t which it throws upon the childlike and literal
way in which the things of the spirit were regarded by the mediaeval
mind. It was said that a certain man entered a monastery with his soul
burdened by many and grievous sins. He was set to the copying of a Bible
and in due time completed the task alone. The task brought him salvation
because the number of letters in the Bible exceeded by one the number of
his sins.

In time some of these libraries came to be of very considerable size
even by modern standards. A few of them remain almost intact to our own
day. The mediaeval librarians, as was proper considering the value of
their charges, were very solicitous about the care of their books.
Readers were warned to handle the books with care, to be careful about
turning the leaves and especially to keep their fingers off the ink.
Evidently the ancient readers had the tendency common to unskillful
readers everywhere to trace the lines with their fingers as they read.
The books were classified by subject matter, numbered, and catalogued.
Some of these ancient catalogues showing the exact contents of the
monastic libraries and the contemporary ideas of classification, not
always the same as our own, are still preserved. An interesting list
remains of nine books brought over to England by St. Augustine the
missionary which formed the first library of Christ Church in
Canterbury. It consisted of a Bible in two volumes, a psalter, a book of
gospels, lives of the apostles, lives of the martyrs and an exposition
or commentary on the gospels and epistles.

Books were loaned quite extensively. This was especially true among the
monasteries of the same order. These orders naturally looked to certain
of their houses as the leading or mother establishments in various
localities. These leading establishments were often the actual mother
houses from which others had been created by colonization, besides being
the seats of the high officials of the order. Naturally the age and
wealth of these central houses enabled them to possess large and
valuable libraries. It was their duty to see that the smaller houses
were provided with correct copies of the rules and regulations of the
order, service books which it used, and other valuable material, as well
as to assist them to secure more strictly literary material. Therefore
some of these places became veritable circulating libraries for the
subordinate houses. In addition to this there was a cer