Omnia sunt communia

[5] After Peter's first trial before the Sanhedrin at some later date, the Christians are described as "one in heart and mind" and it is repeated that "to them all things were in common" (ἦν αὐτοῖς πάντα κοινά, ēn autois panta koina).

[8] The 12th-century Italian jurist Bernardus Papiensis adapted the phrase into canon law as tempore necessitate omnia sunt communia, "in a time of necessity all things are common".

[9] In his treatise on justice in the Summa Theologica,[10] 13th-century philosopher Thomas Aquinas used the same phrase, as well as the broader concept, to argue that it was not a sin for a person to steal if they were motivated by genuine need.

[14] English jurist Matthew Hale added a qualifier, proposing that in casu extremæ necessitatis omnia sunt communia, literally "in cases of extreme necessity everything is held in common".

[2] Thomas Müntzer, a leader in the German Peasants' War, described the concept of omnia sunt communia as the definition of the Gospel,[17] arguing also that all things "should be distributed as occasion requires, according to the several necessities of all".