Page:The library a magazine of bibliography and library literature, Volume 6.djvu/343

The Vatican Library. 331 I. FROM THE COMMENCEMENT TO 1295. II. FROM 1295 TO 1447. III. FROM 1447 TO PRESENT TIME. I. FROM THE COMMENCEMENT TO 1295. THE ASSEMANI, in 1756, trace back the origin of the Vatican Library to the gospel which, tradition states, St. Mark wrote at the bidding of St. Peter and gave to the Romans ; and to the books and parchments which St. Paul when captive at Rome told Timothy to bring him (II. Tim. iv. 13). J Though this is too far-fetched, it is evident that in each Christian Church a library must have commenced by the collection of MSS. of the sacred books, and especially those which were needed for daily use in public reading. Certainly Ignatius of Antioch, writing to the Philadelphians about some disputes which had already arisen about Christian doctrine, exclaims : " Unless I find it in the archives, that is, in the gospels, I will not believe." 2 To these archives there are other references. What the author of the Pontifical Book of the 6th century states, and the Assemani accepted, as to the city being divided by Clement, St. Peter's successor, into seven districts, and faithful notaries being appointed to inquire carefully into the deeds of the martyrs (which certainly was done later), many will allow has been rightly referred to this early date. Furthermore, the unknown author of the martyrdom of St. Clement makes mention of the poor, whose names that pope had written down, in each region, in order that he might feed them ; and that such lists of themembers of the Christian fraternity existed in the 2nd and 3rd century, if not in the time of Clement, in the chests of the Roman Church, has been most clearly demonstrated. The zeal of learned Christians for libraries is sufficiently shown by those which Origen and his pupils Ambrose, Alexander, Bishop of Jerusalem (212-281), and Pamphilus of Caesarea con- 1 Catalogue bibliothecse apostolicae Vaticange codicum MSS. Ed. Steph. Evodius Assemanus archiepiscopus Apamensis et Joseph Simon Assemanus eiusdem biblio- thecse prsefectus. 3 torn. Romse, 1756-9. 2 De Rossi, op. cit., p. xii.