"Libertos legitime a dominis suis factos ecclesia, si necessitas exegerit, tueatur; quod si quis ante audientiam, aut pervadere, aut expoliare præsumpserit, ab ecclesia repellatur." (Canon 29.)
The Church shall regard the ransom of captives as her first care; she shall give their interests the preference over her own, however bad may be the state of her affairs.
"Sicut omnino grave est, frustra ecclesiastica ministeria venundare, sic iterum culpa est, imminente hujusmodi necessitate, res maxime desolatæ Ecclesiæ captivis suis præponere, et in eorum redemptione cessare." (Caus. xii. q. 2, canon 16.)
Remarkable words of St. Ambrose touching the ransom of captives. To perform this pious duty, the holy Bishop breaks up and sells the sacred vessels.
(S. Ambrosius de Off. lib. ii. cap. 15.)
(§ 70.) "Summa etiam liberalitas captos redimere, eripere ex hostium manibus, subtrahere neci homines, et maxime feminas turpidini, reddere parentibus liberos, parentes liberis, cives patriæ, restituere. Nota sunt hæc nimis Illyriæ vastitate et Thraciæ: quanti ubique venales erant captivi orbe....
Ibid. (§ 71.) "Præcipua est igitur liberalitas, redimere captivos et maxime ab hoste barbaro, qui nihil deferat humanitatis ad misericordiam, nisi quod avaritia reservaverit ad redemptionem."
Ib. l. ii. c. 2 (§ 13.) "Ut nos aliquando in invidiam incidimus, quod confregerimus vasa mystica, ut captivos redimeremus, quod Arianis displicere potuerat, nec tam factum displiceret, quam ut esset quod in nobis reprehenderetur."
These noble and charitable sentiments were not those of St. Ambrose only; his words are but the expression of the feelings of the whole Church. Without referring to numberless proofs which I might adduce here, and before I pass to the canons which I mean to insert, I will copy some passages from a touching letter of St. Cyprian, which contains the motives which animated the Church in her pious enterprise, and gives a lively description of her zeal and charity in these admirable efforts.