As time goes on, after the tenth century, it is noticeable that the more
beautiful a manuscript becomes in its writing the less accurate becomes
its Latinity. And so the monks who once were noted for learning,
gradually lose their grip on Latin. The manuscripts executed in
Benedictine abbeys became inaccurate--almost illiterate. Faults of
ignorance of words; misrendering of proper names; blundering in the
inept introduction of marginal notes and confounding such notes with the
text, showing that the heart of the copyist was not in his work nor his
head capable of performing it. His hand is simply a machine, which when
it goes wrong does so without remorse and without shame. So in the
greater houses, men were appointed whose sole business was to supervise
the copyists--in fact, to supply the brains, while the scribe furnished
the manipulation of the pen. Even they, however, did not always succeed
to perfection, as very few of them were too well furnished with
scholarship. There were not many Alcuins or Theodulfs in the twelfth
century. What they did usually keep free from serious error were the
books used in their own services. It was the aim, particularly among the
Cistercian houses, to have their liturgical texts absolutely without
fault.
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