So much with regard to the duties of the precentor, as chief singer of the monastery. He was also the librarian, or _armarius_; the two offices, somewhat strangely, perhaps, to our modern notion, always going together. In this capacity he had charge of all the books contained in the aumbry, or book-cupboard, or later in the book-room, or library. Moreover, he had to prepare the ink for the various writers of manuscripts and charters, etc., and to procure the necessary parchment for book-making. He had to watch that the books did not suffer from ill use, or misuse, and to see to the mending and binding of them all. As keeper of the bookshelves, the cantor was supposed to know the position and titles of the volumes, and by constant attention to protect them from dust, and injury from insects, damp, or decay. When they required repair or cleaning, he was to see to it; and also to judge when the binding had to be repaired or renewed. For the purpose of thus renovating the manuscripts under his care, he had, of course, frequently to employ skilled labour. At such times he received an allowance of food for the workmen engaged “on cleaning the bindings of the choir books,” etc. Special revenues also were at his disposal “for making new books and keeping up the organs.” At the beginning of Lent the cantor was to remind the community in Chapter of those who had given the books to their house, or had written them; and subsequently it was his duty to request that an Office and Mass for the Dead should be said for such benefactors. And, during the morning Mass of the first Sunday of Lent, he was to bring a collection of volumes into the Chapter-house, that the abbot might distribute one volume to each monk as his special Lenten reading. In the ordinary course, the precentor was bound to give out whatever books were required or asked for, taking care always to enter their titles and the names of the borrowers in his register. He was permitted sometimes to lend the less precious manuscripts; but if the loan was made to someone outside the monastery, he had to see that he received a sufficient pledge for its safe return.