52. Mabillon (Etudes Monastiques, tom. i. p. 47-55) has
collected many curious facts to justify the literary labours
of his predecessors both in the East and West. Books were
copied in the ancient monasteriesof Egypt (Cassian.
Institut. l. iv.c.12), and by the disciples of St. Martin
(Sulp. Sever. in Vit. Martin. c. 7, p. 473). Classiodorus
has allowed an ample scope for the studies of the monks; and
we shall not be scandalised if their pen sometimes wandered
from Chrysostom and Augustin to Homer and Virgil.