The Necessity of Prayerful Study
“When I get a little money, I buy books; and if any is left, I buy food and clothes.” (Desiderius Erasmus)
The quote above by
Erasmus is dear to my heart. I cannot pass up a good book. I can spend hours in
a used bookstore and only come up for air when I realize I may need to eat or
use the restroom. Yes, I am a book geek. I currently have over 3500 books in my
library. As soon as I get a new bookshelf it is already full from the books I
have stacked on the floor, the nightstand, my desks, my couch, my kitchen
table, my coffee table, chairs and other places where there is open space in
which books can be stacked. Books seem to grow faster than places to house them!
I want to
inspire readers to prayerful study with increased zeal. In this day and age it is imperative that you seek out good
Catholic reading material and study it so you will not be misled by those in
the Church teaching heresy. “It is nearly an axiom that people will not be
better than the books they read.”[1] Just
because a book is written by a Catholic author, be it bishop, priest or laymen,
does not mean it is orthodox. It is important that you not only have orthodox
material but that you know how to put it to good use. In my opinion, there is no
better time spent aside from prayer and worship than reading a good book. Before
addressing the need and method of prayerful study, I want to take a brief entertaining overview
of the history of the book. I think it will offer a deeper appreciation for the
massive amount of reading material we have available to us today compared to
other ages, which few of us sadly take advantage of.
A Brief History
of the Book
One of the greatest achievements of Western
Civilization is its vast body of literature and the forming of the university
to foster education. Long before the existence of the book however, we had tablets,
scrolls of papyrus or other material used to save important texts. Most of us
are familiar with seeing scrolls in movies or maybe those of the Torah used in
a synagogue. These scrolls were very cumbersome some being over 20 feet in
length. As the text was being read the reader rolled the text up and unrolled
the upcoming text to be read. This was obviously not the most efficient means
to contain these writings since classics such as Homer’s Iliad filled on
average over 12 scrolls. Keep in mind there was no separation of words or
punctuation! They would have been much larger if there had been. It was also
hard to keep the scrolls together if they were multi-volume. They were tied
with string, held with straps or slid into a tube or sheath to protect them. They
were then stored on shelves with tags on the ends to identify their contents. It
is said the ancient Alexandrian Library before it sadly burned, contained
hundreds of thousands of scrolls, some say maybe 500,000. It shows the
appreciation the ancient cultures had for the written word. Sometimes I wonder
if I am trying to subconsciously rebuild it!
Beginning somewhere in the second century, bound
folded sheets of parchment or papyrus eventually replaced scrolls, they were
called codex. The word is Latin meaning, “tree trunk”, referring to the wood
covering of the text.[2] Animal
skin (vellum or parchment) being more durable than papyrus, which often
succumbed to moisture, soon replaced papyrus as the medium for text. The first
books or codices were primarily used for distributing and studying Sacred
Scripture. These bounded sheets of animal skin were used for the text and were bound
between two wooden boards. This is the ancient form of what we now call a book.
The Church’s monasteries were instrumental in copying and keeping libraries of important
texts. In fact, the monastery was the first true house of study and producer of
manuscripts in the post-Roman West. “With the collapse of the western Roman
Empire, so too collapsed the large-scale book trade. What saved book production
in the west was the rise of monasticism.”[3] Although
Saint Benedict (480-547AD), the most influential founder of western monasticism
did not view education in the monastery
as a primary focus of the religious life unlike his contemporary Cassiodorus
(487-580 AD), he knew it was a necessity so that the monk could read and
meditate on Sacred Scripture, the writings of the Church Fathers and other
spiritual works. Each monastery had a general librarian to which various texts
would be handed out for study to each brother on a yearly basis, usually during
Lent. One manuscript demonstrates that an English Benedictine monastery handed
out books on the Monday after the first Sunday in Lent, and they took care to
roll out a carpet on which to place these valuable books.[4] Due to
the remote location of many monasteries, such as the ones in Ireland and
Britain, the monastery was a great protector of the written word.
How were these books stored you may ask? Surprisingly
they were not kept on bookshelves. The larger and rarer manuscripts were kept
in chests, or armariums, sometimes under the protection of three locks! This
chest with a 3-lock system very well could have been the first example of a
doomsday launch authorization, where three different monks, one of them being
the librarian, each held a key to each lock to be sure no unauthorized “borrowing”
occurred. Other books were stored on lecterns and were secured to the outer
boards with chains to the lectern. Remember, before the printing press all
these manuscripts were hand copied. It could take a decent wage earner one year’s
salary to obtain a handmade copy of the Sacred Scriptures. The Catholic monasteries
have often been falsely accused of keeping the Sacred Scriptures under lock and
key to keep the Bible away from the common people. It is obvious to any
thinking man that the chain, the lock, and key was merely a matter of necessity
to preserve the texts themselves from disappearing. These valuable hand-copied
manuscripts took immense time to copy and were thus well protected.
To be able to read these manuscripts, it was important
to have adequate sunlight and a somewhat quiet place to read and study,
although audible reading was very popular at the time. Great value was placed
on the digesting of the audible word. Carrels or reading spaces became popular
in monasteries and could range from a private room the size of a closet to an
area outside along the outer covered cloister walkways. Monks could sit outside
on a bench or wall area and read outdoors still covered from the elements but
with adequate light, sometimes even having glass panes to protect them from the
elements. The manuscripts were often stored in chests or armoires nearby under
lock and key. Sometimes the chest was opened, and the monk sat in front of the
chest with a book in hand for study. An eyewitness account at Durham Cathedral
in the middle ages describes monks at the cloister looking out the windows studying
their books, everyone at their carrel studying all afternoon until evening-song
and against the church wall there were great chests full of books containing such
treasures as the doctors of the Church or other holy men.[5] When I
read this historical account I sometimes think that I have missed my calling. I
think I could have fit in quite well spending my afternoons gazing upon the
cloister with my books in hand leisurely studying.
Until the invention of the printing press,
even monasteries had limited quantities of books. Some were assigned to
individual monks and others remained chained to a standing or sitting lectern. It
was not uncommon for a monk to stand before a lectern with a chained book
sitting before him next to a window. Peterhouse monastery in 1418 was reported
to have 302 total manuscripts. 125 of them were assigned to individuals for
daily reading, 143 chained to lecterns and the other remaining loose or
intended to be sold.[6] I
think it is amazing that I have more books in my bedroom than this entire
monastery possessed. As more manuscripts occupied the monasteries, rooms were
built or dedicated to housing them and the library was developed. The early
library looked much like rows of pews with back to back benches with books
chained to the lecterns. One had to go to the book to read it since the chains
were only long enough to read them at the lectern, either sitting or standing
depending on the type. Eventually, shelves would be added above the lectern to
make room for more manuscripts. The manuscripts were often stacked upon one
another rather than stood up vertically as we see today. The chains made it
difficult to store them vertically since the chains were attached to the wood
covers.
The modern library as seen today across the
globe appears as it is because of one important invention, the printing press. The
printing press allowed monasteries and universities to accumulate large collections
of manuscripts since the cost and time were much less to produce them. Chaining
books still lasted in some places well into the 1600s. As these books started
to accumulate the old lectern system was modified to add shelving between the
lecterns which were now facing one another. Eventually the idea of standing
manuscripts on end would be favored, however, the chains made it impossible to
face the manuscripts with the spine out. It wasn’t until after the chains were
removed that manuscripts began to have descriptions on the spines which were
now able to be faced outward. The efforts made to increase the availability of
manuscripts for study was instrumental in the growth of the Church and western
civilization. We can also see how treasured these manuscripts were, especially
Sacred Scripture, due to the care that many monks took to illuminate them with
colored letters and images depicting the biblical scene for the reader. Even
after books began to be printed by machine, they were held by all men to be of
great value.
In the thirteenth century, it is important to
note that the Church pioneered an advanced era of learning, which is now called
the age of scholasticism. Learning gradually moved from the monastery to the
university. This focused development of manuscripts and libraries illustrates
man’s desire to learn the truth of their surroundings as well as to digest Holy
Writ and other valuable texts. Studies included learning grammar, arithmetic,
and the sciences. This was done as a means of being able to read and meditate
on Sacred Scripture, Patristics, and philosophical works. These manuscripts
were primarily only available to the religious or the wealthier laity. The
printing press not only made printing cheaper and made manuscripts more
available, but it also inspired the general public to acquire literacy. Guttenberg
started the first printing press in 1439. By 1480 there were printing presses in
operation across Europe allowing for a larger part of the population to obtain
Sacred Scripture and other writings.
In seeing how manuscript availability was
until this time was extremely limited, it was viewed as a miracle of sorts for
the average person to be able to possess an entire book of the Scriptures or a
classical work. As literacy became more widespread the book soon became man’s
best friend. Western civilization was in large part able to be the success that
it was because of literacy and the availability of the written text. Man was
able to build upon the knowledge of his predecessors much quicker than in
previous eras. It was through the means of written text accompanied by oral teaching
that Western Civilization was built. We find ourselves in the advanced state of
technology today due to the availability of written text. It is not only the
wealthy with their private tutors or university educations that can benefit
from books, but almost the entire population of the western world. For example,
in France the literacy rate in 1475 was a mere 6% of the population, in 1550 it
had grown to 19%, which by today’s standards may seem unimpressive but in a
short time, it was an increase of over 300%.[7]
If we take the time to think well on this
brief history, I hope that it will increase an appreciation as to what we have
available to us today! The literacy rate now is near 89% worldwide! It is 99%
in the US. We can go to the local bookstore or go online and buy almost any
book we want for a very reasonable price and we have the education to make use
of them. We can fit an entire library on our phones or other electronic devices
that would have filled entire universities in the middle ages! Can you imagine
a monk sitting at a lectern reading from a manuscript that has chains attaching
it to the lectern, then having to sit just right where the sun can shine through
the window so they could read it, or burn candles? Can we imagine the effort
these men made to participate in prayerful study? Can we imagine all of those
who were illiterate and could not reap the immense riches of reading Sacred
Scripture or other important works? How much do we value literacy in our age? Is
it then not a wonder to our eyes to see that most Catholics today do not take
the time to read about their treasured faith?
[1]
Rev J.F.X.O’Conor S.J., Reading and the Mind With Something To Read
(Benzinger Brothers 1893) P4
[2]
Henry Petroski, The Book on the Bookshelf, (Alfred A. Knopf 1999) P25-35
[4] Henry
Petroski, The Book on the Bookshelf (Alfred A. Knopf 1999) P41
[5]
Ibid 53
[6]
Ibid 63
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