Cassiodorus.
Gregory.
Cyprian.
Seneca.
Prosper.
Tully.
Bede.
Basil.
Lanfranc.
Chrysostom.
Jerome.
Eusebius.
Boethius.
Isidore.
Origin.
Dionysius.
Cassian.
Bernard.
Anselm.
Alcuinus.
Honorius.
Donatus.
Macer.
Persius.
Virgil.
Isagoge of Porphry.
Aristotle.
Entyci Grammatica.
Socrates.
Ovid.
Priscian.
Hippocrates.
Horace.
Sedulus.
Theodulus.
Sallust.
Macrobius.
Cato.
Prudentius.

But although they possessed these fine authors and many others equally
choice, I am not able to say much for the biblical department of their
library, I should have anticipated a goodly store of the Holy Scriptures,
but in these necessary volumes they were unusually poor. But I suspect
the catalogue to have been compiled during the fifteenth century, and I
fear too, that in that age the monks were growing careless of Scripture
reading, or at least relaxing somewhat in the diligence of their studies;
perhaps they devoured the attractive pages of Ovid, and loved to read his
amorous tales more than became the holiness of their priestly
calling.[234] At any rate we may observe a marked change as regards the
prevalence of the Bible in monastic libraries between the twelfth and the
fifteenth century. It is true we often find them in those of the later
age; but sometimes they are entirely without, and frequently only in
detached portions.[235] I may illustrate this by a reference to the
library of the Abbey of St. Mary de la Pre at Leicester, which gloried in
a collection of 600 volumes, of the choicest and almost venerable
writers. It was written in the year 1477, by William Chartye,[236] prior
of the abbey, and an old defective and worn out Bible, _Biblie defect et
usit_, with some detached portions, was all that fine library contained
of the Sacred Writ. The bible _defect et usit_ speaks volumes to the
praise of the ancient monks of that house, for it was by their constant
reading and study, that it had become so thumbed and worn; but it stamps
with disgrace the affluent monks of the fifteenth century, who, while
they could afford to buy, in the year 1470,[237] some thirty volumes with
a Seneca, Ovid, Claudian, Macrobius, AEsop, etc., among them, and who
found time to transcribe twice as many more, thought not of restoring
their bible tomes, or adding one book of the Holy Scripture to their
crowded shelves. But alas! monachal piety was waxing cool and indifferent
then, and it is rare to find the honorable title of an _