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 plicity of heart. They all lived in the greatest harmony, and had but one heart and one soul. None of them suffered want; for the rich willingly sold, for the relief of the poor, what they could spare, such as houses and lands, and laid the proceeds at the feet of the Apostles, that they might divide them among the needy. The Apostles were the rulers of the Church, as Christ had ordained; they taught, baptized, and administered the other sacraments; they managed all ecclesiastical affairs, and governed the community.

31. Although many of the Jews embraced the doctrine of Christ, yet the greater part of them remained obstinate and hardened. God, therefore, permitted the punishment they had been threatened with to be inflicted upon them; about the seventieth year after the birth of Christ, Jerusalem was destroyed, and the temple burnt, by the Romans. An immense number of Jews lost their lives, and the rest were banished from their country and dispersed all over the world, that they might be everywhere and at all times living witnesses of the Divine judgment. The stubbornness of the Jews, and still more an express command of God, had early determined the Apostles to go and preach to the pagans or heathens. Poor and persecuted though they were, they announced to the nations of the earth the good tidings of salvation, under thousands of hardships and perils, even of death.