In Asia Minor laboured, conspicuous among many, Eustathius who first prescribed a monastic dress, Basil the Great (c. 379) who originated the monastic vow,[210:7] the famous Nilus (c. 430), and the hated hermit Marcus (c. 431). Syria was renowned for at least a dozen hermits, the most celebrated being Simeon Stylites (c. 459),[210:8] the pillar saint. From Egypt and Asia the institution spread to Greece and became quite general by the fourth century. The most famous cloister was that of Studium (460) at Constantinople. The islands of the Adriatic and Tuscan Sea were soon covered with monasteries swarming with monks.[210:9] The fourth and most important step is found in the development of the institution in western Europe. Athanasius, a hero and oracle to the Western Church, on a tour to Rome in 340, carried with him from Egypt two specimens of hermits.[211:1] His _Life of Anthony_ was soon translated into Latin. The West had already heard about the institution, and many individuals had visited the most celebrated hermits in Egypt. After 340 many men and women began to give enthusiastic support to the new institution. Eusebius (c. 370) lived by rule with his clergy under one roof at Vercelli in northern Italy.[211:2] Ambrose fostered it in and around Milan.[211:3] Paul of Nola (c. 431) lived in Campagna. Conspicuous examples were found among the Roman virgins and widows.[211:4] Marcella in Rome turned her palace into a convent.[211:5] Paula and her whole family lived as ascetics. The widow Lea was an active worker.[211:6] Melania devoted her fortune to the cause. Many of the nobles of Rome likewise became converts to the new idea.[211:7] Jerome and Rufinus were conspicuous examples of those devotees who by precept and practice soon popularised monasticism throughout Italy. Convents for both sexes were soon founded.[211:8] From Rome Augustine carried the institution back to north-western Africa. When Cassian (c. 448) left Egypt and planted two monasteries at Marseilles, he found monks already in France. Martin, the Bishop of Tours, turned his episcopal palace into a monastery, and at his death (400) 2000 monks followed him to the grave.[212:1] Poitiers, Lyons, and Treves, together with the bordering mountains, were soon scenes of monastic activity. Donatus, an African monk, early carried the new faith to Spain where it soon became so popular that by 380 a synod forbade priests dressing as monks. Athanasius, who lived at Treves as an exile, probably introduced it into Germany. The British Isles had a flourishing system long before the mission of Augustine. By the fifth century, therefore, monasticism had been firmly planted over all western Europe.[212:2]