Page:The Greek and Eastern churches.djvu/314

288 following the example of Simeon, an abbot of a Constantinople monastery, the monk of Mount Athos practised the self-hypnotism of an Indian fakir. Sitting in a corner of his cell, pressing his chin firmly into his breast, fixing his eyes on his navel, and holding his breath as long as possible, till his vision became dim, the devotee passed through a condition of profound depression of spirit into an ecstasy in which he saw himself surrounded by a halo of light, the light of God that shone around Christ at the Transfiguration. A rapture of what he took to be unearthly joy seized him, and he felt himself brought into the very presence of God by his experience of the beatific vision. His cell, his monastery, his companion monks, the world, his own personality, vanished from his consciousness, and he sat enthralled, without thought, or wish, or movement, entirely occupied with his supernatural experience.

The quietness and passivity, the entire emptying of the mind of all thought, and the exclusion of all sensations, which were the condition of the trance, led those who indulged in it to be called "Hesychasts." Accordingly the controversy to which they gave rise has been designated the Hesychast controversy. This was originated by Barlaam, who had been the ambassador of Andronicus to the pope at Avignon on the question of the reunion of the Churches. No sooner was this man back at Constantinople than he accused the monks of Mount Athos of the heresy of Ditheism—scornfully describing them as "navel souls." Gregory Palamas, afterwards archbishop of Thessalonica, defended them. For doing so he was included in Barlaam's accusations. A council was held on the subject at Constantinople in the year 1341, when the unpopularity of Barlaam's negotiation for the union came to the aid of the Mount Athos monks. The council gave its sanction to the doctrine of the uncreated light, connecting it with a Divine energy, which was to be distinguished from the essence of God. The accuser would have been condemned