236 HISTORY OF THE ASSYRIAN CHURCH
character; there is no denying that it was frightfully liable to abuse, and might readily produce either a mere idler, or something worse. This we see in the curious sect of Christian Fakirs, the Msaliani or praying-men, who at this period troubled all Church authorities from Ephesus to Seleucia. These men (of whom we hear first in the year 350, and who were not extinct in the twelfth century) professed to occupy themselves only in prayer; but had no cells or monasteries, and wandered about, living by begging. They must have much resembled the dervishes of to-day.
According to their theory, a demon was innate in every man (this is a sort of caricature of the doctrine of original sin) and was to be expelled only by a life of continuous prayers. After its expulsion, the Holy Spirit entered, giving the beatific vision, and subduing all bodily passions. To one who had reached this stage, Church ordinances were indifferent. He could do what he would without sin, and he had supernatural powers.
It will be seen that men of this type might be harmless mystics; or might be simply useless idlers (many of them gave themselves over to sleep under pretence of seeing visions[1]); or might be sunk in the lowest profligacy. As many of them used to wander with female companions, the last was probably often the case. In the West they were soon condemned. Flavian of Antioch came to Edessa to detect them, and by a treacherous show of friendship,[2] got their local leader, Akha, to reveal the secret tenets. These were repudiated both by a local synod and afterwards by the general council of Ephesus.
In the East they were not conspicuous till much later; or possibly the way of monastic life current there, enabled them to pass undetected much
1 Theodoret, viii. 10.
