What about the Dark Ages?
This was the time where monks would dedicate their lives to duplicating these works. The monks lived in seclusion. When the Renaissance bloomed, the copies had become duplicated enough to sell, and people learned from the "Classic" era. (of philosophers before and after Jesus' time)
The Classics invoked reason, sparking humanism, secular beliefs, and soon enough, the modern atheist. The monks' intention was to preserve knowledge and not start a revolution against Christianity, however...