of window.  John of Andernach is mentioned as having appeared to the brethren after his death; and he and Godfrey of Cologne are praised for their skill in astronomy.  We hear of various activities among the monks.  One is good at writing, another at dictating and correcting, another has taste in painting flowers and illuminating.  Henry of Coblenz combined the offices of precentor, master of the robes, gardener, glazier and barber; and also unofficial counsellor to the young, who frequently turned to him for sympathy.  Antony of St. Hubert, besides the care of the refectory, was bee-master and hive-maker; and a great preacher in German, though he had come to Laach knowing only his native French.  At the end of the list came the lay-brothers and the pensioners (donati), one of whom was nearly 100.

Shortly after his ordination Butzbach was appointed master of the novices, to superintend their education—­which included learning the Psalter by heart—­until the time of their profession.  He protested his unfitness, but the Abbot held him to it nevertheless.  The standard of his pupils was low:  many of them, though they came as Bachelors and Masters of Arts from the universities, he judged not so good as boys in the sixth form at Deventer.  But he found lecturing in Latin difficult; and so to make up his deficiencies he set himself to read all the Latin classics and Fathers that he could find.  One day two young kinsmen of the Abbot were at dinner.  They had been at Deventer and then at Paris, and were full of their studies.  Butzbach as novice-master represented the humanities, and was called upon for a poem.  Readiness was not his strong point; as a preacher he never could overcome his nervousness.  He asked leave to retire to his cell, and there in solitude wrung out some verses of compliment; which found such favour that, to his regret, he was often called upon again.

In 1507, when only thirty, he was made Prior, and thus became responsible for much of the management of the abbey.  In spite of this he kept up his studies; but only at the cost of great physical efforts, robbing himself of sleep and working through long hours of the night.  To this period, 1507-9, belongs his most considerable undertaking, an Auctarium de scriptoribus ecclesiasticis, which had its origin in his admiration for Trithemius.  In his Johannisberg days, as we have seen, he had met the great historian-abbot, though in a humble capacity.  His own Abbot shared with Trithemius the duty of making the triennial visitations of the Benedictine houses in that district; and Butzbach, as the Abbot’s servant, often rode with them.  Trithemius noticed the young lay-brother who seemed so interested in study, and occasionally gave him a word of encouragement.  Indeed it was the story of Trithemius’ life—­repeated with wonder by many lips—­which had spurred Butzbach on to go to Deventer:  how as a boy he had worked with his stepfather in the mill at Trittenheim, and at twenty-one was still labouring with his hands.  One day he was carting material for a new pilgrimage-church on the hill, when the call came to him.  He returned home, put up his horse and wagon, and without a word to any one walked off to Niederwesel to begin learning grammar amongst the little boys; and yet in a short time he had risen to be Abbot, and had won a wide reputation.