Church as Department of Social Welfare

From Cyril Mango's Byzantium: The Empire of New Rome

"In the early Byzantine period the Church grew extremely rich, or, to put it another way, huge resources were channelled through it. [...] The Church of Antioch at the end of the fourth century provided for three thousand widows and virgins in addition to invalids, strangers, prisoners and beggars."

"It has been rightly pointed out that the Byzantine Church did not constitute an organization sui juris [Latin: 'one's own law']; in modern terms it may be described as a Department of Social Welfare. The task of providing for the indigent, for strangers, for widows and orphans was an evangelical obligation which the Church took upon itself in the forth century. As municipal councils declined, bishops assumed, more and more, a variety of extra-religious functions. We find them dispensing justice, overseeing the market, regulating weights and measures, repairing bridges, building granaries. Where a provincial governor was in residence the bishop was his equal, while in other cities he became the top man, equivalent to a governor. The bishop was thus an administrator, and he was normally selected from the gentry because he had to be presentable and possess managerial experience. It was perfectly normal for a layman, even if he was not particularly religious, to be directly ordained bishop."