. . there flowed in,
instead of presents and guerdons, and instead of gifts and
jewels, soiled tracts and battered codices, gladsome alike to
our eye and heart. Then the aumbries of the most famous
monasteries were thrown open, cases were unlocked and
caskets were undone, and volumes that had slumbered
through long ages in their tombs wake up and are
astonished, and those that had lain hidden in dark places
are bathed in the ray of unwonted light. These long lifeless
books, once most dainty, but now become corrupt and
loathesome, covered with litters of mice and pierced with
the gnawings of the worms, and who were once clothed in
purple and fine linen, now Iying in sackcloth and ashes,
given up to oblivion, seemed to have become habitations of
the moth.... Thus the sacred vessels of learning came into
our control and stewardship; some by gift, others by
purchase, and some lent to us for a season."[1]
[1] R. de B., 197-199.
If his words are true, monastic and other libraries must
have been seriously despoiled to build up his own collection.
He was bribed by St. Albans Abbey, and nobody need
disbelieve him when he says he got many presents from
other houses, for the merit of being open-handed was
rewarded with more good mediation and favours than the
giver's cause deserved; indeed, De Bury himself seems to
have made judicious use of bribes for his own advancement.
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