"At another time St. Anthony disclosed to his disciples that because of the lessening of zeal, monasticism will become weakened and its glory will grow dim. Some of his disciples seeing a great number of monks in the desert, adorned with many virtues and zealously advising the emulation of the holy life in a hermitage, asked St. Anthony, 'Father, how long will this zeal and fervor last, and this love for seclusion, poverty, humility, abstinence, and all other virtues for which this multitude of monks are so assiduously striving?' The man of god answered with sighs and tears: 'The time is coming, my beloved children, when the monks will leave the deserts and will begin to flow into rich cities, where, instead of these desert caves and narrow cells, they will erect proud structures that could vie with the palaces of kings; together with this will grow love for the accumulation of riches; humility will be replaced by pride; many of them will take pride in their knowledge but an empty one, alien to good deeds, which alone accompany true knowledge; love will grow cold; instead of abstinence gluttony will increase, and many of them will care for sumptuous foods no less than the laymen, from whom monks will no longer differ either in garb or in headgear; and although they will live a worldly life, they will call themselves hermits."