scharge the bill, had
borrowed from Seltone chest the maximum amount permitted by the
ordinance--sixty shillings. To obtain this advance he had pledged an
illuminated missal of considerably greater value, and now he had come
prepared to redeem it. He finds that the missal had been lent to some
client for the purpose of inspection, a silver cup, estimated by the
stationer to be worth even more, being deposited in its stead. This is
not precisely what Master Sever had wanted. However, he takes the cup,
assured that he will presently be able to negotiate an exchange with the
person in possession of his missal.

This serves as a reminder that, if money was scarce, books--the
mainspring of intellectual activity--were yet scarcer; and it is of the
utmost interest to inquire how this famine of the arts was mitigated.
Oral lectures were the rule, but books could not be entirely dispensed
with; and even Wardens might not always be in a position to procure all
the works of which they stood in need. The obvious remedy was a library
or libraries; and such collections--they arrived in good time, chiefly
through the bequests of virtuosi--constituted an invaluable resource to
that vast horde of scholars whose scanty means would not allow them to
purchase books. As the result of Mr. Blakiston's research, the famous
library with which Richard Aungerville is said to have endowed Durham
College, and, according to Adam de Murimuth, filled five carts, turns
out to be a myth or rather a pious intention. The good Bishop died deep
in debt, and the books, if preserved as a collection, went, it is now
certain, elsewhere. Thirty-five years later, however, another bishop,
Thomas Cobham, of Worcester, who died in 1327, bequeathed to the
University a mass of books, and the statute referring to them provides
that they shall be chained in convenient order in the "soler" over the
old Congregation House, where all the property of the University was
stored. The books were to be in the custody of a chaplain, who was to
pray for the soul of the donor.

Another statute relates to a "chest of four keys," from which it appears
that books were kept in coffers and lent upon indenture or security,
exactly as was done in the case of money. It was also a by no means
infrequent occurrence for persons to give or bequeath books on condition
that they were chained in the chancel of the church for the use of
scholars and periodically inspected by the chancellor and pr