The great monasteries had from thirty to forty houses, with about forty monks in each, making in all seven or eight hundred persons. At the death of St. Pachomius, the order of Tabennæ numbered seven thousand monks. Palladius says that catechumens preparing for baptism, children, youths, and men of all ages were received there. All were obliged to study the New Testament and the Psalter; three times a day wholesome instruction was given to those who required it, and three times a week the prior of each house assembled the monks who were placed under his control to hold conversation with them, called a _catechizing_, or argument, after which they discussed amongst each other the questions that had been dealt with. The teaching of the monks was not limited to this, it extended from beyond the walls of the monastery to the faithful in the neighbouring district. Once on Saturdays, and twice on Sundays, the prior explained to them the mysteries of the faith, to say nothing of the catechisms and lessons, of which the chief or general of the order himself took charge every week. St. Pachomius and St. Orsevius did not confine themselves to the mere development of the moral principles taken from Holy Scripture; they entered upon an exegesis of them, giving their audience the right of questioning, replying, and discussing their statements, and afterwards answering all objections so made by writing. The study of the Fathers of the Church was added to that of the holy books. The prior sometimes authorised plain monks, who were learned or eloquent, as was a certain Theodorus, to defend the truths of the Christian religion against the profane and to establish a series of public lectures. The monastic discipline set up by St. Basilius was almost identical with that of St. Pachomius; his monks discussed nearly every topic amongst themselves. He merely instructed them not to try and override each other in these debating tournaments, urging them to avoid ostentation, empty words, and the inspirations of vanity; he even directed them as to the intonation of voice, and the gestures most becoming. In the monasteries founded by St. Basilius, many children were taken as pupils, and sent back into the world when they were old enough to select a profession and make their own way in life. The convents for women are contemporaneous with the monasteries. The virgins devoted to the Church, the young widows, and the deaconesses, led a kind of life calculated to prepare them for habits of reclusion, of contemplation, and asceticism. The sisters of St. Anthony and St. Pachomius were placed by their venerable brothers at the head of two communities of virgins, in Egypt and in Palestine. In Pontus and Cappadocia St. Basilius founded several convents, and their number increased so largely, that in the beginning of the fifth century, one single convent (_cœnobium_) contained two hundred and fifty virgins.