Abbot Aefward,
for example, gave to his abbey of Evesham many sacred
books and books on grammar (c. 1035): here, at any rate,
progress was real.[1] At a manor of the abbey of Bury St.
Edmunds were thirty volumes, exclusive of church books
(1044-65).[2] Bishop Leofric also obtained over sixty books
for Exeter Cathedral about sixteen years before the Conquest,
a collection to which we must refer later.
[1] Chron. Abb. de E., 83.
[2] James 1, 5-6.
CHAPTER III. LIBRARIES OF THE GREAT ABBEYS--BOOK-LOVERS
AMONG THE MENDICANTS--DISPERSAL OF MONKISH LIBRARIES
Section I
The Conquest wrought both good and evil to literature
--evil because the Normans thought books written
in the vernacular unworthy of preservation;[1] good
because the change brought to the country settled government,
and to the church an opportunity for reformation.
Lanfranc was the moving spirit of reform, both in church
administration and in the learning of its members. While
still in Normandy he had built up a reputation for the
monastic school at Bec, and probably had a share in
collecting the excellent library that we know the monastery
possessed in the twelfth century.
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