this revival in the
cloisters of the English monasteries; books, the weapons spiritual of the
monks, libraries, the magazines of the church militant were preserved,
amassed, and at last deemed indispensable.[105] Such was the effect on
our national literature of that gushing in of the Norman conquerors, so
deeply imbued with learning, so polished, and withal so armed with
classical and patristic lore were they.

Foremost in the rank we find the learned Lanfranc, that patron of
literature, that indefatigable scribe and anxious book collector, who was
endowed with an erudition far more deep and comprehensive than any other
of his day. He was born at Pavia, in 1005, and received there the first
elements of his education;[106] he afterwards went to Bologna, and from
thence to Avranches, where he undertook the education of many celebrated
scholars of that century, and instructed them in sacred and secular
learning, _in sacris et secularibus erudivi literis_.[107] Whilst
proceeding on a journey to Rome he was attacked by some robbers, who
maltreated and left him almost dead; in this condition he was found by
some peasants who conveyed him to the monastery of Bec; the monks with
their usual hospitable charity tended and so assiduously nourished him in
his sickness, that on his recovery he became one of their fraternity. A
few years after, he was appointed prior and founded a school there, which
did immense service to literature and science; he also collected a great
library which was renowned and esteemed in his day,[108] and he increased
their value by a critical revisal of their text. He was well aware that
in works so voluminous as those of the fathers, the scribes through so
many generations could not be expected to observe an unanimous
infallibility; but knowing too that even the most essential doctrines of
the holy and catholic church were founded on patristical authority, he
was deeply impressed with the necessity of keeping their writings in all
their primitive integrity; an end so desirable, well repaid the
tediousness of the undertaking, and he cheerfully spent much time in
collecting and comparing codices, in studying their various readings or
erasing the spurious interpolations, engendered by the carelessness or
the pious frauds of monkish scribes.[109] He lavished his care in a
similar manner on the Bible: considering the far distant period from
which that holy volume has descended to us, it is astounding that the