Benedictine Rule, and with
it the obligation of study and writing. Moreover, in their anxiety to take
due care of their books, they went further than their predecessors; for
they entrusted them to a special officer, instead of to the precentor, and
they admitted a special room to contain them into the ground-plan of their
houses.

At a later point I shall return to the interesting subject of the
Cistercian book-room. For the present I must content myself with
translating from their Customs the passage relating to books. It occurs in
Chapter CXV., _Of the precentor and his assistant_. After describing his
various duties, the writer proceeds:

With regard to the production and safe-keeping of
charters and books, the abbat is to consider to whom he
shall entrust this duty.

The officer so appointed may go as far as the doors of
the writing-rooms when he wants to hand in or to take
out a book, but he may not go inside. In the same way
for books in common use, as for instance antiphoners,
hymnals, graduals, lectionaries [etc.], and those which
are read in the Prater and at Collation, he may go as
far as the door of the novices, and of the sick, and of
the writers, and then ask for what he wants by a sign,
but he may not go further unless he have been commanded
by the abbat. When Collation is over it is his duty to
close the press, and during the period of labour, of
sleep, and of meals, and while vespers are being sung,
to keep it locked[139].

The Customs of the Augustinian Order are exceedingly full on the subject
of books. I will translate part of the 14th chapter of the Customs in use
at Barnwell[140], near Cambridge. It is headed: _Of the safe keeping of
the books, and of the office of Librarian (armarius)._ As the passage
occurs also in the Customs as observed in France and in Belgium, it may be
taken, I presume, to represent the general practice of the Order.

The Librarian, who is called also Precentor, is to take
charge of the books of the church; all which he ought to
keep and to know under their separate titles; and he
should frequently examine them carefully to prevent any
damage or injury from insects or decay. He ought also,
at the beginning of Lent, in each year, to shew them to
the convent in Chapter, when the souls of those who have
given them to the church, or of the brethren who have
written them,