tain amount of
loaning between the orders and persons outside the orders both clerical
and, at a later period, lay.

These loans were carefully registered and regulated and excepting when
occurring in the regular discharge of duty were guarded by the most
vigilant precautions. The books were, of course, carefully provided
with identification marks. Loan was made a matter of record and pledges
were exacted for the safe return of the volume. This pledge was
sometimes the deposit of a manuscript supposed to be of equal value,
sometimes a mortgage on property, and sometimes a deposit of money or
jewels. In spite of all these precautions, however, loans were not
infrequently abused. Borrowed volumes were sometimes never returned.
Sometimes the identification marks were removed, as existing manuscripts
show. Sometimes passages were erased from a borrowed book because the
borrower considered them heretical. Ancient borrowers were also addicted
to one of the most exasperating of modern literary crimes, the
scribbling of their own opinions on the margins of borrowed books.
Valuable books were kept chained to the desks which were provided for
those who had occasion to consult them. The old library of Durham
Cathedral contains many of the old volumes, still chained to their
original places. In the early days of Bible translation in England the
huge folio Bibles of the period were chained in the churches where all
could consult them.

All this precaution, of course, is testimony to the great value of books
at this period. It is true that the labor of the monks was not paid but
they had to be supported while at their work and owing to the time taken
to write, or rather paint, a manuscript, for it was really rather
painting than writing, this was no small item. The materials used were
also expensive. Parchment was costly and tended to become more so as the
increase of literary activity and the multiplication of books increased
the demand for it. Considerable expense was also involved in the colored
inks and especially in the gold which was used so lavishly in the
decorations. Monasteries and rich men regarded manuscripts as among
their chiefest treasures. Special provision was made for the purchase of
materials and the maintenance of the monastery libraries. The name of
the generous benefactor who gave a book or, more commonly, the material
for one, was inscribed in the book, often with a request for the prayers
of the reader, and