and the unfortunate Bonus, who was abbot at Pisa at exactly the same time, gave (as we have already seen) ten pounds for what he describes as a "liber Bibliotheca."* Among the books which Thierry, who became the first abbot of the restored monastery of St. Evroul, or Ebrulf, at Ouche, in the diocese of Lisieux, in the year 1050, caused to be written for that monastery, we find, "omnes libros veteris et novi Testamenti.”+ Stephen, who became abbot of Beze, in the year 1088, gave the monastery a Bibliotheca, tam veteris quam novi Testamenti."‡ Wicbert's Bible, twice mentioned already, did not prevent Bruno, who succeeded him in the see of Hildesheim in the year 1153, from presenting to the library a glossed Bible-contulit ad ipsum armarium totum Testamentum novum et vetus, utrumque glossatum §-and this was followed by another glossed Bible, very carefully elaborated, and presented by Berno, who succeeded to the see in the year 1190— contulit etiam ecclesiæ veteris ac novi Testamenti libros glossatos, et magno scholasticæ diligentiæ studio elaboratos." || To these instances I doubt not that a little trouble would add many only, “Etant Abbé, il amassa à Gembloux plus de cent volumes d'auteurs ecclesiastiques, et cinquante d'auteurs profanes, ce qui passoit pour une grande bibliotheque."—Liv. LVIII. c. lii., tom. XII. p. 424. The fact, however, is, that he was a monk of Lobbes, who was sent to reform and restore the monastery of Gembloux, which was in a state of great poverty and disorder-exterius ingrueret gravis rei familiaris tenuitas, interius autem horreret grandis irreligiositas-and he did, according to the account of his biographer, in an incredibly short time, restore discipline, build a church, and provide many things needful for the monastery, and among others the 150 volumes of books. As to the "incredible labour," we are expressly told that he set his monks to write, to keep them from being idle; and as to the "immense expense," his biographer's remark is, that it is wonderful how one man, with such slender means, could do so much as he did. "Non passus enim ut per otium mens aut manus eorum torpesceret, utiliter profectui eorum providet, dum eos per scribendi laborem exercet, et frequenti scripturarum meditatione animos eorum ad meliora promovet. Appellens ergo animum ad construendum pro posse suo bibliothecam, quasi quidam Philadelphus, plenariam vetus et novum Testamentum continentem in uno volumine transcripsit historiam; et divinæ quidem scripturæ plusquam centum congessit volumina, sæcularis vero disciplinæ libros quinquaginta. Mirandum sane hominem unum in tanta tenuitate rerum, tanta potuisse comparare, nisi occurreret animo, timentibus Deum nihil deesse."-Mab. A. S. tom. viii. p. 531. The reader will here observe that use of the phrase "divina scriptura," which I have before noticed, and of which it would be easy to give instances; one of the most curious is perhaps that in the Burton Annals, (Gale, iii. 264.) King John is represented as saying to the Pope's Nuncio, "unde videre potestis per sacras scripturas quod beatus et gloriosus rex sanctus Edwardus contulit in tempore suo Sancto Wulstano episcopatum Wigorniæ," &c. When I mentioned the Abbot's Bible before (No. IV. p. 636), I gave a specimen of his latinity; and this morsel may give me an opportunity of suggesting to the reader that we are not, in all cases, to take it for granted that there was nobody better able to understand, or to describe a book, than the person who happens to have incidentally noticed its existence, or to have made an inventory of various things, and of books among the rest. For instance, the list of books belonging to the church of St. James and St. Christopher, at Stedeburg, which Leibnitz gives us, (1.870.,) begins with "Liber Genesis Biblia," and contains "Liber in Principio et evangeliorum secundum Marcum." I do not mention this Bible in the text, because I do not know the date of this list. The more modern it is, the more it is to the purpose of this note. ↑ Mab. A. S. ix. 136. Chron. Bes. ap. Dach. Sp. ii. 435. || Ibid. 749. $ Chron. Hildesh. ap. Leib. Sc. Br. i. 747. more; but I am afraid that the reader has already found them tedious, and I will here only add some notice of a correspondence between Geoffry, sub-prior of St. Barbara, in Normandy, and John, the abbot, and Peter, one of the monks, of Baugercy, in the diocese of Tours, some time between the dates just specified, and probably about the year 1170. The sub-prior begins one of his letters thus: "To his Venerable Abbot John, Geoffry, the servant of your holiness, wishes that which is the true health. I received the letters of your affection, which seemed to my heart to be sweetened with the honey of love. I read them eagerly, I now read them again gladly, and often read over they still please. Of this only I complain, that you send such few and such short letters to one who loves you, and whom you love, so much. You seldom converse with me, and I should like the conversation to be longer. I should like to hear something from you that might instruct us as to our life and conversation, relieve the weariness of our pilgrimage, and inflame us with the love of our heavenly country. I must also tell you that the excellent Bible (Bibliothecam optimam), of which I wrote to you long ago, you may still find at Caen, if you wish it." The Abbot in his reply (which I presume was not a speedy one, for he begins it with reproaching the sub-prior that he had been so long silent,) takes no notice of the Bible, unless it be by saying at the close of his letter, "Peter Mangot salutes you; to whom I wish that you would write, and comfort him in the Lord, and among other things admonish him about buying a Bible." It seems to have been the custom of these two friends to add one, two, or three couplets to their letters, in the way of marginal notes, referring to the subjects on which they were writing. The second of the two couplets on this occasion is as follows: "Ardenti studio sacra perlege dogmata, si vis This letter produced one from Geoffry to Peter Mangot, who seems to have been a monk of Baugercy, who had undertaken and obtained permission to build a monastery. "To his beloved and friend Peter Mangot, brother Geoffry wishes health and perseverance in the work begun. "God has fulfilled your desire,-you have what you so ardently sought. You have got what you asked from me, from the King through me, and from the chapter of Citeaux through the King's letters, and the help of others. These things, indeed, seemed very difficult at first, and, from the circumstances of the case, we were almost in despair; but God himself looked upon us with an eye of mercy, and with a strong hand made all things plain before our face. Go on, then, with increasing devotion in a work that was first conceived with a devout intention, and devoutly begun; and carefully provide all that is necessary for it. Build up a temple to the Lord of living and elect stones, who may receive you into eternal habitations. I give thanks to the grace of God which worketh in you; I give thanks also to you, who are working together with that grace; for the grace of God, which without you, wrought in you a good will, now worketh by you.' He afterwards adds: "A monastery (claustrum) without a library (sine armario) is like a castle (castrum) without an armory (sine armamentario). Our library is our armory. Thence it is that we bring forth the sentences of the divine law, like sharp arrows, to attack the enemy. Thence we take the armour of righteousness, the helmet of salvation, the shield of faith, and the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God. See to it, therefore, that in your armory of defence that which is the great defence of all the other defences is not wanting. That defence is the Holy Bible, wherein is contained the right rule of life and manners. There each sex and every age finds what is profitable. There spiritual infancy finds that whereby it may grow, youth that which may strengthen it, age that which may support it,-a blessed hand which ministers to all, whereby all may be saved. If therefore you have taken care to provide the arms for this warfare, you will have nothing to do but to say to him, ‘Take thine arms and thy shield, and arise to my help.' Farewell! and take care that the Bible, which no monastery should be without, is bought." To this letter three couplets are added, of which the third is as follows: "Quamvis multorum multi placeant tibi libri Hanc habeas, sapias, sufficit ipsa tibi."* It does not appear (and as our inquiry relates in a great degree to the possibility of obtaining such things in those days, it is worth while to notice the circumstance,) that this recommendation to procure a Bible had anything to do with the Bibliotheca optima at Caen; for, in a subsequent letter, the Abbot John requests his friend Geoffry to secure it for him.† All the instances which I have given refer to the whole Bible, or, as it is expressed in some of them, the Bibliotheca integra, or Bibliotheca tota; but I must beg the reader's attention to one circumstance, which is important, if we would understand matters aright. Undoubtedly Bibles were scarce in those days; but we are not hastily to conclude that where there existed no single book called a Bible, the Scriptures must have been unknown. The canon of Scripture was settled, indeed, as it is now; but the several parts of which the Bible consists were considered more in the light of separate and independent books than they are by us. To copy all these books was a great undertaking; and even when there was no affectation of calligraphy or costly ornament, and when we reduce the exaggerated statements about the price of materials to something reasonable, it was not only a laborious but a very expensive matter. Of course, writing and printing are very different things. I do not pretend to speak with accuracy, (for it would require more trouble than the thing is worth,) but I am inclined to suppose that at this day a copy of our English Bible, paid for at the rate at which law-stationers pay their writers for common fair copy on The other four lines have nothing to do with our immediate subject, but I hope the reader will forgive my quoting them, as belonging to a writer of the dark ages. From his correspondence, in which the reader who is not fastidious as to style (or, rather, as to latinity,) may find much that is interesting, I hope at some future time to give farther extracts. After "Petrus voearis firmus esto," we find these four lines, or, rather, two couplets, which seem to have reference to different parts of his letter, and to have been originally unconnected with each other, as also with the third couplet quoted above: "In Christo petra fidei fundamine jacto Spe paries surgit, culmina complet amor. + I. Mart. i. 502, 509, 514. VOL. IX.-Feb. 1836. T paper, would cost between sixty and seventy pounds for the writing only; and farther, that the scribe must be both expert and industrious to perform the task in much less than ten months. It must be remembered, however, that the monasteries contained (most of them some, and many a considerable number of,) men who were not to be paid by their work or their time, but who were officially devoted to the business. Of this, however, I hope to say more hereafter, and to shew that there was a considerable power of multiplication at work. In the meantime, I mention these circumstances merely as reasons why we should not expect to meet with frequent mention of whole Bibles in the dark ages. Indeed, a scribe must have had some confidence in his own powers and perseverance who should have undertaken to make a transcript of the whole Bible; and that (except under particular circumstances) without any adequate motive, supposing him to have practised his art as a means of subsistence. Those who were likely to need and to reward his labours either already possessed some part of the Scriptures, and therefore did not require a transcript of the whole, or, if it was their first attempt to possess any portion, there were but few whose means or patience would render it likely that they should think of acquiring the whole at once. It is obvious, too, that when copies of parts had been multiplied, that very circumstance would lead to the transcription of other parts, which would comparatively seldom be formed into one volume. We may well imagine that a scribe would prefer undertaking to write a Pentateuch, or, adding the two next books, a Heptateuch, or, with one more, an Octateuch, or a Psalter, or a Textus, containing one or more of the Gospels, or a book of Proverbs, or a set of the canonical Epistles, or some one or other of the portions into which the Bible was at that time very commonly divided. Of these I hope to speak hereafter, and here only mention their existence as one reason why we are not to take it for granted, that all persons who did not possess what we call a Bible must have been entirely destitute and ignorant of the Scriptures. ANTIQUITIES, ETC. WICLIFF'S WORKS. MR. EDITOR,-As you have lately admitted into your publication several letters from various of your correspondents respecting the writings of Wycliffe, perhaps the following account of a MS. of that reformer's writings, the existence of which has hitherto escaped the knowledge of his biographers, may not be altogether unacceptable to you and your readers. It is a volume in small 4to., preserved in the library of New College, Oxford, written upon parchment, as early as the fourteenth, or beginning of the fifteenth, century; and, at the last leaf, at the end of the last treatise, are these words "Magist. Johes. Wy." We may therefore conclude, without some positive evidence to the contrary, that all the treatises contained in this MS. are the real production of that author. I mention this, because it helps to ascertain the authenticity of certain of Wycliffe's writings, some of which have been rejected, without any apparent reason, by his biographers, and some never seen by them. The following is a list of the contents : I. The 120 Homilies on the Week-day Gospels. The first of which (omitting the title, which has been cut off by the binders,) begins thus: : "As men schulde trowe in crist—” And the last, which is marked in the margin " sermo 120," thus "Accesserunt ad Ihm. Mt. 19. pro sponsalibus. pis gospel tellip of matrimonye. hou man & his wif schulen loue [liue?] to gidere Matheu tellip pat scribis and pharisees camen to Ihu—” At the end of this last homily are these words, "Heere enden pe ferial gospels. Deo Gratias."-(See Lewis, p. 183.) II. [Wycliffe's letter of excuse to Pope Urban VI.] "I haue ioyefulli telle to alle trewe men."-(See Lewis, p. 333.) I have enclosed the title of this piece in brackets; it is given by Lewis, but is not found in the MS. There are many mistakes and omissions in the printed copy of this letter, and a great one of about ten lines in the middle. From the many errors which occur, I suppose that Lewis must have followed a very faulty transcript. III. Then follow some remarks apparently upon the Eucharist, but several lines at the beginning and ending have been carefully erased by a penknife, of which, however, I can decipher these words: ...." goddis body as long as pe forme............... And one ping y prophecie surely pat rewmes schulen neuer be wipoute great perturbacionn before pat Pei ben onyd in Pis bileue," &c. In Lewis, Wyclyffe's Confession of the Eucharist follows his Letter to Urban. (See Lewis. ib.) IV. [Of Simony.] The rubric has been erased. "per ben two manner of heretikis of whiche englond schuld be purgid and symonieris ben pe first. And alle siche ben symonieris that occupien bi symonye." V. "Quæstio quintuplex." This is evidently the same treatise as that quoted by Bale, p. 454, under the head of " Ad quinque quæstiones;" from whom Lewis transcribed the title, (p. 206,) but apparently never saw the treatise itself. It begins thus: |