenny

piece.[2]

[1] There is an imperfect catalogue of their library in Leland,

iii. 57.

[2] Leland 3, 286.

Roger de Thoris, afterwards Dean of Exeter, presented

a library to the Grey Friars of his city in 1266.[1] What

became of it we do not know. About the same time, in

1253 to be exact, the will of Richard de Wyche, Bishop

of Chichester, is notable for its bequests to the friars; thus

he left books to various friaries of the Grey Brethren--at

Chichester his glossed Psalter, at Lewes the Gospels of St.

Luke and St. John, at Winchelsea the Gospels of St.

Matthew and St. Mark, at Canterbury Isaiah glossed, at

London the Epistles of St. Paul glossed, and at Winchester

the twelve Prophets glossed; as well as some volumes to

the Black Friars--at Arundel the Book of Sentences, at

Canterbury Hosea glossed, at London the Books of Job,

the Acts, the Apocalypse, with the canonical epistles, and

at Winchester the Summa of William of Auxerre.[2] Such

friendliness for the Mendicants was far from common

among the secular clergy. Besides the southern places

mentioned in this bequest, friaries in the east, at Norwich

and Ipswich, and in the west, at Hereford and Bristol, had

goodly libraries.

[1] Oliver, Mon. Dioc. Exon., 332, 333.

[2] Sussex Archaeol. Collections, i. (1848), 168-187.

The friary collections in London seem to have been

important, especially that given to the Grey Friars in

1225,[1] just when they had settled near Newgate. The

Austin Friars may have owned a library before 1364, when

two of their number left the London house, taking with

them books and other goods.[2] Early in the fifteenth

century a library was built and a large addition was made

to the books of this house by Prior Lowe, a friar

afterwards occupying the sees of St. Asaph and of

Rochester.[3] At this time the friars of London were

specially fortunate. The White Friars enjoyed a good

library, to which Thomas Walden, a learned brother of

the order, presented many foreign manuscripts of some

age and rarity.[4] The Grey Friars' library was founded or

refounded by Dick Whittington (1421).[5] The room "was

in length one hundred twentie nine foote, and in breadth

thirtie one: all seeled with Wainscot, having twentie eight

desks, and eight double setles of Wainscot. Which in the

next yeare following was altogither finished in building, and

within three yeares after, furnished with Bookes, to the

charges of" over L 556, "whereof Richard Whittington

bare foure hundred pound, the rest was borne by Doctor

Thomas Winchelsey, a Frier there."[6] On this occasion

one hundred marks were paid for transcribing the works

of Nicholas de Lyra, a Grey Friar highly esteemed for his

knowledge of Hebrew, and "the greatest exponent of the

literal sense of Scripture whom the medieval world can

show."[7]

[1] Mon. Fr., ii. 18.

[2] Cal. of Pap. Letters, iv. 42-43.

[3] Leland, iii. 53.

[4] Camb. Mod. Hist., i., 597.

[5] For date see Stow (Kingsford's ed.), i. 108; i, 318; Mon.

Fr., i. 519,

[6] Stow, i. 318.

[7] Camb. Mod. Hist., i. 591.

Of few of the friary libraries have we definite knowledge

of their size and character. But in the case of the Austin

Friars of York, a catalogue of their library is extant. The

collection was a notable one. The inventory was made in

1372, and the items in it, forming the bulk of the whole,

with some later additions, amounted to 646. One member

of the society named John Erghome was a remarkable

man. He was a doctor of Oxford, where he had studied

logic, natural philosophy, and theology. More than 220

books were his contribution to this splendid library, and he

it was who added the Psalter and Canticles in Greek and a

Hebrew book,--rarities indeed at that date. Classical

literature is fairly well represented in the collection as a

whole, but theology, and especially logic and philosophy,

make up the bulk.[1]

[1] The catalogue is edited by Dr. M. R. James in Fasciculus

Ioanni Willis Clark dicatus, 2-96.

In Scotland, too, the Grey Friars were busy library-

making. We find the convent at Stirling buying five

dozen parchments (1502). Fifty pounds were paid for

books sent to them this year by the Cistercians of Culross,

and to the Austin Canons of Cambuskenneth in the following

year about half as much was paid; and similar records

appear in the accounts.[1]

[1] Bryce, i. 369.

Other interesting testimony to the bookcraft and collecting

habits of the friars is not wanting. Adam de Marisco

writes to the Friar Warden of Cambridge asking for vellum

for scribes.[1] Or he expresses the hope that Richard of

Cornwall may be prevailed upon to stay in England,

but if he goes he will be supplied with books and everything

necessary for his departure.[2] From this letter, it

was evidently usual for friars to seek and obtain permission

to carry away books with them when going abroad,

or going from one custody to another.[3] Then again Adam

writes asking Grosseteste to send Aristotle's Ethics to the

Grey Friars' convent in London.[4] In getting books the

friars were sometimes unscrupulous. A royal writ was

issued commanding the Warden of the Grey Friars at

Oxford and another friar, Walter de Chatton, to return

two books worth forty shillings which they were keeping

from the rightful owner (1330).