We present a series of records and documents which elucidate the
practice and doctrine of the church in regard to slavery, as we find it
in that age.
These records are mostly extracts from Bishop England’s Letters, and
collated by him with accuracy. Some few, from Bower, Bede, Lingard, and
others, will be noticed in their place.
It should be remembered that, in all cases where the contrary is not
explicitly announced, the slave is of the same colour and race as the
master. At this era of the world, slaves were too common, and their
value too little, to warrant the expense of a distant importation. The
negro slave, from his exhibiting an extreme variety of the human
species, was regarded more as an article of curiosity and pride than
usefulness; and therefore was seldom or never found in Europe, except
near the royal palaces, or in the trains of emperors.
As early as the days of Polycarp and St. Ignatius, who were disciples of
the apostles, Christians had, from motives of mercy, charity, and
affection, manumitted many of their slaves in presence of the bishops,
and this was more or less extensively practised through the succeeding
period. In several churches, it was agreed that if a slave became a
Christian, he should be manumitted on receiving baptism. In Rome, the
slave was frequently manumitted by the form called _vindicta_, with the
prætor’s rod. Constantine, in the year 317, Sozomen relates, lib. i. c.
9, transferred this authority to the bishops, who were empowered to use
the rod in the church, and have the manumission testified in the
presence of the congregation. A rescript of that emperor to this effect
is found in the Theodosian code, 1. i. c. _De his qui in eccl.
manumitt_. The master, who consented to manumit the slave, presented him
to the bishop, in presence of the congregation, and the bishop
pronounced him free, and became the guardian of his freedom. The
rescript was directed to Protogenas, bishop of Sardica, and was in the
consulship of Sabinus and Ruffinus.
In book ii. of the same code, is a rescript to Osius, bishop of Cordova,
in which the emperor empowers the bishops to grant the privilege of
Roman citizenship to such freedmen as they may judge worthy.
In the consulship of Crispus and Constantine, a grant was given to the
clergy of manumitting their own slaves when they pleased, by any form
they should think proper. About a century later, St. Augustine, bishop
of Hippo, informs us (_Sermo. de diversis_, 50) that this form was
established in Africa. “The deacon of Hippo is a poor man: he has
nothing to give to any person: but, before he was a clergyman, he, by
the fruit of his labour and industry, bought some little servants, and
is to-day, by the episcopal act, about to manumit them in your sight.”
This same bishop writes, (_Enarrat in Ps._ cxxiv.,) “Christ does not
wish to make you proud while you walk in this journey, that is, while
you are in this life. Has it happened that you have been made a
Christian, and you have a man as your master: you have not been made a
Christian that you may scorn to serve. When, therefore, by the command
of Christ you are the servant of a man, your service is not to him, but
to the one that gave you the command to serve. And he says, Hear your
masters, according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, and in the
simplicity of your hearts, not as eye-servants, as if pleasing men, but,
as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God, from your hearts, with
a good will. Behold, he did not liberate you from being servants, but he
made those who were bad servants to be good servants. Oh, how much do
the rich owe to Christ who has thus set order in their houses! So, if
there be in his family a faithless slave, and Christ convert him, he
does not say to him, Leave your master, because you have now known him
who is the true Master! Perhaps this master of yours is impious and
unjust, and that you are faithful and just; it is unbecoming that the
just and faithful should serve the unjust and the infidel: this is not
what he said; but, let him rather serve.” This great doctor of the
church continues at considerable length to show how Christ, by his own
example, exhorts the servants to fidelity and obedience to their masters
in every thing, save what is contrary to God’s service. Subsequently, he
passes to the end of time, and the opening of eternity, and shows many
good, obedient, and afflicted servants mingled with good masters among
the elect, and bad, faithless, and stubborn servants, with cruel
masters, cast among the reprobates.
In his _book_ i., _on the Sermon of Christ on the Mount_, he dwells upon
the duty of Christian masters to their slaves. They are not to regard
them as mere property, but to treat them as human beings having immortal
souls, for which Christ died.
Thus we perceive that, though from the encouragement of manumission and
the spirit of Christianity, the number of slaves had been greatly
reduced and their situation greatly improved, still the principles were
recognised of the moral and religious legality of holding slave
property, and of requiring that they should perform a reasonable
service.
The instances of voluntary slavery, such as that of St. Paulinus, were
not rare. It is related, that having bestowed all that he could raise,
to ransom prisoners taken by the barbarians who overran the country;
upon the application of a poor widow whose son was held in captivity, he
sold himself, to procure the means of her son’s release. His good
conduct procured the affection of his master, and subsequently his
emancipation. Thus slavery lost some of its degrading character. This,
together with the confusion arising from the turbulence accompanying the
invasions, caused a relaxation of discipline: to remedy some of the
abuses, Pope Leo issued several letters. The following is an extract
from the first of them: it has been taken into the body of the canon
law. _Dist. 5, Admittuntur_:—
“Admittuntur passim ad ordinem sacrum, quibus nulla natalium, nulla
morum dignitas suffragatur: et qui a dominis suis libertatem consequi
minime potuerunt, ad fastigium sacerdotii, tanquam servilis vilitas hunc
honorem jure capiat, provehuntur, et probari Deo se posse creditur, qui
domino suo necdum probare se potuit. Duplex itaque in hac parte reatus
est, quod et sacrum mysterium (ministerium) talis consortii vilitate
polluitur, et dominorum, quantum ad illicitæ usurpationis temeritatem
pertinet, jura solvuntur. Ab his itaque, fratres carissimi, omnes
provinciæ vestræ abstineant sacerdotes: et non tantum ab his, sed ab
illis etiam, qui aut originali aut alicui conditioni obligati sunt,
volumus temperari: nisi forte corum petitio aut voluntas accesserit, qui
aliquid sibi in eos vindicant potestatis. Debet enim esse immunis ab
aliis, qui divinæ militiæ fuerit aggregandus; ut a castris Dominicis,
quibus nomen ejus adscribitur, nullis necessitatis vinculis
abstrahatur.”
_Persons who have not the qualifications of birth or conduct, are
everywhere admitted to holy orders; and they who could not procure
freedom from their masters are elevated to the rank of the priesthood;
as if the lowliness of slavery could rightfully claim this honour: and,
as if he who could not procure the approbation of even his master, could
procure that of God. There is, therefore, in this a double criminality:
for the holy ministry is polluted by the meanness of this fellowship,
and so far as regards the rashness of this unlawful usurpation, the
rights of the masters are infringed. Wherefore, dearest brethren, let
all the priests of your province keep aloof from these: and not only
from these, but also, we desire they should abstain from those who are
under bond, by origin or any condition, except perchance upon the
petition or consent of the persons who have them in their power in any
way. For he who is to be aggregated to the divine warfare, ought to be
exempt from other obligations: so that he may not by any bond of
necessity be drawn away from that camp of the Lord for which his name
has been enrolled._
Prosper, lib. 2 _de vitâ contemplat._ c. 3, and many other writers of
this century, treat of the relative duties of the Christian master and
his Christian slave. The zeal and charity of several holy men led them
to make extraordinary sacrifices during this period, to redeem the
captives from the barbarians: besides the remarkable instance of
Paulinus, we have the ardent and persevering charity of Exuperius,
bishop of Toulouse, who sold the plate belonging to the church, and used
glass for the chalice, that he might be able by every species of economy
to procure liberty for the enslaved.
Nor was this a solitary instance. About the year 513, Pope Symmachus
called a national council, by which, among other enactments, he
established the rule that under no circumstances, could the church
property be alienated. See Bower, vol. ii. p. 277.
About the year 535, Cæsarius, primate of Arles, applied to Pope Agapetus
for means to relieve the poor Christians in Gaul. But, at that time, the
church being quite destitute of money, the pope excused himself, and
quoted the decree of Symmachus. The Arians, and some others, hence
inculcated the doctrine that the alienation of church property, under
any circumstances, was sacrilege. The laws of the empire also forbid
such alienation, but with the proviso, “except there was no other means
by which the poor could be relieved in time of famine, nor the captives
be redeemed from slavery.” Such was the practice among the most pious of
the age.
St. Ambrose did not scruple to melt down the communion-plate of the
church of Milan to redeem some captives, who otherwise must have
continued in slavery. The Arians charged him with sacrilege: in answer
to which he wrote his Apology, which has reached this late day, as the
rules and reasons of the church in such cases. He says—“Is it not better
that the plate should be melted by the bishop to maintain the poor, when
they can be maintained by no other means, than that it should become the
spoil and plunder of a sacrilegious enemy? Will not the Lord thus
expostulate with us, Why did you suffer so many helpless persons to die
with hunger, when you had gold to relieve and support them? Why were so
many captives carried away and sold without ransom? Why were so many
suffered to be slain by the enemy? It would have been better to have
preserved the vessels of living men than lifeless metals. To this, what
answer can be returned? Should one say, I was afraid that the temple of
God should want its ornaments: Christ would answer, My sacraments
require no gold, nor do they please me more for being ministered in
gold, as they are not to be bought with gold. The ornament of my
sacrament is the redemption of captives; and those alone are precious
vessels that redeem souls from death.”
The saint concludes that though it would be highly criminal for a man to
convert the sacred vessels to his own private use, yet it is so far from
being a crime, that he looks upon it as an obligation incumbent on him
and his brethren to prefer the living temples of God to the unnecessary
ornaments of the material edifices. See Ambrose de Offic. lib. ii. cap.
28; and such was the doctrine of St. Austin, see Possid. Vit. Aug. caput
24; of Acacius of Amida, see Socrat. lib. vii. c. 24; of Deigratias of
Carthage, see Vict. de Persec. Vandal, lib. i.; of Cyril of Jerusalem,
see Theodoret, lib. ii. c. 27; yea all, who have touched on the subject,
have subscribed to the doctrine of St. Ambrose. Even the Emperor
Justinian, in his law against sacrilege, forbids the church plate,
vestments, or any other gifts, to be sold, or pawned; but adds, “except
in case of captivity or famine, the lives and souls of men being
preferable to any vessels or vestments whatever.” See Codex Just. lib.
i. tit. 2. de Sacr. Eccles. leg. 21; also see Bower’s Life of Agapetus,
p. 354.
It will be readily conceived that the barbarians, in the earlier ages of
the Christian church, treated their slaves with cruelty, inconsistent
with the spirit of the new religion; and, upon their adoption of the
Christian creed, they sometimes ran into an opposite extreme, contrary
to the rules of the church. In both cases the church used her authority,
and, says Bishop England, upon their embrace of Christianity, “slavery
began to assume a variety of mitigated forms among them,” which will, in
some degree, be developed as we proceed with the history of canonical
legislation on that subject.
The rules of the Christian church are evidently founded upon the laws of
God, as delivered to Moses: “And if a man smite his servant, or his
maid, with a rod, and he die under his hand, he shall be surely
punished. Notwithstanding, if he continue a day or two, he shall not be
punished: for he is his money.”
“If a man smite the eye of his servant, or the eye of his maid, that it
perish, he shall let him go free for his eye’s sake. And if he smite his
man-servant’s tooth, or his maid-servant’s tooth, he shall let him go
for his tooth’s sake.” _Exod._ xxi. 20, 21, 26, 27. And if a man took
his female slave to wife, and became displeased with her * * * she
should be free. See _Deut._ xxi. 10–15. But fornication in a female
slave was not punished by death, but by stripes. See _Lev._ xix. 20–23.
Neither the laws of Moses, nor indeed of any civilized people, have ever
permitted unusual or cruel punishments to be inflicted on the slave.
Civilization, as well as Judaism, seems to have inculcated, “Be not
excessive toward any; and without discretion do nothing. If thou have a
servant, let him be unto thee as thyself, because thou hast bought him
with a price.” _Eccl._ xxxiii. 29.
Among heathen nations, their laws were to the effect, that when the
slave, sick or wounded, was neglected, or abandoned to his fate by his
master; yet, if he recovered, the master should lose his property in
such slave, and the slave should be free; and such neglect was often
otherwise made punishable. The Roman law sanctioned this doctrine: “Si
verberatus fuerit _servus_ non mortifere, negligentia autem perierit, de
vulnerato actio erit, non de occiso.” See Lex Aquillia. And so in
ancient France, see Fœdere, vol. iii. p. 290: _If negligence or bad
treatment towards the slave was proved in the master, the slave was
declared free._
At this day, in all civilized countries, the civil law forbids unusual
and cruel punishment of slaves, and also a wanton and careless
negligence of them, either in sickness or health. Thus the law punishes
the master for his neglect to govern his slaves, by making him
responsible for their bad conduct, and the damage their want of proper
government may occasion others.
In the year 494, Pope Gelesius admonished the bishops, at their
ordinations, that—
“Ne unquam ordinationes præsumat illicitas; ne * * * curæ aut cuilibet
conditioni obnoxium notatumque ad sacros ordines permittat accedere.”
_That he should never presume to hold unlawful ordinations; that he
should not allow to holy orders * * * any person bound to the service of
the court, or liable to bond for his condition_ (slavery) _or marked
thereto_.
In the year 506, a council was held at Agdle, the sixty-second canon of
which is—
“Si quis servum proprium sine conscientiâ, judicis occiderit,
excommunicatione vel pœnitentia biennii reatum sanguinis emendabit.”
_If any one shall put his own servant to death, without the knowledge of
the judge, let him make compensation for the guilt of blood by
excommunication or two years’ penance._
Another council was held eleven years later. Many of the canons of this
synod are transcripts of those of Agdle. The thirty-fourth is:
“Si quis servum proprium sine conscientiâ, judicis occiderit,
excommunicatione biennii effusionem sanguinis expiabit.”
_If any one shall slay his own servant without the knowledge of the
judge, let him expiate the shedding of blood by an excommunication of
two years._
This was nearly two hundred years after the law of Constantine
forbidding this exercise of power by the master.
The third council of Orleans was held in the year 538.
The thirteenth canon regulates, that if Christian slaves shall be
possessed by Jews, and these latter require them to do any thing
forbidden by the Christian religion, or if the Jews shall seize upon any
of their servants to whip or punish them for those things that have been
declared to be excusable or forgiven, and those slaves fly to the church
for protection, they are not to be given up, unless there be given and
received a just and sufficient sum to warrant their protection.
The canon xxvi. gives a specimen of the early feudalism nearly similar
to the subsequent villain service.
“Ut nullus servilibus colonariisque conditionibus obligatus, juxta
statuta sedis apostolicæ, ad honores ecclesiasticos admittatur; nisi
prius aut testamento, aut per tabulas legitime constiterit absolutum.
Quod si quis episcoporum, ejus qui ordinatur conditionem sciens,
transgredi per ordinationem inhibitam fortasse voluerit, anni spatio
missas facere non præsumat.”
_Let no one held under servile or colonizing conditions be admitted to
church honours, in violation of the statutes of the Apostolic see;
unless it be evident that he has been previously absolved therefrom by
will or by deed. And if any bishop, being aware of such condition of the
person so ordained, shall wilfully transgress by making such unlawful
ordination, let him not presume to celebrate mass for the space of a
year._
The colonial condition was in its origin different from the mere
servile. The _mancipium_ or _manu captum_ was the _servus_ or slave made
in war: the _colonus_, or husbandman, though, at the period at which we
are arrived, he frequently was in as abject a condition, yet was so by a
different process. St. Augustine, in cap. i. lib. x. _De Civitate Dei_,
tells us, “Coloni _dicuntur_, qui conditionem debebant genitali solo
propter agriculturam sub dominio possessorum.” They are called
_colonists who owe their condition to their native land, under the
dominion of its possessors_.
The following history of various modes by which they became servants, is
taken from the work _De Gubernat. Dei_, lib. v., by the good and erudite
Salvianus, a priest, who died at Marseilles, about the year 484.
Nonnulli eorum de quibus loquimur, * * * cum domicilia atque agellos
suos pervasionibus perdunt, aut fatigati ab exactoribus deserunt, quia
tenere non possunt, fundos majorum expetunt, et coloni divitum fiunt.
Aut sicut solent hi qui hostium terrore compulsi, ad castella se
conferunt, aut qui perdito ingenuæ incolumitatis statu ad asylum aliquod
desperatione confugiunt: ita et isti qui habere amplius vel sedem vel
dignitatem suorum natalium non queunt, jugo se inquilinæ abjectionis
addicunt: in hanc necessitatem redacti, ut exactores non facultatis
tantum, set etiam conditionis suæ, atque exultantes non a rebus tantum
suis, sed etiam a seipsis, ac perdentes secum omnia sua, et rerum
proprietate careant, et jus libertatis amittant. * * * Illud gravius et
acerbius, quod additur huic malo servilius malum. Nam suscipiuntur
advenæ, fiunt præjudicio habitationis indigenæ, et quos suscipiunt ut
extraneos et alienos, incipiunt habere quasi proprios: quos esse constat
ingenuos, vertunt in servos.
_Some of those, when they lose their dwellings and their little fields
by invasion, or leave them, being worried by exactions, as they can no
longer hold them, seek the grounds of the larger proprietors, and become
the colonists of the wealthy. Or, as is usual with those who are driven
off by the fear of enemies, and take refuge in the castles, or who,
having lost their state of safe freedom, fly to some asylum in despair:
so they who can no longer have the place or the dignity derived from
their birth, subject themselves to the abject yoke of the sojourner’s
lot; reduced to such necessity, that they are stripped not only of their
property, but also of their rank; going into exile not only from what
belongs to them but from their very selves, and with themselves losing
all that they had, they are bereft of any property in things and lose
the very right of liberty. * * * A more degrading injury is added to
this evil. For they are received as strangers, they become inhabitants
bereft of the rights of inhabitants; they who receive them as foreigners
and aliens begin to treat them as property, and change into slaves those
who, evidently, were free._
In this picture of the colonist, we may find the outline of the villain
of a later age; and in the several enactments and regulations of
succeeding legislators and councils, we shall discover the changes which
servitude underwent previous to its total extinction in Europe.
Flodoardin, c. 28, History of the church of Rheims, gives us the will of
St. Remi, its bishop, who baptized Clovis, upon his conversion in 496,
and who was still living in the year 550. This document grants freedom
to some of the colonists belonging to that church and retains others in
service.
Du Cange says (Art. _Colonus_) that though in several instances the
condition of the colonists was as abject as that of slaves, yet
generally they were in a better position. _Erant igitur coloni mediæ
conditionis inter ingenuos seu liberos et servos._
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