After the Council at Ephesus, Hermogenes went on a mission to Rome with Lampetius of Casium, and was succeeded in his bishopric by Zeno, who was succeeded by Alphius.[170] It was, perhaps, this Alphius who sided with Lampetius (possibly the bishop of Casium) in the difficulty regarding the vagrant ascetics called Massaliani or Euchites, men and women, who gave themselves to prayer and lived by begging, refusing to work. They were censured at the synod of Ephesus,[171] and their condemnation henceforth acted as a deterrent to the wanderings of hermits generally. In consequence of his course of action Alphius was obliged to resign his see. He was succeeded by Ptolemæus of Rhinocorura, who acted in concert with Timothy, patriarch of Alexandria. A further difficulty was created when the Church Council met at Chalcedon under the auspices of the empress Pulcheria and her husband Marcian, and in 451 laid down articles as to the nature of Christ which remain to this day the standard of the Catholic faith. Of the bishops of the sees in Sinai only Beryllus, bishop of Aila, set his signature to the declaration.[172] And when Juvenal, bishop of Jerusalem (451-458), returned to his see and declared his intention of abiding by the decision, the fanatical monks seized the city, turned him out and set the Egyptian monk Theodosius in his place. It was in vain that Juvenal sought to settle the matter by leniency. Theodosius ruled in Jerusalem during twenty months. When he was finally expelled he fled to Sinai. The emperor Marcian hereupon addressed a letter to Bishop Macarius and the monks of Sinai, warning them against Theodosius, who “went from place to place spreading heresy, and who is now in Mount Sinai (ἐν τῷ Σινᾷ ὄρει) where there are monasteries which are dear to you and which have our respect, in which he is working against the true belief.”[173] The emperor also wrote to Juvenal saying that he had written about Theodosius and his adherents to “the most worthy bishop Macarius, to the archimandrite and to the monks,” warning them of his false arguments, and asking them to eject him and hand him over with his satellites to the prefect of the province.[174] It is unknown what became of it. Other writings of the hermits give an insight into the speculative zeal and boundless credulity of these devotees to a simple life, to whom everything surprising appeared in the light of a miracle. Collections of _Sayings of the Fathers_ (Verba Seniorum), and incidents in their lives, were a favourite branch of literature at the time. Anastasius (_c._ 561-614), a monk of Sinai, John Climacus († 609), who dwelt at Tholas, and then at the convent, and John Moschus († 619), who habitually dwelt in Jerusalem, but went about visiting, were among those who collected anecdotes and sayings regarding Sinai.