At the abbey of Bangor in Wales, for instance, there were twothousand four hundred men,--all under the direction of a comparativelysmall body of monks, who were trained to an amount of organizing skilllike that now needed for a great railway system. Some of these men wereoccupied, in various mechanic arts, some in mining, but most of them inagriculture, which they carried on with their own hands, without the aidof animals, and in total silence.Having thus labored in the fields until noonday, Brandan then returnedthat he might work in the library, transcribing ancient manuscripts orillustrating books of prayer. Having to observe silence, he wrote the nameof the book to give to the librarian, and if it were a Christian work, hestretched out his hand, making motions with his fingers as if turning overthe leaves; but if it were by a pagan author, the monk who asked for itwas required to scratch his ear as a dog does, to show his contempt,because, the regulations said, an unbeliever might well be compared tothat animal[1]. Taking the book, he copied it in the Scriptorium orlibrary, or took it to his cell, where he wrote all winter without a fire.It is to such monks that we owe all our knowledge of the earliest historyof England and Ireland; though doubtless the hand that wrote the historiesof Gildas and Bede grew as tired as that of Brandan, or as that of themonk who wrote in the corner of a beautiful manuscript: "He who does notknow how to write imagines it to be no labor; but though only threefingers hold the pen, the whole body grows weary.
Pages:
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92