ospel as were able, supported
themselves, but that those who were not able, were supported out of the
fund for the poor. The latter, however, had no fixed or determined
proportion of this fund allotted them, but had only a bare livelihood
from it, consisting of victuals served out to them in baskets, as before
explained. This fund too consisted of voluntary offerings, or of
revenues from land voluntarily bequeathed. And the principle, on which
these gifts or voluntary offerings were made, was the duty of charity to
the poor. One material innovation, however, had been introduced, as I
remarked before, since its institution, namely, that the bishops, and
not the deacons, had now the management of this fund.

At the latter end of the fourth century, and from this period to the
eighth, other changes took place in the system of which I have been
speaking. Ministers of the Gospel began to be supported, all of them
without distinction, from the funds of the poor. This circumstance
occasioned a greater number of persons to be provided for than before.
The people therefore were solicited for greater contributions than had
been ordinarily given. Jerom and Omrysostom, out of good and pious
motives, exhorted them in turn to give bountifully to the poor, and
double honour to those who laboured in the lord's work. And though they
left the people at liberty to bestow what they pleased, they gave it as
their opinion, that they ought not to be less liberal than the ancient
Jews, who, under the Levitical law, gave a tenth of their property to
the priesthood and to the poor. Ambrose, in like manner, recommended
tenths, as now necessary, and as only a suitable donation for these
purposes.

The same line of conduct continued to be pursued by those who succeeded
in the government of the church, by Augustin, bishop of Hippo, by Pope
Leo, by Gregory, by Severin among the Christians, in Pannonia, and by
others. Their exhortations, however, on this subject, were now mixed
with promises and, threats. Pardon of sins and future rewards were held
out on the one hand, and it was suggested on the other, that the people,
themselves would be reduced to a tenth, and the blood of all the poor
who died, would be upon their heads, if they gave less than a tenth of
their incomes to holy uses. By exhortations of this sort, reiterated for
three centuries, it began at length to be expected of the people, that
they would not give less than tenths of what they p