276; ii. 43. Jerome, Ad
Eustoch, Ep. t8.
CHAPTER V. CATHEDRAL AND CHURCH LIBRARIES
Section I
To the books of the monastery some human interest
clings: we can at once conjure up a picture of the
cloister and the scribe at his work; the handling of
an old manuscript, the turning over of finely-written and
quaintly-illuminated yellow pages, throws the mind flashing
back centuries to the silent writer in his carrell. But the
church library is not rich in associations. It was a small
"working" collection: one part for the use of the clergy,
the other part--consisting of a few chained books--for
the use of the people. These chained books, which now
suggest a scarcely conceivable restriction upon the circulation
of literature--even theological literature--were, in fact,
the sign of a glimmer of liberal thought in the church.
During the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, not only
were monastic books issued to lay people more freely, but
many more books were chained in places of worship than
in the sixteenth century, when the proclamation for the
"setting-up" of Bibles in churches was granted unwillingly.
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