' He divided his new wealth between the
Church at Wearmouth and the Abbey at Jarrow, across the river. Ceolfrid
of Jarrow himself made a journey to Rome with the object of augmenting
Benedict's 'most noble and copious store'; but he gave to the King of
Northumbria, in exchange for a large landed estate, the magnificent
'Cosmography' which his predecessor had brought to Wearmouth.
St. Wilfrid presented to his church at Ripon a _Book of the Gospels_ on
purple vellum, and a Bible with covers of pure gold inlaid with precious
stones. John the Precentor, who introduced the Roman liturgy into this
country, bequeathed a number of valuable books to Wearmouth. Bede had no
great library of his own; it was his task 'to disseminate the treasures
of Benedict.' But he must have possessed a large number of manuscripts
while he was writing the Ecclesiastical History, since he has informed us
that Bishop Daniel of Winchester and other learned churchmen in the South
were accustomed to supply him constantly with records and chronicles.
St. Boniface may be counted among the collectors, though he could carry
but a modest supply of books through the German forests and the marshes
of Friesland. As a missionary he found it useful to display a
finely-painted volume. Writing to the Abbess Eadburga for a Missal, he
asked that the parchment might be gay with colours,--'even as a
glittering lamp and an illumination for the hearts of the Gentiles.' 'I
entreat you,' he writes again, 'to send me _St.
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