As to the monks, Heaven forfend that you should ever become one.

They are good men, I doubt not, and I suppose that it is necessary that some should take to it; but that a man who has the full possession of his limbs should mew himself up, for life, between four walls, passing his time in vigils and saying masses, in reading books and distributing alms, seems to me to be a sort of madness." "I certainly do not wish to become a monk, Father, but I thought that I should like to learn to read and write." "And when you have learnt it, what then, Oswald?
Books are expensive playthings, and no scrap of writing has ever been inside the walls of Yardhope Hold, since it was first built here, as far as I know.

As to writing, it would be of still less use.

If a man has a message to send, he can send it by a hired man, if it suits him not to ride himself.
Besides, if he had written it, the person he sent it to would not be able to read it, and would have to go to some scribe for an interpretation of its contents.
"No, no, my lad, you have plenty to learn before you come to be a man, without bothering your head with this monkish stuff.

I doubt if Hotspur, himself, can do more than sign his name to a parchment; and what is good enough for the Percys, is surely good enough for you." The idea had, in fact, been put into Oswald's head by his mother.