 According to Augustine, the property of heretical sects may rightly be confiscated  (Tractates on the Gospel of John, VI.25),  in which Augustine justifies government seizure of Donatist property. He does not argue that only orthodox Christians can rightly possess property. Rather, his point is that whoever possesses property possesses it only by virtue of human laws made by kings and emperors. Therefore, if the ruler decides to confiscate the property of heretics, he has the right to do so. This passage, which Gratian quoted in the Decretum (D. 8 c. 1), was often used in the middle ages to support the doctrine that property exists only by human law. Gratian’s extensive use of Augustine in the Decretum arguably greatly increased Augustine’s influence on the topic of warfare, property, and the coercion of heretics (for Augustine’s views on property, see MacQueen 1972).