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and, since we cannot preach the word of God with our mouths, we do it 

 wth our hands. We consider every copy written by us as a herald of 

 the truth, and hope to be recompensed by the Lord on account of all 

 persons, who by such means have their errors corrected or make 

 proficiency in the Catholic religion. "t« Dufresne. the author from whom 

 this quotation is made, informs us of a very remarkable mode of con- 

 ferring posthumous honour upon those who had been distinguished in 

 tliis department of monastic duty. Their fingers, or the bones of their 

 fingers, were sometimes preserved after death as relics. Sir Frederick 

 Madden, the principal keeper of manuscripts in the British Museum, 

 shewed me not long since some of these relics. They were deposited 

 in small capsules scooped out of the wooden binding of a MS. written 

 by the departed scribe. In some cases we find the name and the 

 description of the writer, of the person who employed him, the monastery 

 to which he was attatched, and the date. Latin verses are sometimes 

 appended by the lowly brother, who calls himself " a vile and miserable 

 scribe," and solicits all readers to pray for him. Often, also, is he found 

 moralising, as in the following words : *' The hand that writes will soon 

 moulder in the tomb — but that which is written endures for many 

 years, even for ever and ever. Amen." 



Although the religious houses may certainly claim the production of 

 the vast majority of these works, it happened occasionally that laymen 

 of rank, or possessing leisure and taste, employed themselves in the 

 like manner. 



The parties thus engaged, whether ecclesiastics or laymen, were called 

 by different names, according to the department in which each excelled : 

 as CalUgraphers, from the uniform beauty of their handwriting ; 

 Chrysographers, when they confined themselves chiefly to the production 

 of gilt letters or other decorations in gold ; or Illuminators, (which tenn 

 has been contracted into limners,) when they employed themselves in 

 filling with splendid miniatures the spaces left vacant by the scribes. 

 Matthew Paris, the learned monk of St. Albans, who appears to have 

 united in himself all the accomplishments of his age, excelled in the 

 elegance of his hand-writing, and understood design and painting, many 

 specimens of which served to embellish his valuable history. Osmund, 

 the munificent bishop of Salisbury, did not disdain to employ some of 

 his leisure in the writing, illuminating, and binding of books. On the 

 general revival of literature, at a later period, many enthusiastic scholars, 

 both lay and clerical, made fair copies of the great authors of antiquity 

 for their own or their patrons' libraries, or for the pui'pose of improving 

 their own style of composition. 



* Dufresne v. Scriptorium. 



