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Money raising problems
By Gary Macy
As most parish councils know,
raising money can be a real problem. Fundraising became even more difficult in
the fourth century when Emperor Theodosius included the following law among 370
in his famous code. Ecclesiastics, ex-ecclesiastics and those men who
wish to be called by the name of continents shall not visit the homes of widows
and female wards, but they shall be banished by the public courts, if hereafter
the kinsmen, by blood or marriage, of the aforesaid women should suppose that
such men ought to be reported to the authorities. We decree, further, that the
aforesaid clerics shall be able to obtain nothing whatsoever, through any act
of liberality or by a last will of those women to whom they have attached
themselves privately under the pretext of religion. St. Jerome, who
relied heavily on financial support from his female friends, was furious.
Shameful to say, idol-priests, play-actors, jockeys and prostitutes can
inherit property: Clergymen and monks alone lie under a legal disability, a
disabiliy enacted not by persecutors, but by Christian emperors. Needless
to say, a way was found around the law and, as we all know, fundraising
continued to be part of the churchs daily life.
Gary Macy is a theology professor at the University of
San Diego. |