CASSIANUS, JOANNES EREMITA or JOANNES MASSILIENSIS (36o--435), a celebrated recluse, and one of the founders of monasticism in the west. His early life was spent in the monastery of Bethlehem and after dwelling for several years among the ascetics of the Nile desert, in 403 he repaired to Constantinople where he was ordained deacon by Chrysostom. Becoming a priest at Rome, he journeyed to Marseille (after 410), where he founded a convent for nuns and the abbey of St. Victor. Cassianus was one of the first Semi Pelagians, maintaining that while man is by nature sinful, some good remains in him, and that, while the immediate gift of grace is necessary to salvation, conversion may begin by the exercise of man's will. He further asserted that God gives grace to all who seek it, though He sometimes bestows it without its being sought. At the request of Castor, bishop of Apt, he wrote two treatises on the monastic life. The De Institutione Coenobiorum describes the daily life, the discipline and the special spiritual dangers of monasticism. The Collationes Patrum, a series of dialogues with the pious fathers of Egypt, deal with the avoidance of these dangers. At the desire of Leo (then archdeacon of Rome) he wrote against Nestorius his De Incarnatione Domini.