ere was a library
of considerable extent, many volumes of which still exist, with a
catalogue drawn up in 1381.

At this point I will resume the conclusions which may be deduced from this
examination of the Benedictine Rule and the Customs founded upon it.

In the first place they all assume the existence of a library. S. Benedict
contents himself with general directions about study. The Cluniacs put the
books in charge of the precentor, who is to be called also _armarius_, and
they prescribe an annual audit of them, with the assignment of a single
volume to each brother, on the security of a written attestation of the
fact. These regulations were adopted by the Benedictines, with fuller
rules for the librarian, who is still precentor also. He is to keep both
presses and books in repair, and personally to supervise the daily use of
the manuscripts, restoring to their proper places those that brethren may
have been reading. Among these rules permission to lend books on receipt
of a pledge first makes its appearance. The Carthusians maintain the
principle of lending. Each brother might have two books, and he is to be
specially careful to keep them clean. The Cistercians appoint a special
officer to have charge of the books, about the safety of which great care
is to be taken, and at certain times of the day he is to lock the press.
The Augustinians and the Premonstratensians follow the Cluniacs and
Benedictines: but the Premonstratensians direct their librarian to take
note of the books that the House borrows as well as of those that it
lends; and they adopt the Cistercian precaution about his opening and
locking the press.

Secondly, by the time that Lanfranc was writing his statutes for English
Benedictines, it was evidently contemplated that the number of books would
have exceeded the number of brethren, for the keeper of the books is
directed to bring all the books of the House into Chapter, and after that
the brethren, one by one, are to bring in the books which they have
borrowed[146]. Among the books belonging to the House there were probably
some service-books; but, from the language used, it appears to me that we
may fairly conclude that by the end of the eleventh century Benedictine
Houses had two sets of books: (1) those which were distributed among the
brethren; (2) those which were kept in some safe place, as part of the
possessions of the House: or, to adopt modern phrases, that they had a
lending library