Murderers of the Brethren (Church and Slavery part 2)

The early Church followed the writings of Paul, believing every Christian, male and female, freed and slave, to be equal in Christ. This meant that even if someone were a slave or indentured servant, he was still allowed to be baptized into the Church. Slaves were allowed to marry and be ordained. Some even became pope (though this did involved escaping slavery).

Pope Callixtus I was a slave in Rome in the early third century. He was in charge of funds his master had collected to be used for the care of widows and orphans. He lost the funds and escaped, but was captured. His master let him go to seek out if he could recover any of the funds, but Callixtus got in a fight and sentenced to labor in mines in Sardinia. After being released from the labor camp with other Christians, he was ordained a deacon and appointed to care for the Christian cemetery on the Appian Way. This plot was the first piece of land owned by the Church. He probably also served as a counsel to Pope Zephyrinus, putting him in the right place to be elected pope in 217.

Slavery in various forms was pervasive in almost every society in Europe/Middle East/ North Africa before and after Christianity began to take hold. People sold themselves or their children into slavery to pay off debts. Criminals and captives of war were forced into it. Slavery of classes or certain tribes existed, though that lessened as the concept of serfdom (people bound to specific land, not specific other people or entity) rose. But that is not to say that everyone just accepted that slavery was an immutable part of society.

Some leaders, such as St. Gregory of Nyssa, proposed the practice of freeing slaves after seven years, or some other form of jubilee year. Slavery was a consequence of war or crime or debt—not a permanent state of one’s life.

St. Patrick was a Briton captured and enslaved by Irish pirates when he was young in the early fifth century. After six years, he escaped and returned home. After being ordained, he famously returned to pagan Ireland and became the apostle to the island. He condemned Christians who practiced slavery, particularly against other Christians. In his “Letter to Coroticus,” he says to a group of Christian soldiers who raided and enslaved Christians then sold them to the Picts, “Hence the Church mourns and laments her sons and daughters whom the sword has not yet slain, but who were removed and carried off to faraway lands ….There people who were freeborn have been sold, Christians made slaves.”

He calls condemnation on Coroticus and his men, ending the letter, “May God inspire them sometime to recover their senses for God, repenting, however late, their heinous deeds - murderers of the brethren of the Lord! - and to set free the baptized women whom they took captive, in order that they may deserve to live to God, and be made whole, here and in eternity!”

Others also condemned the enslavement of the baptized. Many Christians sold off their belongings to ransom Christians who had been enslaved by non-Christians. St. Eligius was a goldsmith and counsellor for the king of the Franks in the seventh century. He used his wealth and royal favor to raise funds to ransom (purchase then set free) various peoples (Romans, Saxons, Gauls, Bretons, Moors) who were being sold at the slave market in Marseilles, sometimes dozens at a time.

While there weren’t grand scale condemnations of slavery, there did seem to be a consistent effort of the Church to condemn the slavery of Christians and to ransom the captive. In fact, “visit the imprisoned and ransom the captive” is considered a corporal work of mercy.