Inverecundâ arte defendetur, si hi ad conditionem vel originem
reposcuntur, quibus tempore famis, cum in mortem penuria cogerentur,
opitulari non potuit dominus aut patronus.
_It is forbidden as a shameless trick, that an effort should be made to
regain to their condition or original state, those whom the master, or
patron could not aid, when, in a period of famine, they were pressed
nearly to death by want._
This exhibits the obligation on the patron of the person _under
condition_, and on the master of the slave, to support them, and the
destruction of their title by the neglect of their duty.
Muratori observes, that in process of time, the special agreements and
particular enactments regarding the _conditions_, gave such a variety as
baffled all attempts at classification and precision.
At a much earlier period, slaves had become a drug in the Italian
market. When, about the year 405, Rhadagasius, the Goth, was leading
upwards of three hundred thousand of his barbarians into Italy, the
Emperor Honorius ordered the slaves to be armed for the defence of the
country, by which arming they generally obtained their freedom;
Stilichon, the consul, slew nearly one hundred and fifty thousand of the
invaders in the vicinity of Florence, and made prisoners of the
remainder, who were sold as slaves at the low price of one piece of gold
for each. Jacobs estimates the _aureus_ at eleven shillings. It is
supposed to have contained about 70 grains of gold, which will make the
price of a slave, at that time, about $2.60. But Wilkins (Leges Saxon.)
informs us that, in England, about the year 1000, the price of a slave
was £2 16_s._ 3_d._ sterling, not quite the value of two horses. But, of
these slaves of Stilichon, numbers died within the year, so that
Baronius relates (Annals, A.D. 406) that the purchasers had to pay more
for their burial than for their bodies; according to the remarks of
Orosius, in this state of the market, it was easy for the slave to
procure that he should be held _at a condition_, and thenceforth the
number under condition greatly increased, and in process of time became
more numerous than those in absolute slavery.
In the year 541, the fourth council of Orleans was celebrated, in the
thirtieth year of King Childebert. The ninth canon:—Ut episcopus, qui de
facultate propria ecclesiæ nihil relinquit, de ecclesiæ facultate si
quid aliter quam canones eloquuntur obligaverit, vendiderit aut
distraxerit, ad ecclesiam revocetur, (ab ecclesia, _in other editions_.)
Sane si de servis ecclesiæ libertos fecit numero competenti, in
ingenuitate permaneant, ita ut ab officio ecclesiæ non recedant.
Be it enacted, _That a bishop who has left none of his private property
to the church shall not dispose of any of the church property, otherwise
than as the canons point out. Should he bind or sell or separate any
thing otherwise, let it be recalled for the church. But if, indeed, he
has made freemen of slaves of the church to a reasonable number, let
them continue in their freedom, but with the obligation of not departing
from the duty of the church_.