6th c. (retirement from court – 540)

Cassiodorus and the monastery of Vivarium

Cassiodorus served at the court of the Ostrogothic king Theodoric as an intermediary between Arian Goths and Catholics. In 540 he left state service. He retired to the monastery of Vivarium in southern Italy, which he had founded, and led a monastic community there.

His "Institutes of Divine and Secular Learning" became a model for medieval education. He also introduced the practice of monks copying Latin texts. Alongside Benedict's Rule, this practice turned Western monasteries into the chief centers of learning, libraries, and repositories of the classical heritage. They remained so until the rise of universities.