ert, in which the secrets of the monastery are written," which was
alone valued at L200,[170] probably in consideration of the important and
delicate matters contained therein.

These proceedings were instituted by prior Hoton, who was fond of books,
and had a great esteem for learning; he founded a college at Oxford for
the monkish students of his church.[171] On more than one occasion he
sent parcels of books to Oxford; in a list of an early date it appears
that the monks of Durham sent at one time twenty volumes, and shortly
after fifteen more, consisting principally of church books and lives of
saints.[172] The numbers thus taken from their library the monks, with
that love of learning for which they were so remarkable, anxiously
replaced, by purchasing about twenty volumes, many of which contained a
great number of small but choice pieces.[173]

Robert de Graystane, a monk of Durham, was elected bishop by the prior
and chapter, and confirmed on the 10th of November, 1333, but the king,
Edward III., wishing to advance his treasurer to that see, refused his
sanction to the proceeding; monk Robert was accordingly deposed, and
Richard Angraville received the mitre in his stead. He was consecrated on
the 19th of December in the same year, by John Stratford, archbishop of
Canterbury, and installed by proxy on the 10th of January, 1334.

Angraville, Aungerville, or as he is more commonly called Richard de
Bury, is a name which every bibliophile will honor and esteem; he was
indeed a bibliomaniac of the first order, and a sketch of his life is not
only indispensable here, but cannot fail to interest the book-loving
reader. But before entering more at large into his bookish propensities
and talents, it will be necessary to say something of his early days and
the illustrious career which attended his political and ecclesiastical
life. Richard de Bury, the son of Sir Richard Angraville, was born, as
his name implies, at Bury St. Edmunds, in Suffolk, in the year 1287.[174]

Great attention was paid to the instruction of his youthful mind by his
maternal uncle, John de Willowby, a priest, previous to his removal to
Oxford. At the university he obtained honorable distinction, as much for
his erudition and love of books as for the moral rectitude of his
behavior. These pleasing traits were the stepping stones to his future
greatness, and on the strength of them he was selected as one fully
competent to undertake the education o