The Last Days of Pompeii by Edward Bulwer-lytton

IN the earlier times of Rome the priesthood was a profession, not of / lucre but of honour. It was embraced by the noblest citizens -- it was / forbidden to the plebeians. Afterwards, and long previous to the / present date, it was equally open to all ranks; at least, that part of / the profession which embraced the flamens, or priests -- not of religion / generally but of peculiar gods. Even the priest of Jupiter (the Flamen / Dialis) preceded by a lictor, and entitled by his office to the entrance / of the senate, at first the especial dignitary of the patricians, was / subsequently the choice of the people. The less national and less / honored deities were usually served by plebeian ministers; and many / embraced the profession, as now the Roman Catholic Christians enter the / monastic fraternity, less from the impulse of devotion than the / suggestions of a calculating poverty. Thus Calenus, the priest of Isis, / was of the lowest origin. His relations, though not his parents, were / freedmen. He had received from them a liberal education, and from his / father a small patrimony, which he had soon exhausted. He embraced the / priesthood as a last resource from distress. Whatever the state / emoluments of the sacred profession, which at that time were probably / small, the officers of a popular temple could never complain of the / profits of their calling. There is no profession so lucrative as that / which practises on the superstition of the multitude.

Calenus had but one surviving relative at Pompeii, and that was Burbo. / Various dark and disreputable ties, stronger than those of blood, united / together their hearts and interests; and often the minister of Isis / stole disguised and furtively from the supposed austerity of his / devotions; and gliding through the back door of the retired gladiator, a / man infamous alike by vices and by profession, rejoiced to throw off the / last rag of an hypocrisy which, but for the dictates of avarice, his / ruling passion, would at all time have sat clumsily upon a nature too / brutal for even the mimicry of virtue.