Cambridge Ancient Hi.. - Index of

monasticism 757
new capital for the empire but a capital almost built around the piety, even
the ascetic piety, of its imperial family. 35 Indeed, the irregularities that
Chalcedon was intent upon controlling were most obviously prevalent in
the capital itself.
It was in some ways exceptional. As the city had gained prominence
during the fourth century, so its religious life became at once more
significant and more idiosyncratic. The monks of the city were as much
newcomers as any other citizen, unabashed fortune-seekers from elsewhere
in the empire, cut loose from the controlling bonds of their own communities,
and vigorously opposed to the influence and privilege of clergy in the
city. Both John Chrysostom and Nestorius were famously disadvantaged by
that conflict. 36 From the beginning, in the 380s, ascetics in Constantinople
acquired political supporters among the secular élite. Palladius’ Lausiac
History, written around a.d. 420, both reflected and supported that bid, illustrating
what had been, since the time of Evagrius, a long-running
infiltration of the educated and governing classes in the east by ascetic devotees.
37 The career of Eutyches in the 440s, protected not least by his association
with the powerful eunuch Chrysaphius, followed a pattern to be
repeated through many reigns to follow, most famously that of Justinian. It
was a far cry from the remote rigour of Pontus or the Thebaid. Ascetics in
the capital also took unscrupulous advantage of the notorious piety of the
empress and her sister-in-law, just as Palestinians did later, when Eudocia
was in self-imposed exile after 443. The result was undoubtedly a loss of discipline,
quite belied by the seemingly ordered and uninterrupted liturgy of
the Acoemitae, the ‘Sleepless Ones’, probably the most famous but least
typical of Constantinople’s ascetic communities. It was the ambitious, more
numerous and less predictable groups that Chalcedon wished to bring
under control: the bishops knew h ow disproportionate and unhealthy their
influence had been in the years during and since the Council of Ephesus
(a.d. 431). Once, of course, prohibitions and regulations had been set in
place, the control and even theological condemnation of ‘wandering’ ascetics
became firmly embedded in the legislative agenda of the church. 38
One of our richest sources of information about eastern developments
in the following century remains the Lives of the Eastern Saints by John of
Ephesus, written probably between a.d. 566 and 568. One may find this
surprising, given John’s dedication to the Monophysite cause, which might
35 For the broader background, see Dagron, Naissance; Krautheimer (1983); Holum, Empresses; and
McCormick, Eternal Victory. Useful light is shed on the temper of the court by Cameron (1982).
36 For a succinct account of the earliest monks in Constantinople see Dagron (1970). A great range
of detail is provided by Janin (1969): essentially a religious gazetteer of the city, covering the whole
Byzantine period, it offers a considerable bibliography and many allusions to development and practice.
37 Context and bibliography are provided by Clark (1992).
38 See, for example, texts cited in Jones, LRE ii (1973) 1389 n. 160, to which add Justinian, Nov. 79
of a.d. 539, and, in the west, the Council of Orleans (a.d. 511), canon 22.
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