[2] When he was appointed
to the see of Canterbury he continued to work for the same
ends, although his primacy can have left him little leisure.
A fresh beginning had to be made in Canterbury. In
1067 a fire destroyed the city, including the cathedral and
almost the whole of the monastic buildings; and in this
disaster many "sacred and profane books" were burned.
It was Lanfranc's task to repair this loss. He brought
books with him,[3] and introduced some changes and more
method in the making and use of them. In the customary
of the Benedictine order which he drew up to correspond
with the best monastic practice, he included minute
instructions about lending and reading books. He was also
responsible in the main for the substitution of the continental
Roman handwriting for the beautiful Hiberno-Saxon hand.
In another respect his influence was more beneficial. Both
at Bec and in England he aimed to turn out accurate texts
of patristic books, and the better to achieve this end he
himself corrected manuscripts. In the abbey of St. Martin
de Secz at one time there was a copy of the first ten
Conferences of Cassian with his corrections; and in the
library of Mans is a St.
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