bibliomanical propensities, I shall devote a page or two. Like many who
spread a lustre around the little sphere of their own, and did honor,
humbly and quietly to the sanctuary of the church in those Gothic days,
he is unknown to many; and might, perhaps, have been entirely forgotten,
had not time kindly spared a document which testifies to his piety and
book-collecting industry. The reader will probably recollect many who, by
their shining piety and spotless life, maintained the purity of the
Christian faith in a church surrounded by danger and ignorance, and many
a bright name, renowned for their virtue or their glory of arms, who
flourished during the early part of the thirteenth century; but few have
heard of a good and humble monk named Thomas of Marleberg. Had
circumstances designed him for a higher sphere, had affairs of state, or
weighty duties of an ecclesiastical import, been guided by his hand, his
name would have been recorded with all the flourish of monkish adulation;
but the learning and the prudence of that lowly monk was confined to the
little world of Evesham; and when his earthly manes were buried beneath
the cloisters within the old convent walls, his name and good deeds were
forgotten by the world, save in the hearts of his fraternity.

"But past is all his fame. The very spot
Where many a time he triumph'd, is forgot."

In a manuscript in the Cotton Library there is a document called "The
good deeds of Prior Thomas," from which the following facts have been
extracted.[305]

From this interesting memorial of his labors, we learn that Thomas had
acquired some repute among the monks for his great knowledge of civil and
canon law; so that when any difficulty arose respecting the claims or
privileges of the monastery, or when any important matter was to be
transacted, his advice was sought and received with deference and
respect. Thus three years after his admission the bishop of Worcester
intimated his intention of paying the monastery a visitation; a practice
which the bishops of that see had not enforced since the days of abbot
Alurie. The abbot and convent however considered themselves free from the
jurisdiction of the bishop; and acting on the advice of Thomas of
Marleberg, they successfully repulsed him. The affair was quite an event,
and seems to have caused much sensation among them at the time; and is
mentioned to show with what esteem Thomas was regarded by his monkish
brethren. A