1890-91.] CHRISTIANITY ON LEGISLATION. 171 



shows they needed an advocate. "The church possesses gold not to hoard, 

 but to spend and apply it for the welfare and happiness of men. Why 

 should we keep that which does no good ? Are we ignorant how much 

 gold and silver the Assyrians carried off from the temple of the Lord ? 

 Is it not better that a priest should melt it to support the poor when aid 

 is needed, than that a sacrilegious enemy should carry it away? And will 

 not the Lord say, 'Why have you suffered so many needy to die of 

 hunger? You hav^e gold and should give them assistance. Why have so 

 many captives been left unredeemed and slain by the enemy? It were 

 better to preserve living vases than vases of metal.' An answer cannot 

 be given to these questions. For what would you say ? I feared that the 

 temple of God should lack ornament ? He will answer, the sacraments 

 need no gold, nor does gold satisfy what cannot be purchased with gold. 

 The ornament of sacred things is the redemption of captives, and truly, 

 those are precious vessels that redeem souls from death. That is the true 

 treasure of God which enables his blood to be operative. . . . Nobody 

 can tell why there are poor. No one complains because captives are 

 redeemed. No one can impute blame because the tempb of God is built 

 up. No one can be indignant that the earth is opened to bury the remains 

 of the faithful. No one can grieve that there is a rest for the dead in the 

 sepulchres of the Christians. In these three cases it is lawful to break, 

 melt, and sell the vessels of the church, even though consecrated. It is 

 proper that the form of the mystic cup should not go out of the church, 

 nor the sacred chalice minister to wicked orgies. Therefore, first vessels 

 are to be sought for that have not been consecrated, then broken, then 

 melted, and distributed to the poor, among the captives, and be an answer 

 to their prayers. And if there are no unconsecrated vessels, I think that 

 all may be piously applied to those uses." 



A {&\N years later (410) St. Jerome with equal eloquence enforces the 

 same truths. " The glory of a bishop," he says, " is to provide assistance 

 for the poor ; it is the shame of a priest to strive for his own wealth. * * 

 Many build the walls and lay the foundations of the columns of the 

 church, statues glitter, the ceilings are resplendent with gold, the altar is 

 adorned with precious stones and there is no election of the ministers of 

 Christ. No one need object to me the wealth of the temple in Judea, the 

 table, the lamps, the censers, the cups, the mortars, and other things 

 made of gold. Those were then approved by God, when the priests 

 slew the sacrifices, and the blood of sheep caused the remission of sins, 

 though they were all but types, but they are recorded for our sakes on 

 whom the ends of the ages have come. But now when the poor Lord 

 has consecrated the poverty of his house, let us b^ar the cross and value 



