Editing Benedictines (section)

====Monastic libraries in England====
The forty-eighth Rule of Saint Benedict prescribes extensive and habitual "holy reading" for the brethren.<ref>{{cite book |last= Kaur |first= Nirmal|date= 2005|title= History of Education |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=EaGGhbpebLYC&pg=PA44|publisher= Mittal Publications|page= 44|isbn= 81-7099-984-7}}</ref> Three primary types of reading were done by the monks in medieval times. Monks would read privately during their personal time, as well as publicly during services and at mealtimes. In addition to these three mentioned in the Rule, monks would also read in the infirmary. Monasteries were thriving centers of education, with monks and nuns actively encouraged to learn and pray according to the [[Benedictine Rule]]. Rule 38 states that 'these brothers' meals should usually be accompanied by reading, and that they were to eat and drink in silence while one read out loud.

Benedictine monks were not allowed worldly possessions, thus necessitating the preservation and collection of sacred texts in monastic libraries for communal use.<ref>{{cite book |last1= Wormald |last2=Wright|first1= Francis |first2=C.E.|date= 1958|title= The English Library before 1700|via= University of London|publisher= The Athlone Press|location=London|page= 15}}</ref> For the sake of convenience, the books in the monastery were housed in a few different places, namely the [[sacristy]], which contained books for the choir and other liturgical books, the [[Clergy house|rectory]], which housed books for public reading such as sermons and lives of the saints, and the [[library]], which contained the largest collection of books and was typically in the cloister.

The first record of a monastic library in England is in [[Canterbury]]. To assist with [[Augustine of Canterbury]]'s [[Gregorian mission|English mission]], Pope [[Pope Gregory I|Gregory the Great]] gave him nine books which included the Gregorian Bible in two volumes, the Psalter of Augustine, two copies of the [[Gospels]], two [[martyrologies]], an Exposition of the Gospels and Epistles, and a [[Psalter]].<ref name="Savage1912">{{cite book |last= Savage|first= Ernest|date= 1912|title= Old English Libraries|url= https://archive.org/details/cu31924029526112|location= London|publisher= Methuen & Co. Ltd.}}</ref>{{rp|23–25}} [[Theodore of Tarsus]] brought Greek books to Canterbury more than seventy years later, when he founded a school for the study of Greek.<ref name="Savage1912" />{{rp|26}}