Warren 1 An Island of Philosophers: On the Intellectual Diversity and Doctrinal Integrity of Late Medieval Athonite Monks I. Introduction and Historiography Mount Athos has had a reputation as a rock of orthodoxy within the Eastern Orthodox world for over a thousand years. The monastery’s very foundation is shrouded in a kind of hagiographical haze. o historians are completely certain when cenobitic monks first inhabited the island; the first written mention about them is about their participation in the Second Council of Nicaea in 787. Regardless of their origins, the island has garnered a reputation since the early middle ages as an oasis of rigid tradition in the middle of the ever-changing and ever conflicted Mediterranean, while at the same time remaining isolated from it. The theological and political atmosphere of the Byzantine Era, however, brought a number of controversies to the island that would cause the monks to act is sharp contrast to their later reputation as a collection of fiercely reactionary and anti-western groups. Throughout the centuries, the monks of Mount Athos have earned a reputation for their strictness, stubbornness, and distrust of Latin Christians, as well as their overall detachment from the world. However, such a reputation does not accurately reflect the history of monastic thought and actions on the island, particularly during Byzantine rule. This is further complicated by the material and political interests the monks and monasteries of Mount Athos possessed. At the same time, a historian of the era should not be too hasty in ignoring genuine passions in the realm of doctrinal debate. While the