Severe self-torture was less common in the Western monasteries, especially after the earlier code had been supplanted by a new one drafted (529) by Benedict of Nursia, founder of the order that bears his name. This is distinguished by the absence of any severe austerities, and substitutes manual labor in place of contemplation and penance. But the conception of supreme excellence was much the same in the West and in the East. Asceticism became a part of the accepted teaching of the Church and the practice of a large proportion of her leaders and adherents. Of Simeon Stylites, the famous Syrian monk of the fifth century, we read that “from every quarter pilgrims of every degree thronged to do him homage. A crowd of prelates followed him to the grave. A brilliant star is said to have shown miraculously over his pillar; the general voice of mankind pronounced him to be the highest model of a Christian saint.” The physical effects of the ascetic life upon the individual must have been disastrous as a rule. Not only did it lead to broken health, such as embittered the lives of some of the greatest among the Church Fathers, but long-continued austerities and overwrought emotions produced a disordered nervous system, and supplied all the conditions for hallucination. Lecky has also called attention to certain moral qualities that suffered from the prevailing conception of excellence. “What may be called a strong animal nature,” he says, “a nature, that is, in which the passions are in vigorous, and at the same time healthy action, is that in which we should most naturally expect to find ... good humor, frankness, generosity, active courage, sanguine energy, buoyancy of temper. (These) are much more rarely found either in natures that are essentially feeble or effeminate, or in natures that have been artificially emasculated by penances, distorted from their original tendency, and habitually held under severe control.”