vil office, than the Christian humility of his
ecclesiastical functions. On his return from this distinguished sojourn,
he was appointed, as we have said before, through the instrumentality of
Edward III., to the bishopric of Durham. But not content with these high
preferments, his royal master advanced him to still greater honor, and on
the 28th of September, 1334, he was made Lord Chancellor of England,
which office he filled till the 5th of June, 1335, when he exchanged it
for that of high treasurer. He was twice appointed ambassador to the king
of France, respecting the claims of Edward of England to the crown of
that country. De Bury, whilst negociating this affair, visited Antwerp
and Brabant for the furtherance of the object of his mission, and he
fully embraced this rare opportunity of adding to his literary stores,
and returned to his fatherland well laden with many choice and costly
manuscripts; for in all his perilous missions he carried about with him,
as he tells us, that love of books which many waters could not
extinguish, but which greatly sweetened the bitterness of peregrination.
Whilst at Paris he was especially assiduous in collecting, and he relates
with intense rapture, how many choice libraries he found there full of
all kinds of books, which tempted him to spend his money freely; and with
a gladsome heart he gave his dirty lucre for treasures so inestimable to
the bibliomaniac.

Before the commencement of the war which arose from the disputed claims
of Edward, Richard de Bury returned to enjoy in sweet seclusion his
bibliomanical propensities. The modern bibliophiles who know what it is
to revel in the enjoyment of a goodly library, luxuriant in costly
bindings and rich in bibliographical rarities, who are fully susceptible
to the delights and exquisite sensibilities of that sweet madness called
bibliomania, will readily comprehend the multiplied pleasures of that
early and illustrious bibliophile in the seclusion of Auckland Palace; he
there ardently applied his energies and wealth to the accumulation of
books; and whilst engaged in this pleasing avocation, let us endeavor to
catch a glimpse of him. Chambre, to whom we are indebted for many of the
above particulars, tells us that Richard de Bury was learned in the
governing of his house, hospitable to strangers, of great charity, and
fond of disputation with the learned, but he principally delighted in a
multitude of books, _Iste summe delectabat