In early church history, there's an interesting period of basically pious showboating.

> Well, I used limit myself to living in the desert and taking a vow of silence back when I first got into Christianity and still was attached to the flesh, but now I abstain from sex, sleep on gravel and wear a shirt made of hedgehog bristles too.

Eventually it become obvious this wasn't piety at all, but pride. The first Nicene council even bans men who have performed self-castration from entering the clergy.