The Romans had taken seven thousand prisoners; many of whom perished with hunger. Acacius, a Christian bishop, called the church together and thus addressed them: “God needeth not either dishes or cups, as he neither eats nor drinks. I think it right, therefore, to make a sale of the greatest part of the church’s plate, and apply money to the support of the redemption of the captives.”
Acacius (died 366) contemporary of Basil the Great and Julian the Apostate, bishop in Palenstine, successor to Eusebius, and actually known as one of the tongues of the Arian controversy, though his radical generosity mirrored Basil the Great. Lectures on the Nature and Dangerous Tendency of Modern Infidelity by Rev. Levi Tucker (Cleveland: Francis B. Penniman, 1837) 142.