“As to the care of these early Christians of their poor; of this we have a famous example in the conduct of the Church of Rome, in the earlier and better period of her history. The Emperor Decius demanded their treasure. A deacon answered for the whole church, and required one day to comply with the order of the tyrant. When the term was expired, he assembled all the blind, and the lame, and the sick, that were supported by the church and pointing to them, told the Emperor, “These are the riches of the church, these it’s revenues and treasure”
Emperor Decius (249-251) and a Deacon from the Church in Rome in Lectures on the Nature and Dangerous Tendency of Modern Infidelity by Rev. Levi Tucker (Cleveland: Francis B. Penniman, 1837) 155.