called also HEICETAE and HICETAE, heretics of the seventh century, who made profession of the monastic life.—From that passage in Exodus where Moses and the children of Israel are said to have sung a song in praise of the Lord, after they had passed the Red sea, wherein their enemies had perished; the ecclesiastical concluded, that they must sing and dance to praise God aright: and as Mary the prophetess, sister of Moses and Aaron, took a drum in her hand, on the same occasion, and all the women did the like, to testify their joy, by playing, beating, and dancing; the ecclesiastical, the better to imitate their conduct herein, endeavoured to draw women to them to make profession of the monastic life, and afflit in their mirth.