We will now consider the making of manuscript books in the Middle Ages. In the early days of the Christian church, persecution was so severe that Christians lived in hiding, or secluded themselves from the outer world to worship. This condition led to the existence of a class of men known as monks (from a Greek word _monos_, meaning “alone”). At the beginning of the sixth century, an earnest, conscientious Christian, now called Saint Benedict, set out to reform the evils then prevalent in monastic life. One of his theories was that the monks should spend their time, not in idleness, but in manual labor, in teaching the youth, and in copying manuscripts. The Benedictine monks, as the followers of Benedict are known, were the main agents in spreading Christianity and keeping learning alive during the Dark Ages. Their mode of living became so popular that, it is said, there were at one time thirty-seven thousand monasteries or cloisters in existence. [Illustration: CAPITAL LETTERS OF THE ANCIENT ROMANS From inscriptions carved in stone ] One of the occupations of the Benedictine monks was that of copying manuscripts, and in some monasteries a room known as the scriptorium was set apart for such work. The office of scribe or copyist was one of great importance, and stringent rules governed the work. No writing was done by artificial light, talking was prohibited, and none but the scribes was allowed in the room. The tools were quill pens, knives to cut the quills, pumice stone to smooth the surface of the parchment, awls and rulers with which to make guide-lines, and weights to keep down the pages. Parchment and vellum, the former made of the skins of calves, goats or sheep, the latter of the skins of unborn lambs and kids, were the materials written upon. Black ink was commonly used for the text of books; and vermilion, an orange-red ink made of red clay, was used for titles and important parts of the text. The portions in red were known as rubrics, from _rubrica_ (red earth.) Illuminating was done to some extent in the monasteries, but illuminators other than monks were often called upon to assist in this work. This practice led to queer combinations, as sacred writings were frequently decorated with monkeys and other animals and birds, which might have afforded appropriate decoration for an account of the Flood. [Illustration: UNCIAL LETTERS OF THE SIXTH CENTURY These letters show the Roman capitals assuming the shape of the later Gothic, or text, letters ]