irst monks of Marmoutier. A monastery
without a library was considered as a fort or a camp
deprived of the necessary articles for its defence:
"claustrum sine armario, quasi castrum sine armentario."
Peignot, _Dict. de Bibliolog._, vol. i., 77. I am fearful
that this good old bibliomanical custom of keeping up the
credit of their libraries among the monks had ceased--at
least in the convent of Romsey, in Hampshire--towards the
commencement of the sixteenth century. One would think that
the books had been there disposed of in bartering for
_strong liquors_; for at a visitation by Bishop Fox, held
there in 1506, Joyce Rows, the abbess, is accused of
_immoderate drinking_, especially in the night time; and of
inviting the nuns to her chamber every evening, for the
purpose of these excesses, "post completorium." What is
frightful to add,--"this was a rich convent, and filled with
ladies of the best families." See Warton's cruel note in his
_Life of Sir Thomas Pope_, p. 25, edit. 1772. A
tender-hearted bibliomaniac cannot but feel acutely on
reflecting upon the many beautifully-illuminated vellum
books which were, in all probability, exchanged for these
inebriating gratifications! To balance this unfavourable
account read Hearne's remark about the libraries in ancient
monasteries, in the sixth volume of _Leland's Collectanea_,
p. 86-7, edit. 1774: and especially the anecdotes and
authorities stated by Dr. Henry in book iii., chap, iv.,
sec. 1.]

[Footnote 211: See the first volume of Mr. Roscoe's _Lorenzo
de Medici_; and the Rev. Mr. Shepherd's _Life of Poggio
Bracciolini_.]

[Footnote 212: When Queen Elizabeth deputed a set of
commissioners to examine into the superstitious books
belonging to All-Souls library, there was returned, in the
list of these superstitious works, "eight grailes, seven
antiphoners of parchment and bound." Gutch's _Collectanea
Curiosa_, vol. ii., 276. At page 115, ante, the reader will
find a definition of the word "Antiphoner." He is here
informed that a "gradale" or "grail," is a book which ought
to have in it "the office of sprinkling holy water: the
beginnings of the masses, or the offices of _Kyrie_, with
the verses of _gloria in excelsis_; the _gradales_, or what
is gradually sung after