229 T.TBRARTM
cfportnits which adontied the walla and, amongst the clearly proved than in En^and. The whole h*fe of
rest, of that of Pope Agapetus: — the Venerable Bede might serve to illustrate this
Hob inter residens Agapetus jure sacerdos theme. But it is Bede who tells us from first hand
Codicibus pulchrum condldit arte locum. knowledge of Benedict Biscop, Abbot of Wearmouth,
(Mid these oy right takes Agapetus place, who who, having visited Rome in 671, brought home not built to guud ms books this fair aoode.) The cele- a few books of all-divine erudition, either bought for brated Cassiodorus, who had been the friend of Aga- a fixed price or given him by the kindness of friends: petus, withdrew from the world in his declining years and when on his return he came to Vienne he received and gathered round him a religious community at those which he had bought and entrusted to his Vivariimi, in Southern Italy, There he formed a li- friends there" (Hist. Abl>at., iv). In 678 he paid brary as an adjunct of primary necessity for such an another visit to Rome and " brought home a multi- institute. Further, he enjoined upon the brotliren tudo [tnnu7MeraWlem comawij of books of every kind ". that if tiiey met with any book which he wanted they In liLs last illness Beneclict Biscop gave directions that should make a copy of it, "that by the help of Go3 the very noble and complete hbrary which he had and their labour the library of the monastery might brought from Rome as necessary for the instruction be benefited" (De Inst. Div. Litt., viii). Cassiodorus of the Church, should be scrupulouslv preserved en- abo tells us a good deal about his libraiy contrivances, tire and neither suffer iniury throi^n want of care
But at the break-up of the civilization of the Roman nor be dispersed (Hist. Aob., xi) . Further we learn
Empire the great influence which contributed more that this collection, which was divided between Wear-
than anything else to preserve in the West some scat- mouth and Jarrow, was doubled by the energy of
tered remnants of the learning of the classical period Ceolfrid his successor (Hist. Abb., xv). It was from
was undoubtedly monasticism, and in particular that this collection, which Ceolfrid enriched with three new
form of monasticism which was identified with the copies of the Vulgate and with one of the Itala, that
Rule of St. Benedict. Even in Africa, as the Rule of the famous Codex Amiatinus (q. v.) was taken, which
St. Pachomius and the writings of Cassian clearly Ceolfrid on a later occasion carried with him to Italy
show, the maintenance of the ideal of coenobitical as a present for the pope. This manuscript, now in
life was in some measure dependent upon the use of the Laurentian library in Florence, has been described
books. St. Pachomius, for example, enjoined that as " perha}>s the finest book in the world " (White in
the books of the house were to be kept in a cupboard "Studia Biblica," II, 273), but it seems not to have
in the thickness of the wall. Anv brother who w^antoil been the work of native scribes but of Italians brought
a book might have one for a week, at the end of which over to England.
he was bound to return it. No brother might leave a Although Jarrow had not itself a great scriptorium
book open when he went to church or to meals. In with a staff of trained copyists — such as, for example,
the evening the officer called the "second" — that is belonged to Lindisfame, which followed Irish tradi-
ihe second in command — ^was to take charge of the_ tions, and to Canterbury, where the dominant in-
books, count them, and lock tiiem up (see P. L.,* fluence was Italian — still, through Archbishop Egbert,
XXIII, 68, and cf. Butler, "Palladius", 1, 236). We whom Bede loved and visited at York, Ceolfrid's li-
know from a letter of St. Augustine's that at Hippo brarj' must have exercised a profound influence upon
even the nuns had a library, and that it was the duty Alcuin (q. v.), and through him again upon the
of one of the sisters to distribute and then to collect scholarship of all Western Christendom. Alcuin
the books at the hours set apart for reading. Nor was the librarian of the fine collection of books which
could the large place that study — but more particu- Egbert had formed in the monastery at York, and in
larly the stu^ of the Scriptures — ^played in the lives one of his poems he gives a rather florid account of
of ascetic women at the close of the fourth century, be its contents (Migne, P. L., CI, 843) which has l)een
more clearly illustrated than in the story of St. Me- descril:)ed as the earliest catalogue of any English
lania the younger, the friend of St. Augustine and St. library. If we could trust this list, the collection
Jerome, who^ made it a rule to spend daily a pre- was really one of extraordinary range, including, not
scribed time in reading, and whose labours as a scribe merely the be-st-known of the Latin Fathers, but Atha-
were long renowned. But of all the written docu- nasius, Basil, and Chrysostom, among the Greeks,
ments much have influenced the preservation of and l^esides these a certain number of historians,
books, the text of the Rule of St. Benedict is the most with philosophers like Aristotle and Boethius, with
important. Upon this is chiefly based that love of the most representative of the Latin classics and a
learning distinctive of the great monastic orders: fair sprinkling of grammarians. When Alcuin be-
" Idleness", says the Rule, "is an enemy to the soul, came the trusted adviser of Charlemagne, that great
and hence at certain times the brethren ought to oc-> monarch's influence was evcr^nvhere exerted to foster
GUpy themselves with manual labour and at others the spread of learning and the accumulation of books,
with holv reading . . ." And, after specifying the In an onlinance of 789. Charlemagne made provision
hours to be devoted to reading at various seasons, the for the setting-up of schools for boys in which he di-
Rule further lays down: " During Lent let them apply rected that " in every monastery and cathedral [epis-
themselves to reading from morning until the end of copium]" they were to learn '* the psalms and canti-
the third hoiir . . . And in these days of Lent let cles, plain chant, the computus [or regulation of the
each one receive a book from the library and read it calendar] and grammar. And he adds, "Let them
all through in order. These books are to be given out also have Catholic books well corrected ".
at the beginning of Lent. Above all, let one or two ^ All this, directly or indirectly, must have given an
seniors be appointed to go round the monastery at the immense stimulus towards the formation of libraries
hours when the brethren are engaged in reading and in Western Europe. Neither can we leave out of ao-
aee that there be no slothful brother giving himself to count the great influence which had been exerted at a
idleness or to fooUsh talk and not applying himself to somewhat earlier period by St. Columban and the
his reading, so that he is thus not only useless to him- Irish missionaries who settled at Luxeuil in France,
self but a distraction to others. If such a one be found at St. Gall in Switzerland, at Bobbio in Italy, at Wi i rz-
(which God forbid) let him be corrected once and a burg in Gennany, and in many other places. Still, as
second time", and the Rule adds that if all this be in- at St. Gall, for example, the Benedictine Rule often
effectual, the delinquent is to be chastised in such a supplanted the Columoan, and it was in its Benedictine
way as to strike tem>r into others. days that the Swiss abbey attained its greatest re-
That these principles were fully taken to heart, nown as a centre of learning, and formed the library
and boie fruit in the respect shown for books and in which still exists. Many, however, of its most pre-
the leal displayed to acquire them, was nowhere more dons vohimes were at one time removed to Reich*
