Jesus Himself appears as the claimant of the rights of the poor.

The prophets, whether socialists or anarchists, had preached social equality, and called for the destruction of the world if it were unjust.

Jesus likewise brings to the wretched hatred of the rich.

All His teaching threatens wealth and property; and if by the Kingdom of Heaven which He promised one were to understand peace and fraternity upon this earth, there would only be a question of returning to a life of pastoral simplicity, to the dream of the Christian community, such as after Him it would seem to have been realised by His disciples.

During the first three centuries each Church was an experiment in communism, a real association whose members possessed all in common--wives excepted.