INT RO D UC TIO N. 
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rich, and assigned to the former the means of living out of the 
abundance of the latter, ut fiat equalitas, as St Paul says.” * 
Bossuet has merely reproduced what may be read on every 
page of the Christian Fathers. “The rich man is a thief” 
r rich are robbers ; a kind of equality must 
be effected by making gifts out of their abundance. Better all 
things were in common” (St. Chrysostom). “Opulence is 
always the product of a theft, committed, if not by the actual 
possessor, by his ancestors” (St. Jerome). “Nature created 
/q, ^ ’ private property is the offspring of usurpation ” 
to strict justice, everything should belong 
Clement) created private property” (St. 
8 
2 Corinthians viii. 14.