 The Fathers passed down to the middle ages the idea that certain key social institutions were not part of God’s original plan for mankind, namely the institutions of coercive government, slavery and property. The idea found in  Seneca  and other ancient Stoics of a Golden Age had a parallel in Christian thinking, namely the age of innocence in the Garden of Eden, from which mankind were expelled because of the sin of Adam and Eve (the  “Fall”).[9]  Just as Seneca ([c. 60 CE] 1917–25: vol. II, 397, Letter 90) held that originally there would have been no need for coercion, since human beings would voluntarily have accepted the guidance of the wise, and no need for property, since no one would have sought to control more resources than they needed to support a temperate way of life, and no slavery, since a slave is a human being treated as property, so, according to the Fathers, these institutions would not have existed if Adam had not sinned. But because of sin they do exist, both as a result of sinfulness (the power-hungry and greedy amass coercive power and property), and as a necessary and justified remedy for sin—ideally, governments should use coercion to repress wrongdoing, with slavery used only as a punishment, milder than execution, for wrongdoing, and property should be of moderate extent, its purpose being to protect possession of necessities from the greed of those who would otherwise try to control everything.