and illuminating. Henry of Coblenz combined the offices of
precentor, master of the robes, gardener, glazier and barber; and also
unofficial counsellor to the young, who frequently turned to him for
sympathy. Antony of St. Hubert, besides the care of the refectory, was
bee-master and hive-maker; and a great preacher in German, though he
had come to Laach knowing only his native French. At the end of the
list came the lay-brothers and the pensioners (donati), one of whom
was nearly 100.

Shortly after his ordination Butzbach was appointed master of the
novices, to superintend their education--which included learning the
Psalter by heart--until the time of their profession. He protested his
unfitness, but the Abbot held him to it nevertheless. The standard of
his pupils was low: many of them, though they came as Bachelors and
Masters of Arts from the universities, he judged not so good as boys
in the sixth form at Deventer. But he found lecturing in Latin
difficult; and so to make up his deficiencies he set himself to read
all the Latin classics and Fathers that he could find. One day two
young kinsmen of the Abbot were at dinner. They had been at Deventer
and then at Paris, and were full of their studies. Butzbach as
novice-master represented the humanities, and was called upon for a
poem. Readiness was not his strong point; as a preacher he never could
overcome his nervousness. He asked leave to retire to his cell, and
there in solitude wrung out some verses of compliment; which found
such favour that, to his regret, he was often called upon again.

In 1507, when only thirty, he was made Prior, and thus became
responsible for much of the management of the abbey. In spite of this
he kept up his studies; but only at the cost of great physical
efforts, robbing himself of sleep and working through long hours of
the night. To this period, 1507-9, belongs his most considerable
undertaking, an _Auctarium de scriptoribus ecclesiasticis_, which had
its origin in his admiration for Trithemius. In his Johannisberg days,
as we have seen, he had met the great historian-abbot, though in a
humble capacity. His own Abbot shared with Trithemius the duty of
making the triennial visitations of the Benedictine houses in that
district; and Butzbach, as the Abbot's servant, often rode with them.
Trithemius noticed the young lay-brother who seemed so interested in
study, and occasionally gave him a word of encouragement. Indeed it
was the