The Sicilian Briton was an early 5th-century Christian theologian known for his egalitarianism. It is known that he originated from Britain and wrote in Sicily, but his name is unknown.[1][2][3]

He wrote six pamphlets, all on the text "If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor" (Matthew 19:21). In his best known work, De Divitiis ("On Riches") (c. 410),[4] he blamed the existence of poverty on the existence of wealth. He divided people into three categories: the rich, the poor, and those who have enough, and advocated redistributing the excess wealth of the rich so that everyone has enough. This was summarised in the slogan: tolle divitem et pauperem non invenies ("abolish the rich and you will find no more poor"). His views can be considered an early form of socialism.

He was associated with his fellow Briton Pelagius, although Pelagius distanced himself from the Sicilian Briton's more radical doctrines.

References

  1. ↑ Brinley Roderick Rees, Pelagius: Life and Letters, Boydell & Brewer Ltd, 1998, p. 18.ISBN 9780851157146 "Evans goes on to suggest that the 'Sicilian Briton' met and conversed with Pelagius - 'they were both, after all, Britons residing for the present in Sicily' (!)"
  2. ↑ to Hilary of Syracuse, directed against the teaching of the anonymous Sicilian Pelagian called by Jobn Morris the Sicilian Briton, Page 42, Augustine Through the Ages: An Encyclopedia, Author:ed FITZGERALD, Editors: Allan Fitzgerald, John Cavadini, John C. Cavadini, Marianne Djuth, Frederick Van Fleteren, James Joseph O'Donnell, Jaroslav Jan Pelikan, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1999, ISBN 9780802838438
  3. ↑ John Morris (1973), The Age of Arthur: A History of the British Isles from 350 to 650. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 1973
  4. ↑ Brown, Peter (2013-09-02). Through the Eye of a Needle: Wealth, the Fall of Rome, and the Making of Christianity in the West, 350-550 AD. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-1-4008-4453-1.
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