HESYCHASTS, (front CI:. hoe xaor•js, lit'sychastr.s, quietist, he'sychaz-(ia, to be quiet, front 1)0-exot, quiet ). Mystics of the Creel, Church, and par ticularly the monk,: of Morita Minis (q.v.). In all probability mystieism never entirely died out among the Oriental monastio bodies; but the mystics attracted an unusual share of atten tion, not only at home but in the Western Church, in the earlier half of the four teenth century. A Ilasilion monk, named Barlaam (q.v.), in the course of a visit to the monasteries of Greece. observed several prac tic•s and doctrines which he considered reprehen sible. The monks of Mount Athos especially pro voked his reprobation and ridicule. Believing that in the soul lay ;t hidden divine light, which it was the otlice of contemplation to evoke, they with drew at stated times to a retired place, seated themselves on the earth. and fixed their eyes stead fastly on the navel (whence the sobriquet by which they were known. navel souls) : and they that, after the allotted time of contemplation, a kind of heavenly light beamed birth upon then! from the soul (whose seat, they held, was in that region), and filled them with ecstasy and supernatural delight.
They declared that this light was the glory of Cod 'Himself, and they connected it in some un explained way with the light which appeared at the transfiguration of the Lord. Barlaam de nounced these notions as fanatical and supersti tions. On the other hand, they were explained and defended by Orego•y Palamas, the Archbishop of Thessaloniea: and in order to settle the eon troversy, a eouneil was held in Constantinople in 1341 which terminated in the triumph of Palamas and the monks. The controversy after wards turned upon the nature of the light sup posed to emanate from the soul in this state of contemplation. Other councils were Called, one of which, in 1351, again pronounced in favor of the monks. through the intluenee, it was said, of the Court and of dohn Ca Alta who was a patron of the Ilesyehasts. But the public voice was hostile to the sect, and on the retirement. of their patron ('anlaenzenus, who, in 1353, be came a monk, they fell into obscurity. Consult: Stein, Studien libel. die Ilesuehasten des Jahrhunderts ( Vienna, 871 ) ; 11 oil, Ent husi a smus and Bussaeirall Lei dem grieehisehen .116nehtum 1898).