Nunc autem veniunt plerumque ad hanc professionem servitutis Dei, et ex conditione servili, vel etiam liberati, vel propter hoc a Dominis liberati sive liberandi; et ex vita rusticana, et ex opificum exercitatione, et plebeio labore. Augustin. de Oper. Monach. c. 22 ap. Thomassin Discipline de l'Eglise, tom. iii. p. 1094.
The Egyptian, who blamed Arsenius, owned that he led a more comfortable life as a monk than as a shepherd. See Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. xiv. p. 679