"[1] Abbot Michael de Mentmore, who had been
educated at Oxford, and became schoolmaster at St. Albans,
encouraged the educational work of the abbey by making
studies for the scholars. As he also ordered the morning
mass to be celebrated directly after prime, or six o'clock,
instead of at fierce, or about nine, to allow the students
more time, it is safe to assume he was more zealous than
popular. He also gave books which cost him more than
L 100. His successor, Thomas, enlarged his own study,
and bought many books for it; and, with the assistance of
Thomas of Walsingham, then preceptor and master of the
scriptorium, he built a writing-room at his own expense.
[1] Some of the books were restored, others were resold to the
abbey.
But Whethamstede was St. Albans' greatest book-loving
abbot. An ardent book-lover, especially fond of
finely-illuminated volumes, he indulged his passion for
manuscripts, and for conventual buildings, vestments, and
property, until he got the abbey into debt, and was led to
resign. After the death of his successor, Whethamstede
was re-elected. In his time no fewer than eighty-seven
volumes were transcribed.
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