The first full-length study of the early history of greed, through texts from the first to tenth centuries CE.

List of abbreviations; Preface; 1. Alms and ascetes, round stones and masons: avarice in the early church; 2. Ascetic transformations I: monks and the laity in eastern Christendom; 3. Ascetic transformations II: soaring eagles or safety in the herd - from anchoritic to cenobitic monasticism; 4. Ascetic transformations III: the Latin west in the fourth and fifth centuries; 5. Secularizing avarice and cupidity; Epilogue: Future perspectives; Appendix; Notes; Bibliography; Indexes.