They asked, “What, then, befell the owner of the monastery?”

Antonus replied, “They relate that there was once a man who traded in honey, clarified butter, olive oil, and wine. He would buy these goods pure and wholesome but sell them at high prices after he had secretly adulterated them. He possessed a grand and handsome beard, and most people who saw him would remark, ‘If only you were a bishop—such a beard befits none but bishops!’ When this was repeated often enough, the notion of monastic life lodged in his mind, for he hoped it might bring him rank and prestige.

“One day he said to his wife, ‘People keep praising my beard while knowing nothing of my actual business. If I were to become a monk, I could hope to acquire both wealth and status.’ His wife was deeply distressed and said, ‘You mean to make me a widow and leave our children fatherless!’

“He answered, ‘Woe to you! I am not doing this out of any intention to worship, but because I hope it will secure me a position and distinction among the people of my own faith.’ She replied, ‘I fear that once you taste the sweetness of devotion among the monks, you will go all the way and abandon me.’ He swore to her that this would not happen, then set about studying the Gospel, the Psalms, and portions of the prophetic books. He shaved his head and made his way to a large monastery that housed a community of monks, where he took up residence.

“He had scarcely been there a short while before the monks were taken with his good looks and the nobility of his beard. They unanimously agreed to place him at their head and entrusted their affairs to him. Once his ambition was satisfied and he gained full control of the monastery’s wealth and treasury, he cultivated the favor of dignitaries and nobles. His standing grew grand in their eyes, while the monks’ standing shrank in his: he humbled them, reduced their stipends, rearranged their ranks, and put the most devout among them in charge of the monastery’s revenues and treasury, freeing himself to pamper his own soul. He delighted in women, drank wine, ate fine foods, and dressed