The Question Box

Why did the monks chain the Bible in the Middle Ages?

To save it from thieves. Why do people chain a cup to the town-pump, or a city directory to a desk in a drugstore? This is readily understood when one considers how valuable a copy of the Scriptures was in those days, owing to the fact that they were copied out word for word by the monks. Whole libraries were chained in this way, both in England and on the Continent. What great ignorance of history is shown by those who imagine that the chained Bible implied that the Bible was only accessible to a few monks, who were under orders from the Pope to keep it from the people as far as possible. How prejudice will read into facts its own false inferences!

Bertrand Louis Conway, C.S.P., The Question-Box Answers: Replies to  Questions Received on Missions to Non-Catholics (New York; The Catholic Book Exchange, 1903), 89.

NOTE: Founded in 1858 by Isaac Thomas Hecker, the Paulist Fathers are committed to the evangelization of America, with a special emphasis on outreach to non-Catholics. During the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, they traveled nationwide offering lecture series to non-Catholics. During the course of the lectures a “Question Box” was placed in the back of the church for non-Catholics to drop theirqueries. The visiting Paulist preacher would then answer their questions. The questions and answers were later collected into a book format as seen here.