Edward Gibbon Quote

I have somewhere heard or read the frank confession of a Benedictine abbot: "My vow of poverty has given me a hundred thousand crowns a year; my vow of obedience has raised me to the rank of a sovereign prince." - I forget the consequences of his vow of chastity.

The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. By Edward Gibbon.. A New Edition (ed. 1797)