Warton's Hist. Eng. Poetry, p. cxiv. Regest. Nig. St. Edmund.
Abbat.

[48] Stevenson's Sup. to Bentham's Church of Norwich, 4to. 1817, p.
51.

[49] Martene de Ant. Eccl. Ritib., cap. xxi. tom. iii. p. 263.

[50] _Ibid._

[51] Alcuini Opera, tom. ii. vol. i. p. 211. Carmin xvii.

[52] Preface to AElfric's Homilies MS. Lansdowne, No. 373, vol. iv.
in the British Museum.

[53] Const. Can. Reg. ap. Martene, tom. iii. p. 263.

[54] MS. Harl. 6395, anecdote 348.--I am indebted to D'Israeli for
the reference, but not for the extract.

[55] The monks were strictly enjoined by the monastic rules to study
the Bible unceasingly. The Statutes of the Dominican order are
particularly impressive on this point, and enforce a constant
reading and critical study of the sacred volume, so as to fortify
themselves for disputation; they were to peruse it continually, and
apply to it before all other reading _semper ante aliam lectionem_.
_Martene Thesan. Nov. Anecdot._, tom. iv. col. 1932. See also cols.
1789, 1836, 1912, 1917, 1934.

[56] About the year 1225 Roger de Insula, Dean of York, gave several
copies of the bible to the University of Oxford, and ordered that
those who borrowed them for perusal should deposit property of equal
value as a security for their safe return.--_Wood's Hist. Antiq.
Oxon._ ii. 48.

[57] Muratori Dissert. Quadragesima tertia, vol. iii. column 849.

[58] Astle's Origin of Writing, p. 193.--See also Montfaucon
Palaeographia Graeca, lib. iv. p. 263 et 319.

[59] In the year 1300 the pay of a common scribe was about one
half-penny a day, see Stevenson's Supple. to Bentham's Hist. of the
Church of Ely. p. 51.

[60] In some orders the monks were not allowed to sell their books
without the express permission of their superiors. According to a
statute of the year 1264 the Dominicans were strictly prohibited
from selling their books or the rules of their order.--_Martene
Thesaur. Nov. Anecdot._ tom. iv. col. 1741, et col. 1918.

[61] Vita Abbat. Wear. Ed. Ware, p. 26. His fine copy of the
Cosmographers he bought at Rome.--_Roma Benedictus emerat._

[62] Nosti quot Scriptores in Urbibus aut in Agris Italiae passim
habeantur.--Ep. cxxx. See also Ep. xliv. where he speaks of having
purchased books in Italy, Germany and Belgium, at considerable cost.
It is the most interestin