The Epitomae, with its kaleidoscopic messages of multiplicity and quiet insistence upon the fire of the spirit, found a ready welcome among grammar teachers, to judge from its transmission: in the later eighth century it was incorporated into a number of codices which contained collections of grammars. Some monastic instructors, at least, felt no hesitation in preserving it, whatever they made of its message. The relatively large number of extant manuscripts and fragments of the Epitomae up to about the middle of the ninth century, and borrowings by authors such as Boniface and Bede, suggest that grammarians valued it highly. But not all its readers appreciated it. Virgilius' inflammatory rejoinder to his critics, part indignant, part defensive, at the start of the third Epistola makes it clear that his message of plurality had met with a poor reception in some circles at least: