THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
most famous of them was the younger Simeon (d. 596), who lived for sixty-eight years on top of a pillar near Antioch. See Stylites.
Information as to Galatia comes from Palladius, a native of that region. In Roman Armenia, Paphlagonia, and Pontus, monasticism owed its origin to Eustathius of Sebaste (q.v.), 7. In Asia whose semi-Arian associates, like the Minor. bishops Marathonius and Macedonius (q.v.), were zealous supporters of the movement. It assumed a fanatical character in Armenia, and conflicts resulted with the hierarchy; the Council of Gangra (? 343) was obliged to take action against the exaggerated asceticism of the Eustathians. A cognate phenomenon is the party of the Euchites or Messalians (q.v.) in northern Syria and Pamphylia in the latter half of the fourth century. They were still more radical in their insistence on a life of unbroken prayer, rejected the sacraments and fasts of the Church, and displayed distinctly Manichean tendencies. Repressed by the bishops, they disappeared for the time, to come up again in the medieval sects of the Bogomiles (see New Manicheans, I.) and Paulicians (q.v.). [The Paulicians had scarcely anything in common with Manicheans or Messalians, and their origin can be otherwise accounted for. a. H. n.] Monasticism was domesticated in Cappadocia first by Basil the Great and then by Gregory Nazianzen and Gregory of Nyssa (qq.v.). The work of Basil was epoch-making. The two rules, a longer and a shorter one, which bear his name, while they are rather catechisms on monastic virtues and duties than formal rules, are to-day the only standard of Greek monasticism. His ideal is essentially identical with that of Anthony. The monk is the perfect Christian; the ascetic life consists not in specific practises of selfdenial but in the sanctification of the whole personality; the monk must exercise, next to the love of God, that of his neighbor, though practically this was confined to his fellow monks and contemplated no far-reaching influence on the Church at large or on society. According to Basil, the monastic life meant not a suppression of nature but the return to it, not opposition to but the completion of ancient wisdom. As to the life in detail, the candidate for admission to a monastery was required to renounce his property and go through a period of probation. No binding vows were made; the apotage was a renunciation of all relations with the world, but not an external act. The proestos or head of the monastery had full disciplinary powers. The daily life of the monks was divided between prayer, for which there were six fixed hours, and work, especially agriculture. There was no prescription as to food except that it should be taken in moderation and not serve to pamper the palate; the use of wine was prohibited. No special costume was prescribed.
In spite of Basil's influence in favor of a cenobitic system, the hermit life continued to be held in the highest esteem. It seemed to many that the monastic ideal of uninterrupted devotion could be attained only by the anchorite. But the two classes of monks lived peaceably together, the cloister being regarded as a training-school for the higher stage. During the fifth and sixth centuries, Palestine
was the special heme of monachism, partly on account of its assoc." itions, which brought thither an increasing number of devout pilgrims. Soon after the beginning of the fifth century an
8. Later atten pt was made to link together the History of various monasteries and colonies of
Oriental herrrits in a common organization.
Monasti- Eac'i of these classes now had an archicism. ma ldrite of its own, chosen by the whole body and confirmed by the patriarch of ,'erusalem. These offices assumed considerable importance when the Cappadocian Theodosius (414-519), head of the monastery founded by him and named after him at Jerusalem, became archimandrite of the monasteries, and another Cappadocian, Sabas (q.v.; 439-532), held the corresponding position among the hermits. Sabas founded seven lauras (see Abbey) or colonies of hermits in Palestine, of which that at Jerusalem, under his own guidance, was the principal one. Even after the Mohammedan conquest in the seventh century, monasticism maintained its footing in Palestine; but its consequent isolation caused it gradually to decline. After Egypt and Palestine had ceased to be the centers of eastern monasticism, this place was taken by Constantinople. About 430 the system of the akoimetce (monks who kept up an unbroken prayer day and night in three divisions which relieved each other) was introduced there by Alexander, an abbot from a monastery on the Euphrates. The monastery of this kind founded about 460 by the Roman consular Studius and known from him as Studion attained special importance in the epoch of the iconoclastic controversy through the work of its abbot Theodore (see Theodore the Studite), who reformed Byzantine monasticism by adapting the Basilian rule to altered conditions. His " Constitutions," which, if not drawn up by him, represent his work, give precise information as to the life of his own house, and were accepted by many others. The reception of a monk, with the binding vow which had been required since the Council of Chalcedon, was a solemn act, considered almost as a second baptism in its power to cleanse from sin. It was made at the foot of the altar during the liturgy and in the presence of all the brethren. After receiving the tonsure and habit, the new monk then partook of the communion. Besides domestic economy and agriculture the monks were occupied in theology, philosophy, and grammar, so that their houses became nurseries of orthodox divinity. The abbot was required to give a catechetical lecture three times a week to the monks. They were to live simply and temperately, but the use of meat was allowed. The distinction between makroschemoi and mikroschemoi seems to have been introduced about the time of the iconoclastic controversy. The latter, answering to the lay brothers in the West, performed the household duties; the former, the western choirbrothers, lived in complete abstraction from worldlythings, devoted wholly to contemplation and study. This gradation, though it weakened the sense of unity, served to facilitate the entrance into the monastery of those who did not feel called to take upon themselves the extremer obligations. The