ety of Christians either
desirous or capable of acquiring, to any considerable degree, the
encumbrance of landed property. It had been provided by several laws,
which were enacted with the same design as our statutes of mortmain,
that no real estates should be given or bequeathed to any corporate
body, without either a special privilege or a particular dispensation
from the emperor or from the senate; [137] who were seldom disposed to
grant them in favor of a sect, at first the object of their contempt,
and at last of their fears and jealousy. A transaction, however, is
related under the reign of Alexander Severus, which discovers that the
restraint was sometimes eluded or suspended, and that the Christians
were permitted to claim and to possess lands within the limits of Rome
itself. [138] The progress of Christianity, and the civil confusion of
the empire, contributed to relax the severity of the laws; and before
the close of the third century many considerable estates were bestowed
on the opulent churches of Rome, Milan, Carthage, Antioch, Alexandria,
and the other great cities of Italy and the provinces.

[Footnote 128: The community instituted by Plato is more perfect than
that which Sir Thomas More had imagined for his Utopia. The community
of women, and that of temporal goods, may be considered as inseparable
parts of the same system.]

[Footnote 129: Joseph. Antiquitat. xviii. 2. Philo, de Vit.
Contemplativ.]

[Footnote 130: 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.]

[Footnote 131: Justin Martyr, Apolog. Major, c. 89. Tertullian, Apolog.
c. 39.]

[Footnote 132: Irenaeus ad Haeres. 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