This, as in the case of the _Life of S. Boniface_, is a _rifaccimento_;
it was made from two older lives of S. Wolfgang, as Otloh himself tells
us, one of them by a certain monk named Arnolfus, the other having been
brought out of France. He is here, therefore, more an author than a
scribe; but he declares modestly that it was a task he would willingly
avoid for the future. The passage of his Preface is worth transcribing:
"Fratrum quorundam nostrorum hortatu sedulo infimus ego, O coenobitarum
S. Emmerammi compulsus sum S. Wolfgangi vitam in libellulis duobus
dissimili interdum, et impolita materie descriptam in unum colligere, et
aliquantulum sublimiori modo corrigere.... Multa etiam quæ in libro
neutro inveniebantur, fidelium quorundam attestatione compertâ addere
studui, sicque quædam addendo, quædam vero fastidiose vel inepte dicta
excerpendo, pluraque etiam corrigendo, sed et capitularia præponendo.
Vobis O fratres mei exactoresque hujus rei prout ingenioli mei parvitas
permisit obedivi. Jam rogo cessate plus tale quid exigere a me." At the
end of the Life he has written:--

"Presul Wolfgange cunctis semper vererande
Hæc tua qui scripsi jam memor esto milii
Presbiter et Monachus Otloh quidam vocitatus
Sancte tibi librum Bonifacii tradidit istum."

We have here sufficient evidence that Otloh was a worthy predecessor of
the distinguished Benedictines to whom the world of letters has been so
deeply indebted in more recent times.

Dr. Maitland's mention of the calligraphic labours of the nun Diemudis,
Otloh's contemporary, is not a solitary instance: in all ages, the world
has been indebted to the pious zeal of these recluse females for the
multiplication of books of devotion and devout instruction. An instance,