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Ideal for: intellectuals who have at least a
moderate interest in religion.
Job Specifications: You take a vow of poverty, chastity and obedience,
then head for a monastery on a very high cliff where you will spend the rest
of your life reading obscure manuscripts and tinkering in the garden. A
typical day includes several hours of prayer, and more prayer, and more
prayer.
Drawbacks: While a peaceful life, it is also mind numbingly dull. Many
monks take a vow of silence, and after a while, you may find yourself
talking to the birds just to break the monotony (presumably what happened to
St. Francis of Assisi). You are also expected to embrace suffering and
penance, and spend many weeks going without food. When you are not busy
lying prostrate in front of the altar, you have the task of making
illuminated manuscripts—painstakingly reproducing page after page of obscure
Latin texts, since Guttenberg wouldn’t have been born for another several
centuries.
Perks: Free access of the monastery cellar, where the finest wines of the
regions are stored.
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