I wrote in addition several other books for the brethren at Fulda, for the monks at Hirschfeld, and at Amerbach, for the Abbot of Lorsch, for certain friends at Passau, and for other friends in Bohemia, for the monastery at Tegernsee, for the monastery at Preyal, for that at Obermunster, and for my sister’s son.  Moreover, I sent and gave at different times sermons, proverbs, and edifying writings.  Afterward old age’s infirmities of various kinds hindered me.”  Surely Othlonus was justified in retiring when his time came, and enjoying some respite from his labours!

Religious feeling in works of art is an almost indefinable thing, but one which is felt in all true emanations of the conscientious spirit of devotion.  Fra Angelico had a special gift for expressing in his artistic creations is own spiritual life; the very qualities for which he stood, his virtues and his errors,—­purity, unquestioning faith in the miraculous, narrowness of creed, and gentle and adoring humility,—­all these elements are seen to completeness in his decorative pictures.  Perhaps this is because he really lived up to his principles.  One of his favourite sayings was “He who occupies himself with the things of Christ, must ever dwell with Christ.”

It is related that, in the Monastery of Maes Eyck, while the illuminators were at work in the evening, copying Holy Writ, the devil, in a fit of rage, extinguished their candles; they, however, were promptly lighted again by a Breath of the Holy Spirit, and the good work went on!  Salvation was supposed to be gained through conscientious writing.  A story is told of a worldly and frivolous brother, who was guilty of many sins and follies, but who, nevertheless, was an industrious scribe.  When he came to die, the devil claimed his soul.  The angels, however, brought before the Throne a great book of religious Instructions which he had illuminated, and for every letter therein, he received pardon for one sin.  Behold!  When the account was completed, there proved to be one letter over! the narrator adds naively, “And it was a very big book.”

[Illustration:  ILLUMINATION BY GHERART DAVID OF BRUGES, 1498; ST. BARBARA]

Perhaps more than any books executed in the better period, after the decline had begun, were the Books of Hours, containing the numerous daily devotions which form part of the ritual of the Roman Church.  Every well appointed lady was supposed to own a copy, and there is a little verse by Eustache Deschamps, a poet of the time of Charles V., in which a woman is supposed to be romancing about the various treasures she would like to possess.  She says: 

  “Hours of Our Lady should be mine,
     Fitting for a noble dame,
     Of lofty lineage and name;
   Wrought most cunningly and quaint,
   In gold and richest azure paint. 
     Rare covering of cloth of gold
     Full daintily it shall enfold,
   Or, open to the view exposed,
   Two golden clasps to keep it closed.”