Page:Uniate Eastern Churches.pdf/155

Rh followed this rule at the beginning used the Byzantine rite. There is no necessary inherent connection between a monastic rule and a rite. Rufinus translated the rule into Latin. Already in Arian times there were, however, communities of Eastern clergy and, presumably, monks at Rome. In the Lateran Synod of 649 there is evidence of Greek and Armenian monasteries at Rome. But it was chiefly during the Iconoclast persecution that great numbers of Byzantine monks came to Italy. That persecution was directed almost as much against monks as against the images. So from that time we hear of innumerable monasteries of Greek monks, who kept the rule of St Basil and used the Byzantine rite, especially in the South and in Sicily. There were Greek convents of nuns, too. The Norman kings rebuilt and endowed many Greek monasteries that had been devastated by the Saracens. Under their government Calabria became like a second Thebais, full of monks. The chief Byzantine monastery was St Saviour at Messina. Count Roger I founded it in 1059; St Bartholomew became its first Archimandrite. The Archimandrite of St Saviour at Messina had enormous privileges all through the Middle Ages. He had forty-four dependent monasteries under him; he summoned synods of monks from all parts of Sicily and Calabria. He had also episcopal jurisdiction and a considerable amount of civil authority over territory around the monastery. So he was a great Prince of the Church; there were constant quarrels and lawsuits between him and the Archbishop of Messina. From the year 1504 begins the series of Commendatory Archimandrites of