To Copy and To Obey

"The printed book is made of paper, and like paper, will quickly disappear." Really? As far as I can tell, books have been around for countless years and will be here for many more to come. Despite making such a bold claim, Trithemius makes no effort to back it up or provide any factual evidence for such an extreme opinion. Instead, it seems as if Trimethius is willing to make any sort of claim, regardless of outrageous it may be, merely in the hopes of scaring- and essentially controlling- monks into acting in a manner which he deems "appropriate". Using fear as a tactic may be effective in the short term, although in the long run, it does not have the desired effect that one may want since the understanding of why one is doing certain things is not there.

Although I do not agree with Trimethius' logic, it is easy to understand how monks of this particular time could be swayed by such an argument. Even though people now may think a better way to show devotion to God is to go out and spread the word of the Bible to people around the country instead of sitting in a cold monestary, the monks back then probably considered the scribing they did a very important part of conserving God's message. However, to try to control monks by making them copy scriptures so as to make sure they do not indulge in “dangerous unchecked liberties” seems the equivalent of giving a child busy work so as to make sure he does not get into any mischief. If this was Trimethius' way of controlling the monks, it would seem to me that although the monks may have been going through the motions of copying a text, if they were not doing so because they had the desire to do so, they would eventually rebel in some way, even if it was just having their minds wander and think about the “unchecked liberties” while they were copying scriptures.

While reading this article, I could not help but make the comparison between the monks' scribing to my taking notes for my history class. I know that after half an hour, my mind starts to wander and even though I may still be copying my notes, I am most definitely not paying attention to what I am doing. This was probably my biggest problem with the argument set forth by Trimethius that one got closer to the Lord by copying His messages day in and day out. If anything, it seems to me that unless one was scribing because he truly wanted to and had “the calling”, he would eventually come to resent his work and if anything, distance himself from the Lord.