[215] Gratian, op. cit. ii. 12. 2. 54.
[216] Concilium Agathense, A.D. 506, can. 56 (Labbe-Mansi, op. cit. viii. 334).
[217] Hallam, View of the State of Europe during the Middle Ages (ed. 1837), i. 221.
[218] Concilium Toletanum IV. A.D. 633, can. 67 (Labbe-Mansi, op. cit. x. 635).
[219] Gratian, op. cit. ii. 12. 2. 58. Potgiesser, op. cit. iv. 2. 4, p. 673.
[220] Du Cange, op. cit. iv. 1286. Potgiesser, op. cit. i. 1. 6 sq., p. 5 sqq. Muratori, op. cit. i. 234 sqq. Robertson, op. cit. i. 326.
[221] Concilium Toletanum IX. A.D. 655, can. 10 (Labbe-Mansi, op. cit. xi. 29).
The disappearance of mediæval slavery has further, to some extent, been attributed to the efforts of kings to weaken the power of the nobles.[222] Thus Louis X. and Philip the Long of France issued ordinances declaring that, as all men were by nature free, and as their kingdom was called the kingdom of the Franks, they would have the fact to correspond with the name, and emancipated all persons in the royal domains upon paying a just compensation, as an example for other lords to follow.[223] Muratori believes that in Italy the wars during the twelfth and following centuries contributed more than anything else to the decline of slavery, as there was a need of soldiers and soldiers must be freemen.[224] According to others the disappearance of slavery was largely effected by the great famines and epidemics with which Europe was visited during the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth centuries.[225] The number of slaves was also considerably reduced by the ancient usage of enslaving prisoners of war being replaced by the more humane practice of accepting ransom for them, which became the general rule in the later part of the Middle Ages, at least in the case of Christian captives.[226] But it seems that the chief cause of the extinction of slavery in Europe was its transformation into serfdom.
[222] Robertson, op. cit. i. 47 sq. Millar, op. cit. p. 276 sqq.
[223] Decrusy, Isambert, and Jourdan, Recueil général des anciennes lois françaises, iii. 102 sqq.