Catholic Church and slavery

rdf:langString Catholic Church and slavery

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rdf:langString * The Council of Gangra anathematized anyone who taught that it was permissible for a slave to withdraw his services from the master who owned him on religious grounds. This decree became part of the Western Church’s collections of canons for quoted during the following 1,400 years. * In 419 the Council of Carthage decreed that not even an enfranchised slave could give evidence in a court of law. * The Council of Agde in 506AD decreed that Bishops could not sell slaves owned by the Church. * In 517AD the Council of Jena decreed that slaves bestowed on monastic orders could not be emancipated. * The Council of Orleans in 541AD decreed that slaves who were emancipated by a Bishop would be allowed to remain free so long as they remained in the service of the Church. * Bishops were instructed to defend the freedom of former slaves who had been legitimately emancipated in Church at the 2nd Council of Macon in 585AD. * In 633AD it was decreed by the 4th Council of Toledo that women who were having “forbidden relationships” with clerics were to be put up for sale as slaves and that the clerics do penance. * The 9th Council of Toledo in 655AD decreed that the penalty of enslavement was not to be applied to priests who offended against the clerical celibacy rules but rather their children who would thereafter be forever slaves of the Church. This decree became part of the collection of Canons of the Western Church. *The Synod of Chelsea in Saxon England decreed that at the death of every Bishop all English slaves he owned were to be freed, with each Abbot or Bishop who attended his funeral having to emancipate three slaves and give to each three solidi. * In 817AD the Council of Aachen used a previous teaching of St. Isidore of Seville to affirm the justice of enslavement. The Council of Pavia in 1012AD enacted a similar decree but in addition included those children who were born of free women. * Pope Urban II in 1089 at the Synod of Melfi granted to princes the power to enslave the wives of clerics in order to enforce clerical celibacy. * In 1117AD the Council of Armagh decreed that all English slaves in Ireland should be emancipated. * The 3rd General Council of the Lateran decreed the penalty of enslavement on any Christian who provided material aid to for the repair of Saracen ships or provided navigational assistance. This penalty was subsequently repeated at three other General Councils. The same Council decreed enslavement as a penalty for anyone involved with brigandage in the Pyrenees. * The Fifth Lateran Council regularised the procedure for baptizing slaves who were about to die in transit on slave ships. * In 1965 the Second Vatican Council described slavery, without qualification, as an infamy that dishonored the Creator and poisoned human society.

rdf:langString * The Third Council of the Lateran decreed the penalty of enslavement on any Christian who provided material aid to for the repair of Saracen ships or provided navigational assistance. This penalty was subsequently repeated at three other General Councils. The same Council decreed enslavement as a penalty for anyone involved with brigandage in the Pyrenees. * The Fifth Lateran Council regularised the procedure for baptizing slaves who were about to die in transit on slave ships. * In 1965 the Second Vatican Council described slavery, without qualification, as an infamy that dishonored the Creator and poisoned human society.

rdf:langString * Apostle Peter in 1 Peter 2:18-25 teaches Christian slaves to obey their masters, after the example of Jesus. * Leo the Great decreed in 443 that no slave could become a priest. *In the mid-fourth century Pope Julius I wrote that a slave could not be divorced from their spouse. *The Pastoral Rule of Gregory I “The Great”, reigned 590-604, directed that slaves should behave humbly for their masters as they are only slaves and that Masters should not be proud since they, like their slaves, were also slaves of God. He also commended the act of manumission for those who had been condemned jus gentium to slavery. Gregory wrote to a military governor in Africa to request a delivery of prisoners of war for enslavement in the service of the poor in Rome. * Pope Urban II in 1089 at the Synod of Melfi granted to princes the power to enslave the wives of clerics to enforce clerical celibacy. * Alexander III in 1174 appealed to the Moorish King of Valencia for the release of prisoners of war on the basis that they were Christians. * Between 1309 and 1535 various States, Cities and families were subject to the penalty of enslavement by Popes. Examples include the Florentines in 1376, the Venetians and the Colonna family in 1535. * In March 1425 Martin V issued a bull threatening excommunication for any Christian slave dealers and ordered Jews to wear a "badge of infamy" to deter, in part, the buying of Christians. Ten black slaves were presented as a gift to Martin by Prince Henry of Portugal in 1441. In 1452 Martin V condemned those who purchased Greek rite Christians and sold them to non-Christians. Only the sale to non-Christians was forbidden. * Pope Eugenius IV in 1433 and 1435 imposed the penalty of excommunication on those who enslaved recent converts in the Canary Islands. Eugenius tempered "Sicut Dudum" with another bull due to the complaints made by King Duarte of Portugal, now allowing the Portuguese to conquer any unconverted parts of the Canary Islands. Christians would be protected by the earlier edict but the un-baptized were implicitly allowed to be enslaved. * Nicholas V in 1452 authorized King Alfonso V of Portugal to “invade, search out, capture and subjugate the Saracens and Pagans and any other unbelievers and enemies of Christ wherever they may be, as well as their kingdoms, duchies, counties, principalities, and other property...and to reduce their persons into perpetual slavery”. This was reconfirmed by Nicholas in 1454. In 1456 Calixtus III extended the grants of Nicholas V to the Kings of Portugal. Sixtus IV renewed the grants of Nicholas V in 1481. In 1514 Leo X repeated all the grants of Nicholas V and those which had been subsequently been confirmed by Sixtus IV and Calixtus III. * In 1456 Pope Calixtus III applied the penalty of excommunication to those who had enslaved some Christians along with Muslims during raids on the Turkish and Egyptian coasts. * Pius II in 1462 decreed ecclesiastical censures for those who were enslaving the recently baptised of Guinea. The institution of slavery itself was not subject to condemnation. * In 1476 Sixtus IV anathematized those who were enslaving the Christian converts in the Canary Islands. * Innocent VIII in 1488 distributed amongst the clergy a share of the hundred slaves he received as gift from King Ferdinand. He was advised by King Jao in 1488 that the profits being made from the slave trade were helping to finance wars against Muslims in the North of Africa. * Alexander VI in 1493 granted to Spain the same rights to the Americas as had been granted to Portugal for Africa by Nicholas V in 1454. * Pope Leo X in his bull of 1513 regularized the procedure for baptising slaves who were about to die on slave ships. He described the enslavement of Indians as an offense against the Christian religion and nature, however “there would certainly have been one or two [black] slaves from the coast of Guinea in the Vatican in his day”. * Pope Paul III in 1535 sentenced King Henry VIII to the penalty of being exposed to capture and enslavement. * In May 1537 Paul III followed the lead already given by Spanish crown and banned under pain of excommunication the enslavement of American Indians whom he now declared to be human beings. King Charles V objected since it “was injurious to the Imperial right of colonization and harmful to the peace of the Indies” so Paul annulled the executive brief decree associated with the papal bull in June 1538. * In 1535 Paul III renewed the ancient privilege of the magistrates to emancipate slaves who fled to the Capital after it had lapsed. After appeals from the magistrates Paul revoked the privilege in 1548 and declared it lawful to hold and trade slaves in Rome including Christians. * Pius V in 1566 restored to the magistrates of Rome the right to emancipate slaves who fled to the Capital under an ancient privilege. * Pius V in 1571 excommunicated those who were enslaving Christians to serve as galley-slaves. * Pope Sixtus V, elected 1585, as a sign of appreciation allowed Fernando Jimenez to use his own surname, contrary to the normal restrictions applied to Jews of the period. * Following a Royal Edict Pope Gregory XIV 1591 ordered the emancipation of all Indian slaves held by the Spanish in the Philippines under pain of excommunication. The prohibitions of Paul III and Gregory XIV were not applicable to “just” enslavement, e.g. those considered enemies. * In 1629 Pope Urban VIII authorized the purchase of forty privately owned slaves who were serving in the galleys of the Papal fleet. In 1639 he condemned slavery of Indians, but not black Africans, without qualification in a letter to his representative in Portugal. * Pope Alexander VII in 1661 sought to purchase 100 slaves for the Papal galleys. * Innocent X in 1645 authorized the purchase of 100 Turkish slaves to serve in the Papal galleys. * Clement XI, elected 1700, directed the Holy Office to appeal to his nuncios in Madrid and Lisbon to act in bringing about the end of slavery. * Pope Benedict XIV in 1741 condemns the unjust enslavement of Indians, Christian and non-Christian, and repeats the censures of Paul III and Urban VIII. * In 1839 Gregory XVI condemned the unjust trade in black Africans as unchristian and morally unlawful. Unlike the censures of Paul III, Gregory XIV and Benedict XIV relating to Indians, there is no penalty of excommunication for offenders. * Leo XIII in 1888 and 1890 praised 12 Popes of the past who sought to abolish slavery with no mention of just or unjust type of enslavement. Five of the Popes mentioned were authors of public documents which sanctioned enslavement either as an institution, or for ecclesiastical transgressions or as a result of war. * In 1995 Pope John Paul II repeated the condemnation of "infamies", including slavery, issued by the Second Vatican Council: "Thirty years later, taking up the words of the Council and with the same forcefulness I repeat that condemnation in the name of the whole Church, certain that I am interpreting the genuine sentiment of every upright conscience..”

rdf:langString Papacy and Slavery - Chronological reference listing

rdf:langString Local church councils & slavery - chronological reference list

rdf:langString Ecumenical church councils & slavery - chronological reference list

rdf:langString Pope Gregory the Great

rdf:langString Since our Redeemer, the Maker of every creature, was pleased mercifully to assume human flesh in order to break the chain of slavery in which we were held captive, and restore us to our pristine liberty, it is right that men, whom nature from the beginning produced free, and whom the law of nations has subjected to the yoke of slavery, should be restored by the benefit of manumission to the liberty in which they were born.

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rdf:langString The issue of slavery was historically treated with concern by the Catholic Church. Throughout most of human history, slavery has been practiced and accepted by many cultures and religions around the world, including ancient Rome. Certain passages in the Old Testament sanctioned forms of temporal slavery as means to pay a debt. After the legalization of Christianity under the Roman empire, there was a growing sentiment that many kinds of slavery were not compatible with Christian conceptions of charity and justice; some argued against all forms of slavery while others, including the influential Thomas Aquinas, argued the case for slavery subject to certain restrictions. The Christian West did succeed in almost entirely enforcing that a free Christian could not be enslaved, for example when a captive in war. However, this itself was subject to continual improvement and was not consistently applied throughout history. The Middle Ages also witnessed the emergence of orders of monks such as the Mercedarians who were founded for the purpose of ransoming Christian slaves. By the end of the Medieval period, enslavement of Christians had been largely abolished throughout Europe although enslavement of non-Christians remained permissible and had seen a revival in Spain and Portugal. The permissibility of slavery remained a subject of debate within the Church for centuries, with several Popes issuing bulls on the issue, such as Sublimis Deus. By the 1800s, the Church reached relative consensus in favor of condemning chattel slavery and praising its abolition.