The Bodleian in its reorganized form was opened in 1602 with a stock of two thousand five hundred volumes--a fairly large collection for those days. It had been established in Duke Humphrey's day in a suite of rooms over the Divinity School "far removed" as the old university records put it, "from any worldly noise." The first rules for the government of the library were drafted by Bodley himself. While in general they were wise ones, they reflected the spirit of the times in which they were written. Sir Thomas objected to the inclusion of belles-lettres as beneath the dignity of the institution he was fostering. "I can see no good reason," said he, "to alter my rule for excluding such books as Almanacks, Plays, and an infinite number that are daily printed of very unworthy matters. Haply some plays may be worthy the keeping--but hardly one in forty.... This is my opinion, wherein if I err I shall err with infinite others; and the more I think upon it, the more it doth distaste me that such kinds of books should be vouchsafed room in so noble a library." Scholars were required to leave a deposit in cash as a pledge of good faith when borrowing books, but the deposit was usually a mere trifle compared with the value of the loan. Unscrupulous borrowers willingly forfeited the money and kept the manuscripts. Some volumes were stolen, while others were entered in the catalog as "missing," a distinction with perhaps very little difference. Tradition says that Polidore Virgil had stolen so many books that the authorities were finally compelled to deny him access to the library, whereupon he promptly obtained from Henry VIII a special license to borrow whatever manuscripts he desired and the librarian had to bow to the ruling of the King. In a manuscript copy of the works of St. Augustine and St. Ambrose in the Bodleian, is written, "This book belongs to St. Mary of Robert's Bridge: Whosoever steals it, or sells it, or takes it away from this house in any way, or injures it, let him be anathema maranatha." Underneath another hand has written, "I, John, Bishop of Exeter, do not know where the said house is: I did not steal this book, but got it lawfully." At one time folios in the Bodleian were chained to the shelves but the custom was given up and the chains sold for old iron in 1769. That the arrangements at the Bodleian were viewed with favor by library benefactors can be seen from a letter which the worthy John Hollis of London, second founder of Harvard College library, sent to the authorities at Cambridge in 1735: "You want seats to sit and read in and chains to your valuable books like our Bodleian library or Zion College in London. You let your books be taken at pleasure to men's houses and many are lost, your boyish students take them to their chambers and tear out pictures and maps to adorn their walls."