Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume VIII/The Decretals/The Epistle of Pope Urban First/Chapter 3

III.

As to any one&#8217;s attempting to take from the Church the right of holding property.

By the increase, therefore, and the mode of life which have been mentioned, the churches over which the bishops preside have grown so greatly with the help of the Lord, and the greater part of them are now in possession of so much property, that among them there is not a man who, selecting the life in common, is kept in poverty; but such an one receives all necessaries from the bishop and his ministers.&#160; Therefore, if any one in modern or in future time shall rise up and attempt to divert that property, let him be smitten with the judgment which has been already mentioned.