Monasteries are a place cut off from the world and ecclesiastical affairs, a place of repentance, obedience, and penance -- not teaching or pastoral authority.As the Fathers at Hagia Sophia 879 put it, echoing pious custom and law since Chalcedon:QuoteAlthough beforehand some bishops, having descended to the habit of monks, have been forced nevertheless to remain in the height of the prelacy, they