On the same day a book of College Orders (on the second leaf ter posita) was taken out of the library with the consent of all the Fellows. And leave was given to the Warden, in the presence of the four senior Fellows, to make use of it for a season. As a caution for this book the aforesaid Warden deposited a certain other book, viz. S. Jerome's commentary on Matthew and the Epistles of Paul (on the second leaf sunt). This book lay in our possession as caution for the other book of College Orders[280]; but, because this book was an insufficient caution, there was deposited with it as a supplementary caution another book, namely: Jerome on Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel.
The Warden kept the book for a year, at the expiration of which we find the following entry[281]:
On the last day but one of the same month [1499] the Warden returned to the Vice-Warden the book of College Orders (on the second leaf ter posita) which he had had out of the library for his own use for a season on depositing a sufficient caution.
Whereupon the Vice-Warden returned to him his cautions, namely, the commentary of S. Jerome on Matthew (second leaf sunt), and another, namely, S. Jerome's exposition of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel (second leaf, Audi cela).
Lastly, I will quote a record of the solemn reception of a gift to the library:
On the same day [2 August, 1493] a handsome book was given to the College through John Godehew, Bachelor, by two venerable men, Robert Aubrey and Robert Feyld, to be chained in the common library of the House for the perpetual use of those studying in it. It is Hugh of Vienne on the Apocalypse, on the second leaf quod possessio eius. Let us therefore pray for them[282].
These provisions savour of the cloister. The "common books" represent the "common press (armarium commune)" with which we are so familiar there; the double or triple locks with which the book-chests are secured recall the rules for safeguarding the said press; the annual audit and distribution of books is directed in Lanfranc's statutes for English Benedictines; the borrowing under a pledge, or at least after an entry made by the Librarian on his roll of the name of the book and the name of the brother who borrowed it, was universal in monasteries; and the setting apart of certain books in a separate room to which access was readily permitted became a necessity in the larger and more literary Houses. Lastly, the commemoration of donors of books is specially enjoined by the Augustinians[283].
This close similarity between monastic and secular rules need not surprise us. I have shewn in the preceding chapter how faithfully the Benedictine rules for study were obeyed by all the Monastic Orders; and I know not from what other source directions for library-management could have been obtained. Besides, in some cases the authors of the rules which I have been considering must themselves have had experience of monastic libraries. Walter de Merton is said to have been educated in an Augustinian Priory at Merton; Hugh de Balsham, founder of Peterhouse, was Bishop of Ely; William Bateman, whose library-statute was so widely applied, had been educated in the Benedictine Priory at Norwich, and his brother was an abbat; Henry Chichele was Archbishop of Canterbury, where, as I have shewn, a very extensive collection of books had been got together, to contain which worthily he himself built a library.
Secondly, monastic influence was brought directly to bear on both Universities through student-monks; and at Oxford, which was specially selected as the University for monastic colleges, the Benedictines founded Gloucester House, now Worcester College, so early as 1283. This college had a library, on the south side of the chapel, which was built and stocked with books at the sole charge of John Whethamstede, Abbat of S. Albans[284]—whose work in connexion with the library of that House has been already recorded[285]. Durham College, maintained by the Benedictines of Durham, was supplied with books from the mother-house, lists of which have been preserved[286]; and subsequently a library was built there to contain the collection bequeathed in 1345 by Richard de Bury (Bishop of Durham 1333-45)[287]. Lastly, Leland tells us that at Canterbury College in the same University the whole furniture of the library (tota bibliothecæ supellex) was transferred from the House of Christ Church, Canterbury[288]. It is, I submit, quite inconceivable that the fittings supplied to these libraries could have been different from those commonly used in the monasteries of S. Albans, Durham, and Canterbury.
Further, it should be noted that the erection of a library proper was an afterthought in many of the older colleges, as it had been in the monasteries. For instance, at Merton College, Oxford, founded 1264, the library was not begun till 1377; at University College, founded 1280, in 1440; at Balliol College, founded 1282, in 1431; at Oriel College, founded 1324, in 1444; at Pembroke College, Cambridge, founded 1347, in 1452. William of Wykeham, who founded New College, Oxford, in 1380, was the first to include a library in his quadrangle; and, after the example had been set by him, the plan of every subsequent college includes a library of sufficient dimensions to last till the Reformation, if not till the present day.