We have heretofore, in our fifth lesson, noticed the doctrine of the
church, that the civil power had the prerogative of making laws in
regard to slavery; although, at that time, paganism may be said to have
governed the world. And while we travel rapidly through the seventh
century, finding the Roman Empire, the mistress of the world, now
tottering to decay; the Lombards firmly established in Italy; the Franks
in Gaul; the Goths in Spain; the Suevi in Portugal; and all Germany
filled by various hordes, governed by their petty chieftains, just now
showing some symptoms of civilization, and Christianity in the
ascendant; yet we find this doctrine of the church unchanged.
The church may now be considered strong; and although the civil power is
regarded as the legitimate legislative authority, yet, in no instance,
are the laws found to run counter to the doctrines of the church on this
subject.
In the precept of King Clotaire II. for endowing the abbey of Corbey,
after the grant of the parcels of land therein recited, he adds, “unà
cum terris, domibus, mancipiis, ædificiis, vineis, silvis, pratis,
pascuis, farinariis, et cunctis appenditiis,” &c.—_Together with the
lands, houses, slaves, buildings, vineyards, woods, meadows, pastures,
granaries, and all appendages._
And the abbey not only possessed the slaves as property, but by the same
precept had civil jurisdiction over all its territory and all persons
and things thereon, to the exclusion of all other judges.
The fourth council of Toledo, in 633, in its fifty-ninth canon, by the
authority of King Sisenand and his nobles in Spain, restored to liberty
any slaves whom the Jews should circumcise, and in the sixty-sixth
canon, by the same authority, Jews were thenceforth rendered incapable
of holding Christian slaves. The seventieth and the seventy-first canons
regulated the process regarding the freed persons and colonists of the
church, and the latter affixed a penalty of reduction to slavery for
neglect of formal observances useful to preserve the evidence of title
for the colonist. The seventy-second canon places the freed persons,
whether wholly manumitted or only conditioned, when settled under
patronage of the church, under the protection of the clergy.
The seventy-fourth allows the church to manumit worthy slaves belonging
to herself, so that they may be ordained priests or deacons, but still
keeps the property they may acquire, as belonging to the church which
manumitted them, and restricts them even in their capacity as witnesses
in several instances; and should they violate this condition, declares
them suspended.
In the year 650, which was the sixth of King Clovis II., a council was
held at Chalons. The canon begins with the announcement—
Pietatis est maximæ et religionis intuitus, ut captivitatis vinculum
omnino à Christianis redimatur. Unde sancta synodus noscitur censuisse,
ut nullus mancipium extra fines vel terminos qui ad regnum domini
Clodovei regis pertinent, penitus, debeat venumdare; ne, quod absit, per
tale commercium aut captivitatis vinculo, vel, quod pejus est, Judaicâ
servitute mancipia Christiana teneantur implicita.
“It is a work of the greatest piety, and the intent of religion, that
the bond of captivity should be entirely redeemed from Christians.
Whence it is known to be the opinion of the holy synod, that no one
ought, at all, to sell a slave beyond the dominions of our lord Clovis
the king; lest, which God forbid, Christian slaves should be kept
entangled in the chains of captivity, or what is worse, under Jewish
bondage.”
In the tenth council of Toledo, celebrated in the year 656, in the reign
of Receswind, king of the Goths, the seventh chapter is a bitter
complaint of the practice, which still prevailed among Christians, of
selling Christian slaves to the Jews, to the subversion of their faith
or their grievous oppression.
In the year 666, a council was held in Merida, in Spain. The eighteenth
canon of which allows that, of the slaves belonging to the church, some
may be ordained minor clerks, who shall serve the priests as their
masters with due fidelity, receiving only food and raiment.
The twentieth chapter complains of many irregularities in the mode of
making freedmen for the service of the church, regulates the mode of
making them, and provides for the preservation of the evidence of their
obligation and the security of their service.
The twenty-first regulates the extent to which a bishop shall be allowed
to grant gifts to his friends, the slaves, the freedmen, or others.
The thirteenth council of Toledo was held in the year 683, in the reign
of Ervigius, the successor of Wamba. There was an old law of the Goths,
found in lib. v. tit. vii., and repeated in other forms in lib. x. and
xi., regulating that no freedman should do an injury or an unkindness to
his master, and authorizing the master who had suffered, to bring such
offender back again to his state of slavery. And in lib. xvii. the
freedman, and his progeny for ever, were prohibited from contracting
marriage with the family of their patron or behaving with insolence to
them. King Ervigius was reminded by many of his nobles that former
kings, in derogation of this law, had given employments about the palace
to slaves and to freedmen, and even sustained them in giving offence to
their masters, had even sometimes ordered them so to do, and protected
them; for this the nobles sought redress. The king called upon the
council to unite with him in putting a stop to this indignity. And in
the sixth canon we have the detail of the evils set forth, and also the
enactment, in concurrence with the king, that thenceforward it shall be
unlawful to give any employment whatever about the palace, or in the
concerns of the crown, to any slave or freedman.
The third council of Saragossa was celebrated in the year 691, in the
reign of Egica, king of the Goths.
In Toledo, it had been enacted, that any freedman of the church, who did
not comply with certain regulations, should lose his freedom and be
reduced to slavery. One of the conditions was, that any person
pretending to have been manumitted, or claiming as the descendant of a
freedman, should, upon the death of the bishop, exhibit his papers to
the successor of the deceased, within a year, or, upon his neglect,
should be declared a slave. The object of this was to discern those who
were partially free from the perfect slave, and to cause the former to
preserve their muniments.
The fathers of Saragossa, however, discovered that some of the bishops,
studying their own gain, had been too rigid in enforcing this law, and
thereby reduced several negligent or ignorant persons to bondage; in
order then to do justice, they enacted in their fourth chapter, that the
year within which the documents should be exhibited should not commence
to run until after the new bishop, subsequently to his institution,
should have given sufficient notice to those claiming to be put in
partial service, to produce their papers.
The sixteenth council of Toledo was held in the year 693. The fifth
chapter of the acts, determining when a priest may hold two churches,
has the following passage:
Ut ecclesia, quæ usque ad decem habuerit mancipia, super se habeat
sacerdotem, quæ vero minus decem mancipia habuerit aliis conjungatur
ecclesiis.
“That the church which shall have as many as ten slaves shall have one
priest over it, but that one which shall have less than ten slaves shall
be united to other churches.”
In the tenth chapter of the acts of the same council, not only was
excommunication pronounced against all who should be guilty of high
treason against Egica, the king of the Gothic nation, but the bishops
and clergy united with the nobles (_palatii senioribus_) and the popular
representatives in condemning traitors and their progeny to perpetual
slavery, (_fisci viribus sub perpetuâ servitute maneant religati_.)
The laws of Ina, king of the West Saxons, about the year 692, were made
for the regulation of religion:
Servus, si quid operis patrârit die Dominico ex præcepto domini sui,
liber esto, dominus triginta solidos dependito. Verum si id operis
injussu domini sui aggressus fuerit, verberibus cæditor, aut saltem
virgarum metum precio redimito. Liber, si die hoc operetur injussu
domini sui, aut servituti addicitor, aut sexaginta solidos dependito.
Sacerdos, si in hanc partem deliquerit, pœna in duplum augeator.
“If a slave shall do any work on the Lord’s day, by order of his master,
let him become free, and let the master pay thirty shillings, (another
copy adds, ‘ad witam,’ as a fine.) But, if he went to this work without
his master’s command, let him be cut with whips, (another copy has
‘corium perdat,’ let him lose his skin,) or at least, let him redeem the
fear of the scourge by a price. A freeman, if on this day he shall work
without the order of his lord, let him be reduced to slavery, or pay
sixty shillings. Should a priest be delinquent in this respect, his
penalty shall be increased to double.”
In the eighth, the division of the weregild for the killing of a
stranger:
Wallus censum pendens annuum, 120 solidorum æstimatur, filius ejus 100.
Servus, alias 60, alias 50, solidis valere putatur. Wallus virgarum
metum 12 solidis redimito. Wallus quinque terræ hydas possidens 600
solidis æstimandus est.
“A stranger paying a yearly rent is to be rated at 120 shillings, his
son at 100. A slave at either 50 or 60, is a fair estimation. Let a
stranger redeem his fear of whipping for 12 shillings. A stranger being
in possession of five hydes of land is to be valued at 600 shillings.”
The seventeenth council of Toledo was celebrated in 694, in the reign of
Egica. It was enacted—
Si quis servum proprium sine conscientiâ judicis occiderit,
excommunicatione biennii sanguinis se mundabit.
“If any one shall put his own slave to death, without the knowledge of
the judge, he shall cleanse himself the blood by an excommunication of
two years.”
In the council of Berghamstead, near Canterbury, held in 697, under
Withred, king of Kent, at which Gebmund, bishop of Rochester, was
present, and where a sort of parliament also assembled and gave a civil
sanction to the temporal enactments and penalties of the canons, several
regulations were made concerning slaves. The Saxon MS. is the adoption
of the canons into the common law of Canterbury, anti is entitled “_The
Judgments of Withred_.”
The ninth canon in this collection is the following:
Si quis servum suum ad altare manumiserit, liber esto, et habilis sit ad
gaudendum hereditate et wirigildo, et fas sit ei ubi volet sine limite
versari.
“If any person shall manumit his servant at the altar, let him be free,
and capable of enjoying inheritance and weregild, and let it be lawful
for him to dwell where he pleases without limit.”
The tenth canon is:
Si in vesperâ præcedente diem solis postquam sol occubuit, aut in
vesperâ præcedente diem lunæ post occasum solis, servus ex mandato
domini sui opus aliquod servile egerit, dominus factum octoginta solidis
luito.
“If on the evening preceding Sunday, after the sun has set, or on the
evening preceding Monday, after the setting of the sun, a slave shall do
any servile work by command of his master, let the master compensate the
deed by eighty shillings.”
The eleventh:
Si servus hisce diebus itineraverit, domino pendat sex solidos, aut
flagello cædatur.
“If a servant shall have journeyed on these days, let him pay six
shillings to his master, or be cut with a whip.”
The thirteenth:
Si paganus uxore nesciâ diabolo quid obtulerit, omnibus fortunis suis
plectatur et collistrigio. Sin et ambo pariter itidem fecerint, omnium
bonorum suorum amissione ipsa etiam luat et collistrigio.
“If a villain, without the knowledge of his wife, shall have offered any
thing to the devil, let him be punished by the loss of all his fortune
and by the pillory. And if both did so together, let her also lose all
her goods and be punished by the pillory.”
The English _villain_ was the _colonist_ of the European continent, and
in the Speculum Saxonicum, lib. i. art. 3, his imperfect liberty is
compared with the freeman. Also in Du Cange, Paganus, Pagenses, &c.
The fourteenth:
Si servus diabolo offerat, sex dependat solidos, aut flagro vapulet.
“If a slave offers to the devil, let him pay six shillings, or be
whipped.”
The fifteenth:
Si quis servo carnem in jejunio dederit comedendam, servus liber exeat.
“If any one shall give his slave flesh-meat to eat on a fast-day, let
the slave go out free.”
The sixteenth:
Si servus ex sponte suâ eam ederit, aut sex solidis aut flagello.
“If the slave shall eat it of his own motion, let the penalty be either
six shillings or a whipping.”
After regulating the mode of declaration of swearing and of
compurgation, for the king, the bishop, the abbot, the priest, the
deacon, the cleric, the stranger, and the king’s thane, the twenty-first
canon enacts—
Paganus cum quatuor compurgatoribus, capite suo ad altare inclinato,
semet eximat.
“Let the villain deliver himself with four compurgators, with his head
bowed down to the altar.”
The twenty-third:
Si quis Dei mancipium in conventu suo accusaverit, dominus ejus eum
simplici suo juramento purgabit, si eucharistiam susceperit. Ad
eucharistiam autem si nusquam venerit, habeat in juramento fidejussorem
bonum, vel solvat, vel se tradat flagellandum.
“If any person shall accuse a slave of God in his convent, his lord
shall purge him with a simple oath, if he shall have received the
eucharist. But if he has never come to the eucharist, let him in his
oath have a good surety to answer, or let him pay or give himself up to
be whipped.”
The slave of God was one belonging to a monastery, of whom there appear
to have been a good number in England, at that period, as well as on the
continent. The previous canon had legislated for the bishop’s dependants
as distinguished from the slave of the monastery.
The twenty-fourth canon is:
Si servus viri popularis servum viri ecclesiastici accusaverit, vel
servus ecclesiastici servum viri popularis, dominus ejus singulari suo
juramento eum expurgabit.
“If the slave of a lay person shall accuse the slave of a clergyman, or
if the slave of a clergyman shall accuse the slave of a layman, let his
master purge him by his single oath.”
The twenty-seventh regulated the punishment of the person who permitted
a thievish slave to escape, and, respecting the slave himself, concluded
thus:
Si quis eum occiderit, domino ejus dimidium pendito.
“If any one shall slay him, let him pay to his master one-half.”
In Germany, however, as yet, in most places paganism prevailed, and
human sacrifices were offered. St. Boniface had been sent by the Holy
See to endeavour to reclaim to religion and to civilization the nations
or tribes that composed this undefined extent of territory. We find in a
letter of Pope Gregory III., written in answer to his request for
special instructions, about the year 735, the following paragraph:
Hæc quoque inter alia crimina agi in partibus illis dixisti, quod quidam
ex fidelibus ad immolandum paganis sua venumdent mancipia. Quod ut
magnopere corrigere debeas, frater, commonemus, nec sinas fieri ultra:
scelus est enim et impietas. Eis ergo qui hæc perpetraverunt, similem
homicidæ indices pœnitentiam.
“You have said that, among other crimes, this was done in those parts,
that some of the faithful sold their slaves to pagans to be immolated.
Which you should use all your power to correct, nor allow it to be done
any more: for it is wickedness and impiety. Impose then upon its
perpetrators the same penance as for homicide.”
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