Those whom Cassiodorus calls _antiquaries_ were simply scribes--that is to say, clerks or monks who deciphered the old manuscripts and transcribed the books. In the monastery of St. Martin, at Tours, calligraphy was the sole art practised. St. Fulgentius, a prelate distinguished both for his learning and eloquence; St. Gregory, Bishop of Agrigentum, no less celebrated; Mamertus Claudius, who was a regular walking library, themselves copied manuscripts which they gave to the Church. Calligraphy and illuminating were also favourite occupations with many nuns, amongst whom may be cited St. Melanie the younger, St. Cesarie, St. Harnilde, and St. Renilde, all Frenchwomen (Fig. 240), who, to use the language of the Christian annalist, wrote with elegance, rapidity, and correctness. From the time that the monks were raised to the clerical rank, after first undergoing an examination, the clerks and monks studied together just as they had before prayed and lived in common, a monastery being a complete school of ecclesiastical research and administration. At Monte-Cassino, at St. Ferréol, at St. Calais, at Tours, and in many other flourishing abbeys in the sixth century, the monks, and especially the novices, were instructed in religious and secular subjects as well as in the duties of the priesthood. The monastic dress was not in every case the same, for, though always simple and coarse, it varied in shape and appearance with the statutes of each order, and according to the necessities of climate. The cenobites in Egypt wore the _lebitus_ or the _colobium_, the _pera_ or _melote_, and the _cuculla_. The _lebitus_ was a linen garment with long sleeves open at the hands, and sometimes up to the wrist. The _pera_, a jacket of goatskin, is spoken of in one of the epistles of St. Paul, who alludes to it as especially worn by holy men and prophets, when they were driven by threats of persecution into the desert. The _cuculla_ covered the head, and came half-way over the shoulders. St. Benedict, who borrowed it from the early monks, had it so much lengthened as to envelop the whole body; but as in this shape it would have embarrassed the monks in their manual labour, he made it a garment only to be worn at ceremonials, and replaced it for ordinary wear by the scapulary (_scapulum_), which covered the head and the back. The Western monks also wore a short mantle--a sort of cape, called a _maforte_, according to Sulpicius Severus. The Greeks and Orientals adopted the pallium, which led to their being designated _agmina palliata_ (an army in robes), when they assembled in large numbers. Every Greek who devoted himself to the cenobitic life was compelled to wear a black pallium. [Illustration: Fig. 240.--St. Radegonde, Wife of King Clotaire (Sixth Century), receiving the religious garb from the hands of St. Médard, Bishop of Noyon.--“Histoire et Cronicque de Clotaire” (16mo, Paris, Jean Mesnage, 1513).]