In de officiis 1.28, Ambrose mentions some who “considered it consonant with justice that one should treat common, that is, public property as public, and private as private.” He rejects the position: “this is not even in accord with nature.”
He elaborates in terms of a doctrine of creation that overlaps with Stoicism: “for nature has poured forth all things for all men for common use. God has ordered all things to be produced, so that there should be food in common to all, and that the earth should be a common possession for all. Nature, therefore, has produced a common right for all, but greed has made it a right for a few. Here, too, we are told that the Stoics taught that all things which are produced on the earth are created for the use of men, but that men are born for the sake of men, so that mutually one may be of advantage to another.”
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