692 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts , and Letters . 
who wrote in right understanding of the Holy Scriptures. For 
the tithes are taxes or tributes for the poor. xvl. q. i. c. dec. 
This is founded on what Christ says: Inasmuch as ye have 
done it unto one of the least of these my brethren ye have 
done it unto me. Since by natural law the tithe belongs to 
God, as has been proved, and since He does not need it, and 
since all that is done for the poor is done unto God; there¬ 
fore God receives the tithe through the poor as He did 
through the Levites under the law. For we who believe in 
God are all priests. Therefore the tithe belongs to the poor 
and to the servants of the Word of God, and he who de¬ 
prives them of it is a spiritual thief and robber, quia sacri- 
legium commitit. And unless the tithes are thus used they 
are not possessed according to divine or natural laws or ac¬ 
cording to any rights which are pleasing to God. But since 
the churches are under different government and each has its 
own minister it belongs rightfully only to baptizing-churches 
(Touffkilchen) and to those in which God’s word is preached. 
And the preacher who has no other means should have his 
necessities provided for from it and the remainder should go 
to the poor: should he have, however, by heritage or other¬ 
wise enough to sustain him, he should not take the tithe or 
other property of the church as Hieronimus says in the 
chapter Quicunq; de decimis, but should give it to the poor, 
quia bona Ecclesiae, sunt bona pauperum. 
Hence it follows in the first place that the tithe should not 
be sold from the church to which it belongs: for it is a funda¬ 
mental law that none has the right to sell the possessions of 
another, unless he be empowered by the latter to do it, for 
his benefit. 
In the second place no rich man who has enough or an 
abundance should buy or take a tithe unless he should use 
it for the benefit of the poor or the furtherance of God’s 
Word. For all that (which in accordance with natural law) 
belongs to God’s servants and to His poor, God will give: 
for that which is done unto them is done unto Christ, Matt, 
xxv. Therefore one should not use it against God or to 
dishonor Him, for example, by living in pride or to the flesh 
or in hatred, or by inconveniencing and harming one’s 
neighbor: as happens in war, when the poor who should be 
helped are ruined and when husbands and fathers are killed. 
