Bishops, clergy, and ascetics had to be provided for, and the establishment of churches and the growth of the clergy had major socio-economic implications. Already by the time of Pope Gelasius (492–96) there was a papal tradition of a fourfold division of ecclesiastical revenue—the notion is alluded to in a letter of Pope Simplicius (468–83), but it finds its clearest expression in the Decreta Papae Gelasii addressed to the bishops of Lucania. There the pope states that the Church's income should be divided between the bishop himself, the other clergy, the poor, and church fabric. The point was reiterated by Pope Gregory the Great (590–604) in his Responsiones to Augustine: “all money received should be divided into four portions: that is, one for the bishop and his household for the purposes of hospitality and entertainment, a second for the clergy, a third for the poor, and a fourth for the repair of churches.” The new religious caste of priests, monks, and nuns had to be supported on a daily basis. These are a major element among the “idle mouths” highlighted by Jones: we can question the adjective but not the noun. Many of them were involved in some sort of productive work, but they all needed accommodation, food, and water: Pseudo-Zacharias tells us about the decision of Anastasius to limit the water supply available to the Akoimetae of Constantinople.

Then there are what Gibbon termed “the specious demands of charity and devotion”: the virgins, the widows, and the poor. Definitions of the poor in Late Antiquity are remarkably fluid, and the amount that was distributed to individuals varied, apparently in recognition of the social status of the beneficiary. “Distressed gentlefolk” (to borrow a Victorian phrase) were as likely to benefit from alms as did the genuinely destitute. The sheer number of people registered on the poor lists (matriculae) is remarkable: 3,000 widows and orphans in fourth-century Antioch; 7,500 in seventh-century Alexandria. We lack comparable figures for the West but we know that equivalent lists existed. Gregory the Great's letters provide details of individual donations of alms.