[70] Lecky, European Morals, chap. ii., “The Pagan Empire.”
[71] Slavery was not authoritatively condemned until the year of grace 1807. Lecky characterizes the action of Christian England here in the following eloquent words: “The unwearied, unostentatious, and inglorious crusade of England against slavery may probably be regarded as among the three or four perfectly virtuous acts recorded in the history of nations” (History of Morals, chap. i.). And even after 1807 it lived on an acknowledged and recognized institute of several countries. The terrible war which led to the slave abolition in the United States is still unforgotten even by this generation.
[72] Ozanam estimates the numbers of slaves in the first and second centuries of our era as amounting to half the population of the Empire. The estimate is no doubt exaggerated, but the numbers of the slave population in that period were undoubtedly very great.
[73] Lecky, History of European Morals, vol. ii. chap. iv.
[74] Hermas, the author of the famous Shepherd, belonged to the slave class. The Roman Bishop Pius, A.D. 142–157, was the brother of Hermas. The celebrated Bishop of Rome, Callistus, A.D. 218–222, had been a slave.
“The first and grandest edifice of Byzantine architecture in Italy—the Church of S. Vitale at Ravenna—was dedicated by Justinian to the memory of a martyred slave.”—Lecky, History of European Morals, vol. ii. chap. iv.
[75] S. Paulinus of Nola to Sulpicius Severus, Ep. xxiii.
[76] De Broglie, Revue des deux mondes, 1st Nov. 1852, reproduced in his L’Église et l’Empire Romain, vol. i., Avertissement, ii–iii.
[77] See, for instance, Tert. De Idolat. viii., where the various trades connected with idols and temples are enumerated.
[78] On these “Schools of Martyrdom,” see below, p. [198] foll.