DOCTRINES OF S. AUGUSTINE AND S. THOMAS AQUINAS ON THE SUBJECT OF
SLAVERY.--RÉSUMÉ OF THE SUBJECT.
Thus did the Church, by a variety of means, break the chains of
slavery, without ever exceeding the limits marked out by justice and
prudence: thus did she banish from among Christians that degrading
condition, so contrary to their exalted ideas on the dignity of
man, and their generous feelings of fraternity and love. Wherever
Christianity shall be introduced, chains of iron shall be turned into
gentle ties, and humiliated men shall raise their ennobled heads. With
what pleasure do we read the remarks of one of the greatest men of
Christianity, S. Augustine, on this point (_De Civit. Dei_, l. xix. c.
14, 15, 16). He establishes in a few words the obligation incumbent
upon all who rule--fathers, husbands, and masters--to watch over the
good of those who are under them: he lays down the advantage of those
who obey, as one of the foundations for obedience; he says that the
just do not rule from ambition or pride, but from duty and the desire
of doing good to their subjects: "Neque enim dominandi cupiditate
imperant, sed officio consulendi, nec principandi superbia, sed
providendi misericordia;" and by these noble maxims he proscribes all
opinions which tend to tyranny, or found obedience on any degrading
notions; but on a sudden, as if this great mind apprehended some reply
in violation of human dignity, he grows warm, he boldly faces the
question; he rises to his full height, and, giving free scope to the
noble thoughts that ferment in his mind, he invokes the idea of nature
and the will of God in favor of the dignity of man thus menaced. He
says: "Thus wills the order of nature; thus has man been created by
God. He has given him to rule over the fishes of the sea, the birds of
the air, and the reptiles that crawl on the face of the earth. _He has
ordained that reasoning creatures, made according to His own image,
shall rule only over creatures devoid of reason. He has not established
the dominion of man over man, but that of man over the brute._" This
passage of S. Augustine is one of those bold features which shine forth
in writers of genius, when grieved by the sight of a painful object,
they allow their generous ideas and feelings to have free scope, and
cease to restrain their daring energies. Struck by the force of the
expression, the reader, in suspense and breathless, hastens to read the
succeeding lines; he fears that the author may be mistaken, seduced
by the nobleness of his heart, and carried away by the force of his
genius. But, with inexpressible pleasure, he finds that the writer
has in no degree departed from the path of true doctrine, when, like
a brave champion, he has descended into the arena to defend the cause
of justice and humanity. Thus does S. Augustine now appear to us: the
sight of so many unfortunate beings groaning in slavery, victims of the
violence and caprice of their masters, afflicted his generous mind. By
the light of reason and the doctrines of Christianity, he saw no reason
why so considerable a portion of the human race should be condemned
to live in such debasement; wherefore, when proclaiming the doctrines
of submission and obedience, he labors to discover the cause of such
ignominy; and not being able to find it in the nature of man, he seeks
for it in sin, in malediction. "The primitive just men," says he, "were
rather established as pastors over their flocks, than as kings over
other men; whereby God gives us to understand what was called for by
the order of creation, and what was required by the punishment of sin;
for the condition of slavery has, with reason, been imposed on the
sinner. Thus we do not find the word slave in the Scriptures before
the day when the just man, Noah, gave it as a punishment to his guilty
son; whence it follows that this word came from sin, and not from
nature." This manner of considering slavery as the offspring of sin,
as the fruit of the Divine malediction, was of the highest importance.
By protecting the dignity of human nature, that doctrine completely
destroyed all the prejudices of natural superiority which the pride of
free men could entertain. Thereby also, slavery was deprived of all
its supposed value as a political principle or means of government:
it could only be regarded as one of the numberless scourges inflicted
on the human race by the anger of the Most High. Henceforth slaves
had a motive for resignation, while the absolute power of masters was
checked, and the compassion of all free men was powerfully excited.
All were born in sin, all might have been in a state of slavery. To
make a boast of liberty would have been like the conduct of a man
who, during an epidemic, should boast of having preserved his health,
and imagine that on that account he had a right to insult the unhappy
sick. In a word, the state of slavery was a scourge, nothing more; like
pestilence, war, famine, or any thing else of the kind. The duty of
all men was to labor to remedy and abolish it. Such doctrines did not
remain sterile. Proclaimed in the face of day, they were heard in all
parts of the Catholic world; and not only were they put in practice, as
we have seen by numberless examples, but they were carefully preserved
as a precious theory, throughout the confusion of the times. After the
lapse of eight centuries, we see them repeated by one of the brightest
lights of the Catholic Church, S. Thomas Aquinas (I. p. q. xcvi. art.
4). That great man does not see in slavery either difference of race or
imaginary inferiority or means of government; he only considers it as a
scourge inflicted on humanity by the sins of the first man.
Such is the repugnance with which Christians have looked upon slavery:
we see from this, how false is the assertion of M. Guizot: "It does
not seem that Christian society was surprised or much offended by
it." It is true there was not that blind disturbance and irritation
which, despising all barriers and paying no attention to the rules of
justice or the counsels of prudence, ran with foolish haste to efface
the mark of degradation and ignominy. But if that disturbance and
irritation are meant which are caused by the sight of oppression and
outrages committed against man, sentiments which can well accord with
longanimity and holy resignation, and which, without checking for a
moment the action of charitable zeal, nevertheless avoid precipitating
events, preferring mature arrangement in order to secure a complete
result; how can this perturbation of mind and holy indignation be
better proved to have existed in the bosom of the Church than by the
facts and doctrines which we have just quoted? What more eloquent
protest against the continuance of slavery can you have than the
doctrine of these two illustrious doctors? They declare it, as we
have just seen, to be the fruit of malediction, the chastisement of
the prevarication of the human race; and they only acknowledge its
existence by considering it as one of the great scourges that afflict
humanity.
I have explained, with sufficient evidence, the profound reasons which
induced the Church to recommend obedience to slaves, and she cannot be
reproached on that account with forgetting the rights of humanity. We
must not suppose on that account that Christian society was wanting
in the boldness necessary for telling the whole truth; but it told
only the pure and wholesome truth. What took place with respect to the
marriages of slaves is a proof of what I advance. We know that their
union was not regarded as a real marriage, and that even that union,
such as it was, could not be contracted without the consent of their
masters, under pain of being considered as void. Here was a flagrant
violation of reason and justice. What did the Church do? She directly
reprobated so gross a violation of the rights of nature. Let us hear
what Pope Adrian I. said on this subject: "According to the words of
the Apostles, as in Jesus Christ we ought not to deprive either slaves
or freemen of the sacraments of the Church, so it is not allowed in
any way to prevent the marriage of slaves; and if their marriages have
been contracted in spite of the opposition and repugnance of their
masters, nevertheless they ought not to be dissolved in any way." (_De
Conju. Serv._, lib. iv. tom. 9, c. 1.) And let it not be supposed that
this regulation, which secured the liberty of slaves on one of the
most important points, was restricted to particular circumstances;
no, it was something more; it was a proclamation of their freedom in
this matter. The Church was unwilling to allow that man, reduced to
the level of the brute, should be forced to obey the caprice or the
interest of another, without regard to the feelings of his heart. St.
Thomas was of the same opinion, for he openly maintains that, with
respect to the contracting of marriage, slaves are not obliged to obey
their masters (2^a. 2, q. 104, art. 5).
In the hasty sketch which I have given, I believe that I have kept the
promise which I made at the beginning, not to advance any proposition
without supporting it by undeniable documents, and not to allow myself
to be misled by enthusiasm in favor of Catholicity, so as to concede
to it that to which it is not entitled. By passing, rapidly it is
true, the course of ages, we have shown, by convincing proofs, which
have been furnished by times and places the most various, that it
was Catholicity that abolished slavery, in spite of ideas, manners,
interests, and laws, which opposed obstacles apparently invincible;
and that it has done so without injustice, without violence, without
revolutions,--with the most exquisite prudence and the most admirable
moderation. We have seen the Catholic Church make so extensive, so
varied, and so efficacious an attack on slavery, that that odious chain
was broken without a single violent stroke. Exposed to the action of
the most powerful agents, it gradually relaxed and fell to pieces. Her
proceedings may be thus recapitulated:--
First, she loudly teaches the truth concerning the dignity of man; she
defines the obligations of masters and slaves; she declares them equal
before God, and thus completely destroys the degrading theories which
stain the writings even of the greatest philosophers of antiquity.
She then comes to the application of her doctrines: she labors to
improve the treatment of slaves; she struggles against the atrocious
right of life and death; she opens her temples to them as asylums,
and when they depart thence, prevents their being ill-treated; she
labors to substitute public tribunals for private vengeance. At the
same time that the Church guarantees the liberty of the enfranchised,
by connecting it with religious motives, she defends that of those
born free; she labors to close the sources of slavery, by displaying
the most active zeal for the redemption of captives, by opposing the
avarice of the Jews, by procuring for men who were sold, easy means of
recovering their liberty. The Church gives an example of mildness and
disinterestedness; she facilitates emancipation, by admitting slaves
into monasteries and the ecclesiastical state; she facilitates it by
all the other means that charity suggests; and thus it is that, in
spite of the deep roots of slavery in ancient society--in spite of
the perturbation caused by the irruptions of the barbarians--in spite
of so many wars and calamities of every kind, which in great measure
paralyzed the effect of all regulating and beneficent action--yet
we see slavery, that dishonor and leprosy of ancient civilization,
rapidly diminish among Christians, until it finally disappears. Surely
in all this we do not discover a plan conceived and concerted by men.
But we do observe therein, in the absence of that plan, such unity of
tendencies, such a perfect identity of views, and such similarity in
the means, that we have the clearest demonstration of the civilizing
and liberating spirit contained in Catholicity. Accurate observers will
no doubt be gratified in beholding, in the picture which I have just
exhibited, the admirable concord with which the period of the empire,
that of the irruption of the barbarians, and that of feudality, all
tended towards the same end. They will not regret the poor regularity
which distinguishes the exclusive work of man; they will love, I repeat
it, to collect all the facts scattered in the seeming disorder, from
the forests of Germany to the fields of Bœotia--from the banks of
the Thames to those of the Tiber. I have not invented these facts;
I have pointed out the periods, and cited the Councils. The reader
will find, at the end of the volume, in the original and in full,
the texts of which I have just given an abstract--a _résumé:_ thus
he may fully convince himself that I have not deceived him. If such
had been my intention, surely I should have avoided descending to the
level ground of facts; I should have preferred the vague regions of
theory; I should have called to my aid high sounding and seductive
language, and all the means the most likely to enchant the imagination
and excite the feelings; in fine, I should have placed myself in one
of those positions where a writer can suppose at his pleasure things
which have never existed, and made the best use of the resources of
imagination and invention. The task which I have undertaken is rather
more difficult, perhaps less brilliant, but certainly more useful.
We may now inquire of M. Guizot what were the _other causes_, the
_other ideas_, the _other principles of civilization_, the great
development of which, to avail myself of his words, was necessary
"to abolish this evil of evils, this iniquity of iniquities." Ought
he not to explain, or at least point out, these causes, ideas, and
principles of civilization, which, according to him, assisted the
Church in the abolition of slavery, in order to save the reader the
trouble of seeking or divining them? If they did not arise in the bosom
of the Church, _where_ did they arise? Were they found in the ruins
of ancient civilization? But could these remains of a scattered and
almost annihilated civilization effect what that same civilization,
in all its vigor, power, and splendor, never did or thought of
doing?--Were they in the _individual independence of the barbarians_?
But that individuality, the inseparable companion of violence, must
consequently have been the source of oppression and slavery. Were they
found in the _military patronage_ introduced, according to M. Guizot,
by the barbarians themselves; patronage which laid the foundation
of that aristocratical organization which was converted at a later
period into feudality? But what could this patronage--an institution
likely, on the contrary, to perpetuate slavery among the indigent in
conquered countries, and to extend it to a considerable portion of the
conquerors themselves--what could this patronage do for the abolition
of slavery? Where, then, is the idea, the custom, the institution,
which, born out of Christianity, contributed to the abolition of
slavery? Let any one point out to us the epoch of its formation, the
time of its development; let him show us that it had not its origin
in Christianity, and we will then confess that the latter cannot
exclusively lay claim to the glorious title of having abolished that
degraded condition; and he may be sure that this shall not prevent our
exalting that idea, custom, or institution which took part in the great
and noble enterprise of liberating the human race.
We may be allowed, in conclusion, to inquire of the Protestant
churches, of those ungrateful daughters who, after having quitted the
bosom of their mother, attempt to calumniate and dishonor her, where
were you when the Catholic Church accomplished in Europe the immense
work of the abolition of slavery? and how can you venture to reproach
her with sympathizing with servitude, degrading man, and usurping his
rights? Can you, then, present any such claim entitling you to the
gratitude of the human race? What part can you claim in that great work
which prepared the way for the development and grandeur of European
civilization? Catholicity alone, without your concurrence, completed
the work; and she alone would have conducted Europe to its lofty
destinies, if you had not come to interrupt the majestic march of its
mighty nations, by urging them into a path bordered by precipices,--a
path the end of which is concealed by darkness which the eye of God
alone can pierce.[15]