Note 43 — THE ESSENES.

“§ 3. They despise riches, have all things in common in a very admirable manner, and there is not one to be found among them who is richer than another; for it is a law that those who enter the sect must give up their possessions to the society as common property,43 so that there is not to be seen among them all, either the abjectness of poverty or the distinction of riches; but as every man’s goods are cast into a common treasury, they all, like brothers, have one patrimony. They regard ointment as defiling; and if one happens to be anointed against his will, he immediately wipes it off his body.44 To be unadorned but dressed in white they regard as commendable. They have stewards of their common property, appointed by general election, and every one without distinction is proposed for all the offices.