In the year 494, Pope Gelesius admonished the bishops, at their ordinations, that—
“Ne unquam ordinationes præsumat illicitas; ne * * * curæ aut cuilibet conditioni obnoxium notatumque ad sacros ordines permittat accedere.”
That he should never presume to hold unlawful ordinations; that he should not allow to holy orders * * * any person bound to the service of the court, or liable to bond for his condition (slavery) or marked thereto.
In the year 506, a council was held at Agdle, the sixty-second canon of which is—
“Si quis servum proprium sine conscientiâ, judicis occiderit, excommunicatione vel pœnitentia biennii reatum sanguinis emendabit.”
If any one shall put his own servant to death, without the knowledge of the judge, let him make compensation for the guilt of blood by excommunication or two years’ penance.
Another council was held eleven years later. Many of the canons of this synod are transcripts of those of Agdle. The thirty-fourth is:
“Si quis servum proprium sine conscientiâ, judicis occiderit, excommunicatione biennii effusionem sanguinis expiabit.”
If any one shall slay his own servant without the knowledge of the judge, let him expiate the shedding of blood by an excommunication of two years.
This was nearly two hundred years after the law of Constantine forbidding this exercise of power by the master.