ore
than now the students depended on its contents. Obviously only the
richest students could buy any great number of books, and, equally
obviously, every student needed to use them, bought what he could,
borrowed the rest, and became a book collector for the rest of his life.
The university libraries grew by purchase, by copies made on the spot,
and by bequests. Then, as now, there were in every university a good
number of men "working their way." The copying of manuscripts was their
great resource.

Naturally all this demand caused the production of many very badly
executed manuscripts. This and other abuses were, however, controlled to
a great extent by the university authorities who assumed control over
the publication and sale of books. Old books, of course, could be freely
sold, subject only to careful checking up of the correctness of the
copy. New books had to be read three days in succession before the heads
of the university or other public judges, always churchmen, and had to
receive their sanction before being copied and put on sale.

This was done by the stationer who derived his name from the Latin word
_statio_ meaning a shop. The stationers made, sold, and rented books and
sold writing materials and the like very much as at present. They were
stringently regulated by the universities. They must be men of learning
and character; must bind themselves to obey the laws of the university;
must offer no copy for sale unless it was approved; must sell at rates
fixed by the university; must purchase only books sanctioned by the
university; and must loan books to those too poor to buy them at rates
fixed by the university.

This careful regulation of the book trade of the university towns was
originally intended for the best of purposes and was productive of much
good. Unfortunately it also opened the door to much evil. It
established the principle of control of the press, a principle always
destructive of liberty and progress. By long use this control came to
appear quite the right and normal thing. Used at first to secure the
interests of learning and the protection of scholars, it became at
length the powerful weapon of party in Church and State. It was used
alternately to silence Protestant, Catholic and Dissenter, and to muzzle
all discussion of social and political questions. Control of the
printing press became at last the greatest enemy of civilization,
freedom, and enlightenment alike in the old world