WE proceed to prove, by a variety of documents, that the Church of
Christ did, at all times during its early ages, consider the existence
of slavery and the holding of slaves compatible with a religious
profession and the practice of Christian duties.
It is first in order to present the sermons of St. Paul and St. Peter
direct upon this subject. Having heretofore quoted them, we now merely
repeat the references, and ask for their perusal: See 1 _Cor._ vii.
20–24; _Eph._ vi. 5–9; _Col._ iii. 22 to iv. 1; 1 _Tim._ vi. 1–14;
_Tit._ ii. 9–15; _Philemon_ entire, and 1 _Pet._ ii. 18–25. These
scriptures distinctly teach the doctrine of the Christian church. But it
remains to see what was the practice that grew up under it.
Upon the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, the mind cannot well conceive how
the apostles could have avoided, from time to time, meeting together for
the purposes of consultation and agreement among themselves as to the
particulars of their future course; and that such was the fact, we have
in evidence, _Acts_ i. 15–26, where they did thus meet, and elected
Matthias to fill the vacancy in their number. Also, _Acts_ ix. 26–31,
where Paul was received by them and sent forth as an apostle; but the
book in question only gives us the outlines of what they did. Now, there
is found among the ancient records of the church what is called “The
Canons of the Apostles,” which, if not actually written by them, is
still known to be in conformity with their doctrine, as developed in
their own writings and the earliest usages of the church.
Among these, the canon lxxxi. is the following:
Servos in clerum provehi sine voluntate dominorum, non permittimus, ad
eorum qui possident molestiam, domorum enim eversionem talia efficiunt.
Siquando autem, etiam dignus servus visus sit, qui ad gradum eligatur,
qualis noster quoque Onesimus visus est, et domini concesserint ac
liberaverint, et œdibus emiserint, fiat.
_We do not permit slaves to be raised to clerical rank without the will
of their masters, to the injury of their owners. For such conduct
produces the upturning of houses. But if, at any time, even a slave may
be seen worthy to be raised to that degree, as even our Onesimus was,
and the masters shall have granted and given freedom, and have sent them
forth from their houses, let it be done._
This is the first of a series of similar enactments, and it should be
observed that it recognises the principle of the perfect dominion of the
master, the injury to his property, and requires the very legal
formality by which the slave was liberated and fully emancipated.
The slave had the title, without his owner’s consent, to the common
rights of religion and the necessary sacraments. In using these, no
injury was done to the property of his owner; but he had no claim to
those privileges which would diminish his value to the owner, or would
degrade the dignity conferred, and which could not be performed without
occupying that time upon which his owner had a claim.
There are eight other books of a remote antiquity, known as “The
Constitutions ascribed to the Apostles,” said to be compiled by Pope
Clement I., who was a companion of the apostles. It is generally
believed that, though Clement might have commenced such a compilation,
he did not leave it in the form which it now holds, but, like the Canons
of the Apostles, the exhibition of discipline is that of the earliest
days.
In book iv. ch. 5, enumerating those whose offerings were to be refused
by the bishops as unworthy, we have, among thieves and other sinners,
(Qui) famulos suos dure accipiunt et tractant; id est, verberibus, aut
fame afficiunt, aut crudeli servitute premunt.
_They who receive and treat their slaves harshly; that is, who whip or
famish them, or oppress them with heavy drudgery._
There is no crime in having the slave, but cruelty and oppression are
criminal.
In the same book, ch. 11 regards slaves and masters.
De famulis quid amplius dicamus, quam quod servus habeat benevolentiam
erga dominum cum timore Dei, quamvis sit impius, quamvis sit improbus,
non tamen cum eo religione consentiat. Item dominus servum diligat, et
quamvis præstet ei, judicet tamen esse æqualitatem, vel quatenus homo
est. Qui autem habet dominum Christianum, salvo dominatu, diligat eum,
tum ut dominum, tum ut fidei consortem et ut patrem, non sicut servus ad
oculum serviens sed sicut dominum amans, ut qui sciat mercedem famulatûs
sui a Deo sibi solvendam esse. Similiter dominus, qui Christianum
famulum habet, salvo famulatu, diligat eum tanquam filium, et tanquam
fratrem propter fidei communionem.
_What further, then, can we say of slaves, than that the servant should
have benevolence towards his master, with the fear of God, though he
should be impious, though wicked; though he should not even agree with
him in religion. In like manner, let the master love his slave, and
though he is above him, let him judge him to be his equal at least as a
human being. But let him who has a Christian master, having regard to
his dominion, love him both as a master, as a companion in the faith,
and as a father, not as an eye-servant, but loving his master as one who
knows that he will receive the reward of his service to be paid by God.
So let the master who has a Christian slave, saving the service, love
him as a son and as a brother, on account of the communion of faith._
Ne amaro animo jubeas famulo tuo aut ancillæ eidem Deo confidentibus: ne
aliquando gemant adversus te, et irascatur tibi Deus. Et vos servi
dominis vestris tanquam Deum repræsentantibus subditi estote cum
sedulitate et metu, _tanquam Domino, et non tanquam hominibus_.
_Do not command your man-servant nor your woman-servant having
confidence in the same God, in the bitterness of your soul; lest they at
any time lament against you, and God be angry with you. And you servants
be subject to your masters, the representatives of God, with care and
fear_, as to the Lord, and not to men.
In the eighth book, ch. 33, is a constitution of SS. Peter and Paul,
respecting the days that slaves were to be employed in labour, and those
on which they were to rest and to attend to religious duties.
Stephen I., who was the pontiff in 253, endeavoured to preserve
discipline, and set forth regulations to remedy evils.
Accusatores vero et accusationes, quas sæculi leges non recipiunt, et
antecessores nostri prohibuerunt, et nos submovemus.
_We also reject these accusers and charges which the secular laws do not
receive, and which our predecessors have prohibited._
Soon after he specifies:
Accusator autem vestrorum nullus sit servus aut libertus.
_Let not your accuser be a slave or a freed person._
Thus, in the ancient discipline of the church, as in the secular
tribunals, the testimony of slaves was inadmissible.
In the year 305, a provincial council was held at Elvira, in the
southern part of Spain. The fifth canon of which is—
Si qua domina furore zeli accensa flagris verberaverit ancillam suam,
ita ut in tertium diem animam cum cruciatu effundat: eo quod incertum
sit, voluntate, an casu occiderit, si voluntate post septem annos; si
casu, post quinquennii tempora; acta legitima pænitentia, ad communionem
placuit admitti. Quod si infra tempora constituta fuerit infirmata,
accipiat communionem.
_If any mistress, carried away by great anger, shall have whipped her
maid-servant so that she shall within three days die in torture, as it
is uncertain whether it may happen by reason of her will or by accident,
it is decreed that she may be admitted to communion, having done lawful
penance, after seven years, if it happened by her will; if by accident,
after five years. But should she get sick within the time prescribed,
she may get communion._
Spanish ladies, at that period, had not yet so far yielded to the benign
influence of the gospel, and so far restrained their violence of temper,
as to show due mercy to their female slaves.
It may be well to observe a beneficial change, not only in public
opinion, but even in the court, by reason of the influence of the spirit
of Christianity; so that the pagan more than once reproved, by his
mercy, the professor of a better faith.
Theodoret (l. 9, de Græc. cur. aff.) informs us that Plato established
the moral and legal innocence of the master who slew his slave. Ulpian,
the Roman jurist (l. 2, de his quæ sunt sui vel alieni jur.) testifies
the power which—in imitation of the Greeks—the Roman masters had over
the lives of their slaves. The well-known sentence of Pollio upon the
unfortunate slave that broke a crystal vase at supper,—that he should be
cast as food to fish,—and the interference of Augustus, who was a guest
at that supper, give a strong exemplification of the tyranny then in
many instances indulged.
Antoninus Pius issued a constitution about the year 150, restraining
this power, and forbidding a master to put his own slave to death,
except in those cases where he would be permitted to slay the slave of
another. The cruelty of the Spaniards to their slaves, in the province
of Bœtica, gave occasion to the constitution; and we have a rescript of
Antoninus to Ælius Martianus, the proconsul of Bœtica, in the case of
the slave of Julius Sabinus, a Spaniard. In this the right of the
masters to their slaves is recognised, but the officer is directed to
hear their complaints of cruelty, starvation, and oppressive labour; to
protect them, and, if the complaints be founded in truth, not to allow
their return to the master; and to insist on the observance of the
constitution.
Caius (in l. 2, ad Cornel. de sicar.) states that the cause should be
proved in presence of judges before the master could pronounce his
sentence. Spartianus, the biographer, informs us that the Emperor
Adrian, the immediate predecessor of Antoninus, enacted a law forbidding
masters to kill their slaves, unless legally convicted. And Ulpian
relates that Adrian placed, during five years, in confinement
(relegatio) Umbricia, a lady of noble rank, because, for very slight
causes, she treated her female slaves most cruelly. But Constantine the
Great, about the year 320, enacted that no master should, under penalty
due to homicide, put his slave to death, and gave the jurisdiction to
the judges but if the slave died casually, after necessary chastisement,
the master was not accountable to any legal tribunal. (Const. in 1. i.;
C. Theod. de emendat. servorum.)
As Christianity made progress, the unnatural severity with which this
class of human beings was treated became relaxed, and as the civil law
ameliorated their condition, the canon law, by its spiritual efficacy,
came in with the aid of religion, to secure that, the followers of the
Saviour should give full force to the merciful provisions that were
introduced.
The principle which St. Augustine laid down was that observed. The state
was to enact the laws regulating this species of property; the church
was to plead for morality and to exhort to practise mercy.
About the same time, St. Peter, archbishop of Alexandria, drew up a
number of penitential canons, pointing out the manner of receiving,
treating, and reconciling the “lapsed,” or those who, through fear of
persecution, fell from the profession of the faith. Those canons were
held in high repute, and were generally adopted by the eastern bishops.
The sixth of those canons exhibits to us a device of weak Christians,
who desired to escape the trials of martyrdom, without being guilty of
actual apostasy. A person of this sort procured that one of his slaves
should personate him, and in his name should apostatize. The canon
prescribes for such a slave, who necessarily was a Christian and a slave
of a Christian, but one-third of the time required of a free person, in
a mitigated penance, taking into account the influence of fear of the
master, which, though it did not excuse, yet it diminished the guilt of
the apostasy.
The general council of Nice, in Bythinia, was held in the year 325, when
Constantine was emperor. In the first canon of this council, according
to the usual Greek and Latin copies, there is a provision for admitting
slaves, as well as free persons who have been injured by others, to holy
orders. In the Arabic copy, the condition is specially expressed, which
is not found in the Greek or Latin, but which had been previously well
known and universally established, “_that this should not take place
unless the slave had been manumitted by his master_.”
About this period, also, several of the _Gnostic_ and _Manichean_ errors
prevailed extensively in Asia Minor. The _fanatics_ denied the
lawfulness of _marriage_; they forbid _meat to be eaten_; they condemned
the _use of wine_; they praised extravagantly the monastic institutions,
and proclaimed the _obligation on all_ to enter into religious
societies; they decried the _lawfulness of slavery_; they denounced the
_slaveholders_ as violating equally the laws of _nature and of
religion_; they offered to _aid slaves_ to _desert their owners_; gave
them _exhortations_, _invitations_, _asylum_, and _protection_; and in
all things assumed to be more _holy_, more _perfect_, and more
_spiritual_ than other men.!!!
Osius, bishop of Cordova, whom Pope Sylvester sent as his legate into
the east, and who presided in the council of Nice, was present when
several bishops assembled in the city of Gangræ, Paphlagonia, to correct
those errors. Pope Symmachus declared, in a council held in Rome, about
the year 500, that Osius confirmed, by the authority of the pope, the
acts of this council. The decrees have been admitted into the body of
canon law, and have always been regarded as a rule of conduct in the
Catholic church. The third canon:
Si quis docet servum, pietatis prætextu, dominum contemnere, et a
ministerio recedere, et non cum benevolentia et omni honore domino suo
inservire. Anathema sit.
_If any one, under the pretence of piety, teaches a slave to despise his
master, and to withdraw from his service, and not to serve his master
with good-will and all respect. Let him be anathema._
_Let him be anathema_ is never appended to any decree which does not
contain the expression of unchangeable doctrine respecting belief or
morality, and indicates that the doctrine has been revealed by God. It
is precisely what St. Paul says in _Gal._ i. 8: “But though we, or an
angel from heaven, preach a gospel to you beside that which we have
preached to you, let him be anathema.” 9: “As we said before to you, so
I say now again: If any man preach to you a gospel besides that which
you have received; let him be anathema.” It is therefore manifest, that
although this council of Gangræ was a particular one, yet the universal
reception of this third canon, with its _anathema_, and its recognition
in the Roman council by Pope Symmachus, gives it the greatest authority
and in Labbe it is further entitled as approved by Leo IV., about the
year 850, _dist. 20, C. de libell_.
Several councils were held in Africa in the third and fourth centuries,
in Carthage, in Milevi, and in Hippo. About the year 422, the first of
Pope Celestine I., one was held under Aurelius, archbishop of Carthage,
and in which St. Augustine sat as bishop of Hippo and legate of Numidia.
A compilation was made of the canons of this and the preceding ones,
which was styled the “African Council.” The canon cxvi. of this
collection, taken into the body of the canon law, decrees that slaves
shall not be admitted as prosecutors, nor shall certain freedmen be so
admitted, except to complain for themselves; and for this, as well as
for the incapacity of several others there described, the public law is
cited, as well as the 7th and 8th councils of Carthage.
The great St. Basil was born in 329, and died in 379. His works, called
“Canonical,” contain a great number of those which were the rules of
discipline, not only for Asia Minor, but for the vast regions in its
vicinity. The fortieth canon regards the marriages of female slaves. In
this he mentions a discipline which was not general, but was peculiar to
the north-eastern provinces of the church, requiring the consent of the
master to the validity of the marriage-contract of a female slave: this
was not required in other places, as is abundantly testified by several
documents.
The forty-second canon treats in like manner of the marriages of
children without their parents’ consent, and generally of those of all
slaves without the consent of the owner.
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