Re: The Early Christians: In Their Own Words

In fact, everything the church owned at that time belonged to the poor. The

affairs of the poor were the affairs of the church; it sup****ted bereft 
women and children, the sick, and the destitute. The spirit of boundless, 
voluntary giving was the basic feature of the movement and was more 
essential than the resulting communal life and the rejection of private 
property. This love made even Christian women of rank give away their 
property and become beggars. The pagans deplored the fact that instead of 
commanding respect because of their wealth, these women became beggars, 
knocking at doors of houses much less respected than their own. To help 
others, the Christians took the hardest privations upon themselves and 
never limited their works of love. Even Emperor Julian had to admit that 
“the godless Galileans feed our poor in addition to their own.”