In The White Canons in England Colvin wrote a brief, but informative, chapter on the intellectual activities of the English Premonstratensians, highlighting attitudes to reading and scholarly work within the order. The white canons ‘never claimed to be a learned order’ and basically consisted of monastic clergy who were not impelled to pursue lofty academic studies. They were expected to have a working knowledge of Latin, and each canon was obliged to devote himself to some reading or Lectio Divina every day in the cloister. While no one would doubt the basic premises of Colvin's arguments on the intellectual pursuits of the English white canons, and the important comments he made on the relatively few canons who attended the universities or were noted for their distinction as scholars or spiritual writers, some of the themes he outlined can be expanded on. A number of manuscripts, including a collection of sermons from Welbeck and a common-place book from Coverham, were not discussed by him, and a new edition of the extant English Premonstratensian library lists by David Bell now provides a convenient overview of the order's books, especially if these are collated with extant manuscripts and printed books. A fifteenth-century English Life of St Norbert by John Capgrave, which Colvin discussed briefly, was edited some twenty years after he wrote. The present chapter will examine certain aspects of the Premonstratensians' activities principally by surveying their extant books, manuscripts and library lists within the ‘subject’ categories of theology, philosophy, secular and historical writings, grammar, medicine, spiritual and pastoral writings.