83 
England, as we learn from Dr. Rashdal’s valuable history, 
now in this Institution library. 
He there became proficient in the classical literature of 
Greece and Rome; he also studied general literature, poetry 
and rhetoric, and was himself a poet. Having been intended 
for the Bar, he left Paris for Bologna, where he prosecuted 
his legal studies with marked success. His preference, how- 
ever, was for scholastic divinity, to which he was passionately 
devoted, both as scholar and teacher. 
With these views, and from religious motives, he shortly 
quitted Bologna, and returned to the University of Paris, 
where he was appointed Professor. He remained there some 
years, pursuing his studies as a learner, while lecturing in 
the Professor’s chair. A new light had of late been shining 
in the dark cloisters of Bretagne Monasteries, and its influence 
had been felt in the University at Paris, so much so that 
many students were attracted thither from England. It is 
now generally admitted that the learning of the monks at 
that period and later has been under-rated and misrepresented, 
and their ignorance and degeneracy greatly exaggerated. It 
’ has been shown that under the Saxon rule piety and literature 
were cultivated to an extent hitherto ignored or denied. 
Passing from Saxon times, and through the Norman period 
to Early English, we find many monasteries and church 
libraries containing treasured volumes of Greek and Latin 
classics, Biblical and ecclesiastical learning, costly illuminated 
transcripts in vellum folios, religiously vested in charge of 
the librarians, who were called Armarians, and the book 
collector was known by the designation of Amator Librorum. 
These occupied large rooms, called Scriptoria, and were 
responsible not only for the preservation of the books, but for 
the accuracy of their catalogues, even in the minutest details. 
Strange as it may sound to Protestant ears to-day, the 
monastic rules strictly enjoined the ‘“‘ unceasing ”’ study of the 
Bible. This accounts for the “ Imitatio”’ of 4 Kempis being 
simply saturated with Holy Writ. Equally is it a surprise to 
many in the present day to know that in the 12th Century it 
was the pride and glory of many English monasteries to have 
a well-stored Library. There was a proverb among book- 
lovers at that early date: Claustrum sine armario, quasi 
Castrum sine armamentario—‘‘ A monastery without a 
library is like a castle without an armoury.” The state- 
ments made by Mr. Gairdner on the one side, and by the 

