Reading was a specially important subject on account of the ‘lectores’ who read the lessons in church. Originally they were charged with the reading of Scriptures, but later their duties became more general. The ‘lectores’ formed the second of the minor orders, and the office demanded a certain amount of education, though sometimes the ‘lectores’ seem to have been no more than choir boys. Isidore of Seville states that any one who is promoted to this office must be trained in books and learning, and well equipped with a knowledge of words and their meanings.[1059] The eighth canon of the fourth Council of Carthage describes the solemn ordination of a ‘lector’.[1060] Sometimes qualifications of birth and rank added to the dignity of the office. Julian, the emperor, and his brother Gallus were admitted as readers into the church of Nicomedia, and Paulinus of Nola tells us that St. Felix was a ‘lector’.[1061] The readers stood, as has been indicated, under a ‘primicerius’, who was also the head of all the minor orders. ‘Ad primicerium’, said Gregory, ‘pertinent acolythi et exorcistae, psalmistae atque lectores.’[1062] On the teaching of writing Jerome again follows Quintilian in recommending a tracing of the letters on the wax for the help of the pupil.[1063] ‘Cum vero coeperit trementi manu stilum in cera ducere, vel alterius superposita manu teneri regantur articuli, vel in tabella sculpantur elementa ut per eosdem sulcos inclusa marginibus trahantur vestigia....’[1064] These wax-tablets, dating from ancient Roman times, go on into the eleventh century.[1065] Copying was, of course, an important part in the monastic writing activities, and Sulpicius Severus says that it was assigned to the ‘brethren of younger years’.[1066] Such was the importance attached to it, that in the less advanced cloisters, like that of Martin, no other art was practised.[1067] Even the nuns practised it. We find Caesarius exhorting them to vary their reading and psalm singing with transcribing, under the supervision of the abbess,[1068] and it was so that Rusticula, abbess of Arles, trained her nuns.[1069]