the ascetic exercises of solitude. Chrysostom wrote three books in praise and vindi- cation of the monastic life, and exhibits it in general in its noblest aspect. In the beginning of the fifth century, Eastern monasticism was most worthily represented by the elder I^ilus of Sinai, a j)upil and venerator of Chrysostom, and a copious ascetic writer, who retired with his son from a high civil office in Constanti- nople to Mount Sinai, while his wife, with a daughter, travelled to an Egyptian cloister ; " and by the abbot Isidore, of Pelu- sium, on the principal eastern mouth of the Nile, from whom we have two thousand epistles.' The writings of these two men show a rich spiritual experience, and an extended and fer- tile field of labor anfi usefulness in their age and generation. ' Gregory Xazianzcn, in his eulogy on Basil (Orat. xx. of the old order, Oral, xliii. in the new Par. ed.), gives him the honor of endeavoring to unite the theoretical and the practical modes of life in monasticism, "va uTiTe Th ipi\6ao<pov aKuivuvnTov y, «7JT6 t5 TTpaKTlKbv a.(pi\6cTO<pov. " Comp. Neander, iii. 487 (Torrey's translation, vol. ii. p. 250 sqq.), who esteems Xilus highly ; and the article of Gass in Herzog's Theol. Encykl. vol. x. pi 355 sqq. His works arc in the Bibl. Max. vet. Patr. torn. vii.,and in Migne's Patrol. Gr. 1. 19. ^ Comp. on him Tillemont, xv., and H. A. Niemeyer : " De Isid. Pel. vita, scrip- ti3 et doctrina," Hal. 1825. His Epistles are in the Vth volume of the Bibliothcca Maxima, and in Migne's Patrol Grseca, torn. 58, Paris, 1860. '-V\' V . ■■•'>> V V § 39. HERETICAL MONASTIC SOCIETIES IN THE EAST. 199 § 39. Fanatical and Heretical Monastic Societies in the East. Acta Concil. Gangrenensis, in Mansi, ii. 1095 sqq. Epiphax. : llaer. 70, T5 and 80. Socb. : H. E. ii 43. Sozom. : iv. 24. Theodor. : H. E. iv. 9, 10; Fab. haer. iv. 10, 11. »Comp. Neandep. : iii. p. 468 sqq. (ed. Toi-rev, ii. 238 sqq.). Moriasticism genei-ally adhered closely to tlie orthodox faith of the church. The friendship between Athanasius, the fatlier of orthodoxy, and Anthony, the father of monachism, is on this point a classical fact. But Nestorianisin also, and Entychian- isni, Monophysitism, Pelagianism, and other heresies, proceeded from monks, and found in monks their most vigorous advocates. And the monastic enthusiasm ran also into ascetic heresies of its own, which we must notice here. 1. The EusTATHiANs, so named from Eustathius, bishop of Sebaste and friend of Basil, founder of monasticism in Armenia, Pontus, and Paphlagonia. This sect asserted that marriage debarred from salvation and incapacitated for the clerical office. For tliis and other extravagances it was condemned by a council at Gangra in Paphlagonia (between 360 and 370), and gradually died out. 2. The AuDiANS held similar principles. Their founder, Audius, or Udo, a layman of Syria, charged the clergy of his day