Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Audæus

AUDÆUS, or Audius, a reformer of the 4th century, by birth a Mesopotamian. He suffered much persecution from the Syrian clergy for his fearless censure of their irregular lives, and was expelled from the church. He was afterwards banished into Scythia, where he gained many followers and established the monastic system. He died there at an advanced age, about 370 A.D. The Audseans celebrated the feast of Easter on the same day as the Jewish Passover, and they were also charged with attributing to the Deity a human shape. They appear to have founded this opinion on Genesis i. 26.