Chapter 25 of book II. (Vol. VII., page 408) has the heading, “Of First-fruits and Tithes, and after what manner the Bishop is himself to partake of them, or to distribute them to others.” The following sentences are culled out of this chapter: “Let him use those tenths and first-fruits, which are given according to the command of God, as a man of God; as also let him dispense in a right manner the free-will offerings which are brought in on account of the poor, to the orphans, the widows, the afflicted, and strangers in distress, as having that God for the examiner of his accounts who has committed the disposition to him.... The Levites, who attended upon the tabernacle, partook of those things that were offered to God by all the people.... You, therefore, O bishops, are to your people priests and Levites, ministering to the holy tabernacle, the holy Catholic Church.... As, therefore, you bear the weight, so have you a right to partake of the fruits before others, and to impart to those who are in want.... For those who attend upon the Church ought to be maintained by the Church, as being priests, Levites, presidents, and ministers of God.” Again in Chapter 35 (page 413) we read, “Now you ought to know, that although the Lord has delivered you from the additional bonds, and has brought you out of them to your refreshment, and does not permit you to sacrifice irrational creatures for sin-offerings, and purifications, and scape-goats, and continual washings and sprinklings, yet has He nowhere freed you from those oblations which you owe to the priests, nor from doing good to the poor.” Other references will be found also on pages 471, 494, and among the Canons, page 500. Jerome (345-420) writes in his letter to Nepotian (Vol. VI., Second Series) as follows: “I, if I am the portion of the Lord, and the line of His heritage, receive no portion among the remaining tribes; but, like the priest and the Levite, I live on the tithe, and serving the altar, am supported by its offerings. Having food and raiment, I shall be content with these, and as a disciple of the Cross shall share its poverty.” Smith and Cheetham’s Dictionary quotes Jerome as saying on Mal. 3:10, “What we have said of tithes and first-fruits which of old used to be given by the people to the priests and Levites, understand also in the case of the people of the Church, to whom it has been commanded to sell all they have and give to the poor and follow the Lord and Savior.... If we are unwilling to do this, at least let us imitate the rudimentary teaching of the Jews so as to give a part of the whole to the poor and pay the priests and Levites due honor. If any one shall not do this he is convicted of defrauding and cheating God.”