uscripts in this manner I am unable to say:

May whoever steals or alienates this manuscript, or
scratches out its title, be anathema. Amen[163].

A very curious form of curse occurs in one of the manuscripts of Christ
Church, Canterbury. The writer repents of his severity in the last
sentence.

May whoever destroys this title, or by gift or sale or
loan or exchange or theft or by any other device
knowingly alienates this book from the aforesaid Christ
Church, incur in this life the malediction of Jesus
Christ and of the most glorious Virgin His Mother, and
of Blessed Thomas, Martyr. Should however it please
Christ, who is patron of Christ Church, may his soul be
saved in the Day of Judgment[164].

Lastly, I will quote a specimen in verse, from a breviary now in the
library of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge:

Wher so ever y be come over all
I belonge to the Chapell of gunvylle hall:
He shal be cursed by the grate sentens
That felonsly faryth and berith me thens.
And whether he bere me in pooke or sekke,
For me he shall be hanged by the nekke,
(I am so well beknown of dyverse men)
But I be restored theder agen[165].

On the other hand, the gift of books to a monastery was gratefully
recorded and enumerated among the good deeds of their donors. Among the
Augustinians such gifts, and the labour expended upon books in general,
was the subject of a special service[166].

It is not uncommon to find a monastic library regularly endowed with part
of the annual revenue of the House. For instance, at Corbie, the librarian
received 10 sous from each of the higher, and 5 sous from each of the
inferior officers, together with a certain number of bushels of corn from
lands specially set apart for the purpose. This was confirmed by a bull of
Pope Alexander III. (1166-1179)[167]. A similar arrangement was made at
the library of S. Martin des Champs, Paris, in 1261[168]. At the
Benedictine Abbey of Fleury, near Orleans, in 1146, it was agreed in
chapter on the proposition of the abbat, that in each year on S.
Benedict's winter festival (21 March), he and the priors subordinate to
him, together with the officers of the House, should all contribute "to
the repair of our books, the preparation of new ones, and the purchase of
parchment." The name of each contributor, and the sum that he was to give,
are recorded[169]. At the Benedictine Monastery of Ely Bishop Nigel