XV. A Master may Claim the Property of a Slave whom he has Sold.
If any one should sell a slave, and not know what property he possessed, he shall have power to make full inquiry, and to claim as his own, whatever property belonging to said slave that he can find.
ANCIENT LAW.
XVI. Whether a Slave may be Redeemed with his own Private Property.
If a slave should be ransomed with his own money, and his master should be ignorant of his possession of the same, he shall not be entitled to his freedom; because the ransom that he paid was not his own, but the property of his master.
ANCIENT LAW.
XVII. No One, against his Will, shall be Compelled to Sell his Slaves.
Laws frequently arise from legal disputes in court, and when evidence of fraud exists, it becomes necessary to promulgate new decrees to restrain acts dictated by shrewdness and duplicity. Many slaves of both sexes, influenced by the suggestions of others, are in the habit of taking refuge in churches, and there complaining of the injustice and oppression of their masters; in order that, through the intercession of priests, and the aid of religion, they may compel their masters to sell them. In this manner frequently an injury is inflicted upon the master; as when a priest, or any one else, representing himself as a purchaser, buys the slave, while in fact he is acting for another party; and, by this collusion, it sometimes happens that the slave is sold to an enemy without his master’s knowledge, and thus, some one, under such circumstances, may obtain possession of the slave who could not have purchased him openly. We declare that, henceforth, the following shall be the law, viz: that no one, against his will, shall sell his slave; but the priest or custodian of the church, as provided by other laws, shall at once deliver the slave to his master, providing the latter pardons him for the fault he has committed; for it is highly improper that the slave should maintain his obstinacy and rebellion by taking refuge in a place where the doctrines of restraint and punishment are preached.
If any one should deceive a master in the manner aforesaid, he himself shall forfeit a sum equal to the price which was paid by him while acting as the agent of another; and, whether the master became aware of the fraud at the time of the transaction, or afterwards, he shall be entitled to recover the slave upon application to the court. He who acted fraudulently as the agent of another in the sale, shall be forced to give another slave of equal value to the master whom he deceived, in order that the wickedness of such a dishonorable transaction may be suitably punished.
THE GLORIOUS FLAVIUS CHINTASVINTUS, KING.