God be all in all.' As might be expected, after the conversion of the emperors, and of rich and noble families, who owned most slaves, cases of emancipation became more frequent.^ The biographer of St. Samson Xenodochos, a contemporary of Justinian, says of him : " His troop of slaves he would not keep, still less exer- cise over his fellow servants a lordly authority ; he preferred magnanimously to let them go free, and gave them enough for the necessaries of life." ' Salvianus, a Gallic presbyter of the fifth century, says that slaves were emancipated dally.* On the other hand, ^s-ery much was done in the church to pre- vent the increase of slavery ; especially in the way of redeem- ing prisoners, to which sometimes the gold and silver vessels of churches were applied. But we have no reliable statistics for comparing even approximately the proportion of the slaves to the free population at the close of the sixth century with the proportion in the former period. We infer then, that the Christianity of the Nicene and post-Nicene age, though naturally conservative and decidedly * De Civit. Dei, lib. xix. cap. 15. "^ For earlier cases, at the close of the previous period, see vol. i. § S9, at the end. ' Acta Sanct. Boll. Jun. torn. v. p. 267. According to Palladius, Hist. c. 119, St. Melania had, in concert with her husband Pinius, manumitted as many as eight thousand slaves. Yet it is only the ancient Latin translation that has this almost in- credible number. * Ad eccles. cath. 1. iii. § V (Galland. tom. x. p. 71) : "In usu quidem quotidiano est, ut servi, etsi nou optimse, certe non infimcB servitudinis, Romana a dominis libertate donentur; in qua scilicet et propiietatem peculii capiunt et jus testamenta- rium consequuntur : ita ut et viventes, cui volunt, res suas tradant, et moricntes donatione transcribant. Nee solum hoc, sed et ilia, quae in servitute positi conqui- sierant, ex dominorum domo toUere non vetantur." From this passage it appears that many masters, with a view to set their slaves free, allowed them to earn some- thing ; which was not allowed by the Roman law. ^ 20. TIIK INSTITUTION OF SLAVERY. 121 opposed to social revolution and violent measures of reform, yet in its inmost instincts and ultimate tendencies favored the universal freedom of man, and, by elevating the slave to spiritual equality with the master, and uniformly treating him as capable of the same virtues, blessings, and rewards, has placed the hateful institution of human bondage in the way of gradual amelioration and final extinction. This result, how- ever, was not reached in Europe till many centuries aiter our period, nor by the influence of the church alone, but with the help of various economical and political causes, the unprofit- ableness of slaveiy, especially in more northern latitudes, the new relations introduced by the barbarian conquests, the habits of the Teutonic tribes settled within the Roman