But their real intellectual home was the Salon, a meeting held at someone's real home, especially in Paris, dedicated to witty and edifying conversation.
They may also have been encouraged by churchmen as more edifying entertainment than the popular Mystery plays, which became mixed with worldly and semi-pagan elements.
They're probably working in institutions that don't quite make sense anymore, and they're having an edifying effect on the people around them, becoming healers and social creatives in so many forms.