If a master gives meat to a slave on a fasting-day, the slave becomes free.
(Concilium Berghamstedæ anno 5o Withredi regis Cantii, id est Christi 697: sub Bertualdo Cantuariensi archiepiscopo celebratum. Hæc sunt judicia Withredi regis Cantuariorum.)
"Si quis servo suo carnem in jejunio dediderit comedendam, servus liber exeat." (Canon 15.)
It is definitively forbidden for Jews to have Christian slaves; all contravention of this order shall deprive the Jews of all their slaves, who shall obtain their liberty from the prince.
(Concilium Toletanum quartum, anno 633.)
"Ex decreto gloriosissimi principis hoc sanctum elegit concilium, ut Judæis non liceat Christianos servos habere, nec Christiana mancipia emere, nec cujusquam consequi largitate: nefas est enim ut membra Christi serviant Antichristi ministris. Quod si deinceps servos Christianos, vel ancillas Judæi habere præsumpserint, sublati ab eorum dominatu libertatem a principe consequantur." (Canon 66.)
It is forbidden to sell Christian slaves to Jews or Gentiles; if such sales have been made, they shall be annulled.
(Concilium Rhemense, anno 625.)
"Ut Christiani Judæis vel Gentilibus non vendantur; et si quis Christianorum necessitate cogente mancipia sua Christiana elegerit venundanda, non aliis nisi tantum Christianis expendat. Nam si paganis aut Judæis vendiderit, communione privetur, et emptio careat firmitate." (Canon 11.)
No precaution was too great in those unhappy times. It might appear at first that such regulations were an effect of the intolerance of the Church with respect to the Jews and Pagans; and yet, in reality, they were a barrier against the barbarism which invaded all; they were a guarantee of the most sacred rights of man; so much the more necessary, as all the others, it may be said, had disappeared. Read the document which we are about to transcribe; you will there see that barbarism was carried so far, that slaves were sold to the Pagans to be sacrificed.