Vigorous persecutor of pagans is a fine job, but this 4th cent. bishop of Milan, Saint Ambrose, is also the first man in recorded history who used to read to himself in silence, in his head, instead of pronouncing audibly what his eyes were scanning. The trick seemed so amazing, that even St. Augustine dwells on it at length in his Confessions:

"When he was reading, his eyes glided over the pages, grasping the sense in his heart, while his voice and tongue were at rest", etc.

(Sed cum legeba...