The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1895-11-03
THE CHURCH THE FATHER OF
LIBERTY.

by DR.. Cyrus Thompson that ''the
church to-day stands where it has always
stood-on the side of human slavery
and not on the side of liberty, has given
rise to a discussion upon the attitude of
the church to slavery that is educational
in character The defenders OF DR..
Thompson have maintained the truth
fulness of his proposition, and few of
them have offered the weakness or sin OF
some individual Christians as their only
proof. Or. Pritchard, Dr. Williams,
DR.. Yates, Rev. Ri. Patton and
others who have replied have made it
clear that there was no ground for the
assertion, and we only allude to the
subject again to clinch their arguments
by ali appeal to history.
Slavery from the earliest periods has
been incidental to warlike people.
Warriors introduced slave labor toprovide
themselves with food and to avoid irk-
some toll. wherever theocratlc organ
izations established themselves slavery
in the ordinary sense did not become
vital element in the social system. The
members of the lowest class were not in
a state of individual subsection; the en-
tire caste to which they belonged was col
lectively subject. 1t is in the communi-
ties in which the military order obtained
an ascendency over the sacerdOtal, and
which were directly organized for war,
that slavery Gas the word is commonly
understood) had its really natural and
appropriate place"
It was not until the establishment of
the Christian church that there came
even an amelioration of the condition
of the slaves. From the beginning
through the teachings of o christianity
there arose influences that softened the
institution and cleared the way for ulti-
mate emancipation. 1t is often alleged
against the early Christian church that
it did not at once denounce slavery as a
crime and demand its immediate abOli-
ton. But all students of history know
that such a radical course would have
been disastrous to social conditions, and
particularly injurious to the slaves.
Wisdom and duty to the slaves de
manded no such rashness, but prepare
ton of conditions conducive to liberty,
combined with mitigating the evils of
slavery, by impressing on masters the
responsibility of the relation; and the
Christian teachers performed this work
with great fidelity.
The good effect of this teaching was
seen in the action of some of the en-
perors, in the emancipation of individual
slaves, and the redemption of captives.
Justitian withheld the slaves from the
theatrical profession which was school
of corruption; visited with death alike
the rape OF slave and that of free
maiden; priests were permitted to liber-
ate their slaves; and masters were pun
ished for acts of cruelty; and slaves who
were admitted to holy orders became
free. His systematic effort, to quote his
own words, was "pro libertate, guam ct
fevere ct tueri Romans legibus ct
presipue nostro numini peculiare est"
The clergy were the mediators for
many centuries between the masters and
the slaves, and it was the moral and re-
ligious teaching which made master and
slave recognize that they were equal in
the sight of God. The serfs were best
treated on the ecclesiastical estates, and
many On private properties were liberia
ted "for the love of God" In France
the slaves could obtain manumission by
the intervention of the church, which al
ways proclaimed such liberation "to be
work of merit on the part of the mas
ter" The church was the leading spirit
in liberation. 1t is related that st. Ben
edict of Aniane, the reformer of the
monasteries who died in 812, received a
number OF donations OF land from the
faithful; but, whilst accepting
them for his religious establishment, he
enfranchised the serfs who inhabited
them.
In England the wicked slave trade
was put down by the preaching Of st.
Wulfstan, and many slaves obtained
manumission "by the Intervention of
the church, which always proclaimed
the liberation of the villein to be work
of merit on the part of the master" In
many Of the monasteries in the 18th cen
fury opportunity was given the slaves to
redeem their children and start them in
a higher state of life. The Quakers,
i'm 1871 took strong ground against the