With the King at Oxford: A Tale of the Great Rebellion

by Alfred John Church

  CHAPTER XIV.

  OF BODLEY'S LIBRARY.

  'Tis no small pleasure for me, and will be doubtless for any thatshall hereafter read what I have here written, to turn from wars andfighting, of which I must perforce say much, to the quiet anddelectable realm of learning. And, though I would not be thoughtwilfully to praise myself, I may say so much that, amidst all thedistractions of the time, which were indeed many and great, this realmI did never wholly leave or desert, though compelled often to beabsent therefrom.

  Having already spoken of these matters, I would now say somewhat ofthat place which is, as it were, the capital of this kingdom to suchas are subjects thereof, within the limits of the University ofOxford--I speak of Bodley's Library. This I do the more willinglybecause I know not how long it may abide unharmed in its presentestate. For who knows not what shameful things were done, when, onehundred years ago, or thereabouts, the visitors of King Edward, sixthof the name, purged, as they did call it, the libraries of this place,and among them that noble collection of manuscripts and books whichHumphrey, Duke of Gloucester, and Thomas Kempe, some time Bishop ofLondon, with other benefactors, did bestow upon the University ofOxford. Their commission was to do away with all that savoured ofPopish superstition. If, therefore, they spied in any volume anyillumination or picture, or even rubrical letter, such as are wont tobe used for the ornamentation of mass-books and the like, that theyincontinently destroyed without further examination, for suchexamination they had not the will, or, it may be, the ability to make.Such, indeed, was their ignorance, if one may believe the traditionthat is yet current in Oxford concerning this matter, that such bookswherein appeared angles or mathematical diagrams were thoughtsufficient to be destroyed, because accounted Popish, or diabolical,for, indeed, they stood in no less dread of witchcraft than of thePope. Nay, their folly had almost led them into the grossest impiety,for among the books brought out to be destroyed were, 'tis said, manycopies of the New Testament in Greek, which, the character beingstrange to them that handled them, were condemned as mischievous, andhad perished together with the rest, but that one wiser than hisfellows kept them from their fate. Certain it is that damage beyondall counting was done in this way, the rage of these ignorant menbeing especially directed against the works of Peter Lombard, andThomas Aquinas, and Duns Scotus, and others, who are commonly calledthe Schoolmen. These were carried on biers by rude young men of thecity to the market-place, and there, being piled in a great heap,burned with fire. Others, against which they had no special hate, weresold, and at such mean rates that one knows not whether to be moreangry or ashamed at their silliness. For what says John Bale on thismatter, who, as all know, was no lover of monks and monkery, butrather hated all that savoured of Papistry with a perfect hatred. Hesays that many reserved these books to scour their candlesticks and torub their boots; that others they sold to grocers and soap-sellers,and some they sent over to the bookbinders, whole shipsful at a time,to the wonderment of foreign nations. And again, descending toparticulars, he writes: "I know a merchant man, which shall at thistime be nameless, that bought the contents of two noble libraries forforty shillings price: a shame it is to be spoken. This stuff hath heoccupied in the stead of grey paper by the space of more than theseten years, and yet he hath store enough for as many years to come."All that bought them made not such an ill use of their purchase. Godbe thanked therefore! Thus a certain Dutchman, by trade a stationer,living in St. Mary's Parish, bought some, which, being handed down byhim to his son, were in the end given to the Library when Sir ThomasBodley did restore it.

  So much for the past, which I have here written down because I hold itto be not impossible that the like may be done again. For the present,indeed, this fate has been warded off, for when, as I shall hereafterrelate, this City of Oxford was delivered up to the Parliament, theLord-General did straightway set a guard to keep the Library from allharm; and this he did, being a lover of learning, and well knowingthat there were in the army many persons who, having a zeal withoutknowledge, would have utterly destroyed it. And, indeed, I know, notwhether these may not yet so prevail as to get the chief regimen ofthings into their own hand, for, as all history teaches us, the courseof things in all such revolutions as this that hath lately overthrownthe constitution of this country is this: first, the moderate anddiscreet have power; next, these either yield to the more violent andextreme or are themselves carried away by their own headway; and last,when the folly and wickedness of this excess has become altogetherunendurable, the old order is again set up. Meanwhile, being desirousabove all things to follow the truth, and to be just to all men, Imust acknowledge that so far more damage was done to the Library bythe King's friends while they held the city than has since been doneby his enemies, many books having been embezzled, the chains by whichthe more precious are bound to their places being cut off, and otherinjuries done. But to come back to my subject.

  _The Bodleian Library, Oxford._ _HANHART LITH._]

  Sir Thomas Bodley's Library, then, is a spacious building, of whichthe main chamber lies east and west, having ten windows on eitherside, and furnished in most goodly sort with shelves and other needfulappurtenances. The chief glory of this chamber is the roof, dividedinto squares, on each of which are painted the arms of the University,being the open Bible with the seven seals, of which St. John speaks inthe Revelation (but others take it of the seven liberal arts), and thewords, "DOMINUS ILLUMINATIO MEA."[8] On the bosses that are betweeneach compartment are painted the arms of Sir Thomas Bodley himself. Atthe east end of this chamber is the bust of the pious founder, SirThomas Bodley, who has been dead at this present time of writing(1651) eight-and-thirty years. Of this bust King James I., visitingthe Library three years after his coming to the throne, said, havingread the well-merited praises that have been inscribed there, "Verily,his name should be _Godley_ rather than Bodley." The wit of thissaying is indeed but indifferent, but it has what all wit does notpossess, that is to say, truth. To this chamber has been added at theeastern end what may be called a picture gallery, also furnished withbookshelves, which occupies the whole of the upper story of thequadrangle.

  [8] "The Lord is my Light."

  So much of the building, but of the precious things which it containsI cannot profess to speak. Of printed books there must be near uponthirty thousand, a number which it staggers the mind only to conceive;but as for reading them, not the life-time of Methuselah himself wouldsuffice.[9] Of manuscripts also there is a great store, some of thembeing most uncommonly rare and precious, as, for example, to mentionone only out of many, is a manuscript of the Gospels, sent by St.Gregory to St. Augustine, his missionary to this realm of England, atreasure long preserved in St. Augustine's Abbey in the City ofCanterbury, and given to this Library some fifty years since by SirRobert Cotton. In this temple of the Muses, then, to speak thelanguage of Paganism, I was accustomed to spend many hours; at thefirst, while I was as yet an undergraduate, by favour andrecommendation of Master Webberley, of whom I have before spoken, andafterwards, having been admitted to the degree of Bachelor, of my ownright. 'Tis rich in books of that classical learning which I havealways, so far as it has been possible for me, especially followed,and most conveniently ordered for students, to whom indeed it isspecially commended by the courtesy of its officers.[10] 'Twas indeedbut little visited by readers in my time, the Muses having been drivenout both there and elsewhere by the tumult of arms. Yet there weresome faithful students who seemed not to care one jot who ruled therealm so that they were not disturbed in this their peculiar province;as for me, my young blood permitted me not to reach so serene aheight, but I never suffered myself to be wholly distracted fromstudy, as were many of my fellows, by the excitements of war. I havemyself seen more than once the King come into the Library, desiring tosee some book that was therein. This he did because Bodley's statutesforbid the lending out of any book or manuscript, be the borrower whohe may. But I remember that in the year 1645, while I was reading inthe great chamber (I bear in mi
nd that it was winter time and passingcold), there came an order to Master Rous, then and now Bodley'sLibrarian, in these words: "Deliver unto the bearer hereof, for thepresent use of his Majesty, a book intituled _Histoire Universelledu Sieur d'Aubigne_, and this shall be your warrant." To this Dr.Samuel Fell, Dean of Christ Church and then Vice-Chancellor, hadsubscribed, "His Majesty's use is in command to us." But Master Rouswould have none of it, having sworn to observe the statutes of theLibrary, which statutes forbid all lending of the books without anyrespect of persons. Therefore he goes to the King and shows him thestatutes, which being read, the King would not have the book norpermit it to be taken out of the Library, saying that it was fit thatthe will and statutes of the pious founder should be religiouslyobserved. Would that he had been like-minded in all things! So much Imay say without damage to my fidelity. It had been happier so for himand for this realm of England.

  [9] What would Philip Dashwood have said of the _three hundred thousand volumes_ of which the Library now consists?--A. C.

  [10] Still a tradition of the Library.--A. C.

  And thus I am reminded of a strange thing that I heard from the lipsof Master Verneuil, who was in those days Deputy-Librarian. The King,coming into the Library on a certain day, was shown a curious copy ofthe poet Virgil. Then the Lord Falkland that was with him (the samethat was slain at the second battle of Newbury, to the great loss ofthis realm and sorrow of all the better sort on either side) wouldhave his Majesty make trial of his fortune by the _Sortes Virgilianae_.This is a kind of augury which has been very much used for some agespast, the manner of it being thus: The person that will consult theoracle, if I may so speak, taking a penknife or bodkin in his hand,thrusts it, turning his head away at the same time, into the volume ofVirgil. This done, he opens the book and takes the place to which theinstrument may point as the answer that Fate intends for him. On thisoccasion, therefore, the King lighted upon this period, being part ofthe imprecation which Queen Dido invokes on AEneas that has desertedher. It was Englished thus by Master Thomas Phaer, about one hundredyears since.

  "Yet let him vexed be with arms and wars of peoples wild, And hunted out from place to place, an outlaw still exiled. And let him beg for help, and from his child dissevered be, And death and slaughter vile of all his kindred let him see, And when to laws of wicked peace he doth himself behight, Yet let him never reign, nor in this life to have delight, But die before his day, and rot on ground without a grave."

  The King being in no small degree discomposed at this accident, theLord Falkland would himself make trial of the book, hoping to fall onsome passage that should have no relation to his case, that so theKing's thoughts might be in a measure diverted from the impressionthat had been made upon them. But, lo! it fell out that the place hestumbled upon was yet more suited to his destiny than that other hadbeen to the King. 'Twas in the eleventh book of the AEneid where theold King Evander speaks of the death of Pallas his son. This wasEnglished by Master Thomas Twynam, who finished the work of MasterPhaer aforesaid.

  "Didst not, O Pallas, thou to me, thy sire, this promise make: That charily thou wouldst thyself to cruel war betake? I knew right well the novel pride, and glory first in fight, And pleasant honour won in arms how much prevail it might. O hard beginnings to a lad and woeful martial train!"

  So much then for the Library of Sir Thomas Bodley.