Monks and Monasticism at the Early Ecumenical Councils, Annales Historia Conciliorum, 51 (2021), 11-20

Monks first appear in conciliar attendance lists at Constantinople III (680-81). Their role
at Nicaea II (787) was striking and important, though the highly selective acts do not do
full justice to it. As for canonical legislation, monks feature in the canons of Chalcedon, but
with the stress placed on the obedience they owed to episcopal, in effect, patriarchal authority.
Some of the canons issued at the Quinisext Council (691/692) treat monasticism, but
in an haphazard manner. Several canons of Nicaea II give monasticism a more considered
treatment. The rules enacted applied equally to the secular clergy, which suggests that they
arose not from specifically monastic pressure but from bishops who took seriously their duty
of oversight over the monasteries in their dioceses.