(Concilium Londinense, anno 1102.)
"Ne quis illud nefarium negotium quo hactenus in Anglia solebant homines sicut bruta animalia venundari, deinceps ullatenus facere præsumat."
We see, from the canon which I have just cited, to what point the Church had attained in all that affects true civilization. We are in the nineteenth century, and it is considered that a great step has been gained in modern civilization by the consent of the great European nations to sign treaties to suppress the slave-trade; now the canon which we have just cited tells us, that at the beginning of the twelfth century, and in that very town of London, where the famous Convention was lately held, the traffic in men was forbidden, and stigmatized as it deserves. Nefarium negotium—detestable trade—it is called by the Council: infamous traffic, it is called by modern civilization, the unconscious heir of the thoughts and even the words of those men who are treated by it as barbarians, of those Bishops, whom calumny has more or less represented as a band of conspirators against the liberty and happiness of the human race.
It is ordered that persons who have been sold or pledged, shall immediately recover their liberty by restoring the price received; it is ordained that more shall not be required of them than they shall have received for their liberty.
(Synodus incerti loci, circa annum 616.)
"De ingenuis qui se pro pecunia aut alia revendiderint, vel oppignoraverint, placuit ut quandoquidem pretium, quantum pro ipsis datum est, invenire potuerunt, absque dilatione ad statum suæ conditionis reddito pretio reformentur, nec amplius quam pro eis datum est requiratur. Et interim, si vir ex ipsis, uxorem ingenuam habuerit, aut mulier ingenuum habuerit maritum, filii qui ex ipsis nati fuerint, in ingenuitate permaneant." (Canon 14.)
The text of this Council, held, according to some, at Boneuil, well deserves to have some remarks made on it. The beneficial regulation which allowed a man who had been sold to regain his liberty by paying the sum received, checked an evil which was deeply rooted in the customs of Gaul at that time, for we find it at a very early period. We know, indeed, from Cæsar, whose testimony we have cited in the text, that many men of that country sold their liberty to relieve themselves from difficulties. Let us also remark the regulation contained in the same canon with respect to the children of the person who was sold; whether it be the father or mother, the canon prescribes, in both cases, that the children shall be free; and it here departs from the well known rule of civil law: partus sequitur ventrem.
It is forbidden to give up to the Jews the slaves who have taken refuge in the churches; it matters little whether they have chosen that asylum because their masters obliged them to things contrary to the Christian faith, or because they have been maltreated by them after having been once withdrawn from the sacred asylum under the promise of pardon.
(Concilium Aurelianense tertium, anno 538.)