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[ Joseph. Antiquitat. xviii. 2. Philo, de Vit. Contemplativ.]
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[ See the Acts of the Apostles, c. 2, 4, 5, with Grotius’s Commentary. Mosheim, in a particular dissertation, attacks the common opinion with very inconclusive arguments. * Note: This is not the general judgment on Mosheim’s learned dissertation. There is no trace in the latter part of the New Testament of this community of goods, and many distinct proofs of the contrary. All exhortations to almsgiving would have been unmeaning if property had been in common—M.]
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[ Justin Martyr, Apolog. Major, c. 89. Tertullian, Apolog. c. 39.]
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[ Irenæus ad Hæres. l. iv. c. 27, 34. Origen in Num. Hom. ii Cyprian de Unitat. Eccles. Constitut. Apostol. l. ii. c. 34, 35, with the notes of Cotelerius. The Constitutions introduce this divine precept, by declaring that priests are as much above kings as the soul is above the body. Among the tithable articles, they enumerate corn, wine, oil, and wool. On this interesting subject, consult Prideaux’s History of Tithes, and Fra Paolo delle Materie Beneficiarie; two writers of a very different character.]
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[ The same opinion which prevailed about the year one thousand, was productive of the same effects. Most of the Donations express their motive, “appropinquante mundi fine.” See Mosheim’s General History of the Church, vol. i. p. 457.]