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[[File:Illuminated.jpg|thumbnail|left|300px200px|Fourteenth century illuminated manuscript]]As Irvin and Sunquist note, Monasticism has always been known as a dominant center of learning in the West. Monks during the Middle Ages were responsible for the preservation of Europe’s intellectual history. Because the printing press had yet to be developed, books had to be copied by hand--monks were primarily responsible for doing so due to their extended amount of free time (as opposed to farmers, merchants, or knights who were burdened by intense physical labor) and their knowledge of grammar that was deemed necessary for participation in liturgical life. Indeed, many monasteries had libraries that served as archives for local records and contained a vast collection of invaluable manuscripts that were carefully preserved for scholars and clerics to study.<ref> Irvin & Sunquist,<i>History of the World Christian Movement</i>(Indianapolis: Orbis, 2008), pg. 423.)</ref>

Further, an important aspect of monastic life was education, specifically study of the scriptures, the early church fathers (Patristics) and the classics of the Greco-Roman period. Learning was considered a form of devotion to God and a necessary component of loving God in body, mind, and spirit. In addition it is also known that some convents even engaged in the copying of manuscripts and provided intellectual avenues for learned (albeit aristocratic) women to pursue the scholarly life.