been read for the first
time by some modern archaeologist 3000 years or more after the death of
both sender and receiver.

We undoubtedly owe to the Christian church, and especially to the
institution of Monasticism, the preservation of so much of the ancient
literature as we now possess, as well as the preservation of the spirit
of learning and that impulse to create literature out of which grew the
literatures of mediaeval and modern times. As has already been stated,
the monasteries became the centers of literary activity. The studying,
copying, and creation of books was a recognized part of the duty of the
monks. In society as constituted after the fall of the empire and far
into the mediaeval ages the monks were the only educated people in the
community. The nobles were rough unlettered soldiers. Even kings were
unable to read and write. The business of the state was largely in the
hands of churchmen who filled the offices of civil administration,
conducted the legal business of the community, served as its physicians
and, in short, discharged nearly all those functions which required
education and literary training. The mercantile class knew only enough
to keep track of their business by the help of mechanical contrivances
and the rudest methods of accounting. The great mass of mechanics and
agricultural laborers were entirely illiterate. King and peasant alike
depended upon the clergy for their knowledge of past transactions,
national records, and the teachings of religion.

Under these circumstances the monasteries naturally built up libraries.
Originally these libraries began with copies of the scriptures or of
books containing portions of them, such as the Gospels and the Psalms.
To these were added Mass books, collections of the writings of the
fathers of the church and the sermons of famous preachers, volumes of
commentaries on the scriptures and the works of the fathers, and lives
of the saints, and, in course of time, treatises on theological
subjects. Even the life of a monastic community, however, is not all
religious. Consequently we find the monks writing chronicles which were
the beginnings of history. These chronicles originally were merely dry
statements of the events which happened in the monastery, the community
in which it was located, or even the country. At first dry notebooks
without historical perspective and with very little detail, they
gradually developed into something like a historical