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.