Page:The library a magazine of bibliography and library literature, Volume 6.djvu/345

 The Vatican Library. 333 kept in the bishop's house, whence they ought to be fetched and burnt. But that the proconsul was unwilling to interfere." 1 And so the library of the Church of Carthage escaped free from the flames. Another bishop, Secundus Tigisitanus, bore witness that men had been sent by the curator, together with a cen- turion, to find the sacred books and destroy them, but that they had been content with some rubbish or other, and that even this he had not given up. It is in this way that the church libraries, with but few ex- ceptions, were destroyed, by the edict of Diocletian, or perished through the very care by which they were preserved. What happened at Rome at this period is unknown. But it may be taken for nearly certain that all the documents and records relating to the history of the church before Constantine perished at the time of this calamity. How the library at Jerusalem, founded before the middle of the 3rd century, and the Caesarean library of Origen and Pamphilus escaped, is unknown. At the time of the 4th century, Euzoius, the bishop, endeavoured, as it is recorded, to have the books of this latter library transcribed on to parchment, probably on account of the wearing away of the papyrus. The mention of the office of readers or lector already indi- cates that the care of these libraries was in some way entrusted to them. That ordinarily the sacred books were preserved in the basilicas themselves, and in lockers and shelves at the side of the bema, that is, the chair and tribunal, may be inferred from the disposition of the libraries in the 4th and 5th centuries. On each side of the apse were lockers. On the one side were the fur- niture and sacred vessels, on the other the books and library. As proof of this may be mentioned the well-known couplet by Paulinus of Nola " Si quern sancta tenet meditandi in lege voluntas Hie poterit residens sacris intendere libris," 2 and an inscription of the 5th century from the tribunal of the church, apparently of Seville, given by De Rossi in the second volume of the Christian Inscriptions, clearly proves this. There was also in each church a church chest, in which eventually the acts of the churches, and epistles of commendation 1 De Rossi, xv. 2 This was a favourite inscription in libraries. It was over that, for instance, in Rouen Cathedral.