is not, as is usually the case, attached to the end of the church, over
the principal door.

Having seen all that was worthy of observation, I was waiting in the
court near the door leading to the place where the monks were assembled
to lower me down to the earth again. Just as I was ready to start there
arose a discussion among them as to the distribution of the money which
I had paid for the two manuscripts. The agoumenos wanted to keep it all
for himself, or at least for the expenses of the monastery; but the
villain of a librarian swore he would have half. The agoumenos said he
should not have a farthing, but as the librarian would not give way he
offered him a part of the spoil; however, he did not offer him enough,
and out of spite and revenge, or, as he protested, out of uprightness of
principle, he told all the monks that the agoumenos had pocketed the
money which he had received for their property, for that they all had a
right to an equal share in these books, as in all the other things
belonging to the community. The monks, even the most dunderheaded, were
not slow in taking this view of the subject, and all broke out into a
clamorous assertion of their rights, every man of them speaking at once.
The price I had given was so large that every one of them would have
received several pieces of gold each. But no, they said, it was not
that, but for the principles of justice that they contended. They did
not want the money, no more did the librarian, but they would not
suffer their rules to be outraged or their rights to be trampled under
foot. In the monasteries of St. Basil all the members of the society had
equal rights--they ate in common, they prayed in common, everything was
bought and sold for the benefit of the community at large. Tears fell
from the eyes of some of the particularly virtuous monks; others stamped
upon the ground, and showed a thoroughly rebellious spirit. As for me, I
kept aloof, waiting to see what might be the result.

The agoumenos, who was evidently a man of superior abilities, calmly
endeavoured to explain. He told the unruly brethren exactly what the sum
was for which he had sold the books, and said that the money was not for
his own private use, but to be laid out for the benefit of all, in the
same way as the ordinary revenues of the monastery, which, he added,
would soon prove quite insufficient if so large a portion of them
continued to be divided among the individual members.