ANCIENT LAW.
XVI. Concerning the Property of Slaves belonging to the Crown, who have been Liberated.
We do not permit freedom to be given to slaves of our court without our consent, and if this should be done, the act shall be void, and only that freedom shall be legal which is bestowed under our direction. And, in like manner, it shall be unlawful for the slaves of our court to sell their own slaves or lands to freemen; for they shall have the right to make such sales only to other royal slaves; and if they should wish to give their lands or slaves to the Church or to the poor, such gift or disposition by will, shall be void. We, however, grant the following concession to them for the sake of piety: that they shall have a right to bestow a certain portion of their property upon the Church, or the poor, for the benefit of their souls; and if they have no possessions excepting lands and slaves, we grant them authority to dispose of said lands and slaves, but only to others of our slaves, as has been hereinbefore mentioned, and no freeman shall be permitted to purchase said property; but they shall have the right to give the proceeds of said sales of lands and slaves to the Church, or the poor, for the benefit of their own souls, as hereinbefore stated.
THE GLORIOUS RECESVINTUS, KING.
XVII. Neither Freedmen, nor their Descendants, shall either Marry into, or act Insolently towards, the Family of their Patron.
We occasionally see excessive arrogance displayed by slaves, and are compelled, at the same time, to pity the degradation of their masters. For some slaves, after they have obtained freedom, or the descendants of such slaves, aspire to marry into the family of their masters; or do some wrong to the children or grandchildren of the latter. And as an inferior rank is ennobled by the gift of freedom, so, in like manner, an illustrious race is disgraced by marriage with an inferior caste. Thus a distinguished family is degraded by such a connection, through the acts of those very persons who, by its means, have enjoyed the blessings of liberty. Therefore, that the splendor of natural lineage may not be deprived of its dignity; and the slave, remembering his former condition, may not aspire to privileges to which he is not entitled, and which cannot be granted him: it is hereby decreed that if any freedman, or the descendants of said freedman, belonging to the class of manumitted slaves, or anyone connected with them by affinity or blood, however distantly related, should attempt to contract marriage with any of the family of his former master, or with any of his descendants; or should bring any action at law against them, except for just and legal cause, either on his own behalf, or on behalf of others; or should inflict any injury upon them; or should cause them any vexation or annoyance; or should oppose them as members of an opposite political faction; he shall be at once delivered up as a slave to those against whom he committed these offences. And, indeed, it is impious that when a condition of slavery has been abolished, the dignity of freedom should be degraded; and that, while the slave is exalted, the master is abased, and the children of the latter suffer injury, because the slave has power to inflict it.
FLAVIUS RECESVINTUS, KING.
XVIII. Freedmen who have Entered any Religious Order, shall not be Returned to the Service of their Masters.
Any freedman who has been honored by presentation to the Church by his master, or whom the condition of his emancipation, or his membership in a religious order, has devoted to the service of the Church, can under no circumstances whatever, be returned to the control of his former master, or of his heirs. For whatever is known to belong to God can never be again subjected to the dominion of man.
THE GLORIOUS FLAVIUS EGICA, KING.