[337] Ep. lvi. Yet we find that Charlemagne, in the year 795, granted the monks of the monastery of St. Bertin, in the time of Abbot Odlando, the privilege of hunting in his forests for the purpose of procuring leather to bind their books. "Odlando Abbate hujus loci abbas nonus, in omni bonitate suo prædecessori Hardrado coæqualis anno primo sui regiminis impetravit à rege Carolo privilegium venandi in silvis nostris et aliis ubicumque constitutis, ad volumina librorum tegænda, et manicas et zonas habendas. Salvis forestis regiis, quod sic incipit. Carolus Dei gratia Rex Francorum et Longobardorum ac patricius Romanorum, etc., data Septimo Kal. Aprilis, anno xxvi. regni nostri." Martene Thasaurus Nov. Anecdotorum iii. 498. Warton mentions a similar instance of a grant to the monks of St. Sithin, Dissert. ii. prefixed to Hist. of Eng. Poetry, but he quotes it with some sad misrepresentations, and refers to Mabillon De re Diplomatica, 611. Mr. Maitland, in his Dark Ages, has shown the absurdity of Warton's inferences from the fact, and proved that it was to the servants, or eorum homines, that Charlemagne granted this uncanonical privilege, p. 216. But I find no such restriction in the case I have quoted above. Probably, however, it was thought needless to express what might be inferred, or to caution against a practice so uncongenial with the christian duties of a monk.
[338] Ep. ci. p. 184. He afterwards quotes Livy, Tacitus, and many others.
[339] Ep. xiv. He was fond of Quintus Curtius, and often read his history with much pleasure. Ep. ci. p. 184.
[340] Ep. lxxvii. p. 81.
[341] Ep. xciv.
[342] Ep. xcii. and also lxxii. which is redundant with quotations from the poets.
[343] Ep. xciv. p. 170.
[344] Ep. lvii.
[345] Ep. xii.
[346] Ep. lxxvi. p. 132.