The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1914-04-18
THE CHURCH AND THE sERF
SUBSTANCE OF A LECTURE BY
MAJOR REVlLLE TO THE MEN
OF THE BoWERY DISTRICT,
NEW, YORK.

MAJOR REVlLLE TO THE MEN
OF THE BoWERY DISTRICT,
NEW. YORK.
THE power of the healing influence
of the Catholic Church." said Major
Reville, shown in the restoration of
the human race, corrupted by the
awful disease of slavery, as was shown
to you in former lecture on The
Church the Friend of the Slave was
again needed to strengthen and as
suage the sufferings of the workman,
and sustain him during that transit
| ton period through which he passed
on his road to fuller freedom. AL
though the personal dominion of the
master class over the slave workmen
class had passed away with the resur-
rection of Christianity from the sepul-
chre of the catacombs, there still re-
NAMED law that bound the work
man of early Christian times to the
soil. This milder form of slavery was
slave of the pagan Roman Empire,
was free from personal dominion, be-
cause his wife and child belonged to
him; he had right to his earnings
and to the produce of his field after
| he had liquidated his obligations to
his master who owned the land But
the serf was a slave in so far as he
could not leave the land he worked
on, nor could his children. He could
marry but not outside of his masters
estate, and If he did, his wife could
be sent back to the estate from
whence she came and his children
divided.
"This system of serfdom gradually
grew up in the large estates that were
parcelled out among the Roman mobiles
from the kingdoms they had conquer
ed. Slaves were not numerous enough
to cultivate all these lands, and so
portions were given to free men to
cultivate for a fixed rent or service,
and these became known as Coloni.
Thus were cultivated all the great
Roman estates.
History tells us that this system of
Coloni was carried out on a large
scale in the building of Roman cities.
1t is related by historians of these
times that the Emperor Augustus once
sent an entire legion of discharged
Roman soldiers to thus found a city.
They marched out to the appointed
place, laid their camp just as if on a
military journey, emitting none of
their time-honored ceremonies, and
then had the land apportioned accord
ing to the rank of it's officers. Thus
came into existence a great Roman
city
"Now we come to the invasion and
fall of the Roman Empire by the bar
barian tribes from the North. Con-
fusion now reigned supreme. But the
Church still struggled on. She had
conquered the pagan Empire of Rome,
and undaunted she sets herself to the
task Of converting these savage con-
querers to the Gospel of Christ and
bending their fiery natures to the
yoke of Christian civilization.
with the coming of Charlemagne,
Charles the Great, came the restora-
parcelled out the lands among his
great lords for services by feudal ten
ure, and the lowest in the round of
the feudal ladder owning property
was the serf or villen. The life of
hardship lived by these serfs, while
not to be compared with the sad lot
of the Roman slave, was yet great
and at times could be made almost
unbearable if chance placed them I'M
der a tWannical feudal lord. While
their rent could not be increased still
tolls could be exacted Of them for the
use of the road, and bridges; tax
could be levied for grinding corn at
the mill; their personal freedom in
the use of the fields and the forests
could likewise be curtailed; and final
ly in many different ways the serf
was made to feel his inferiority.
cat the time we treat of labor was
looked upon as fit only for slaves; the
work of tilling the soil the occupation
of the conquered; while war and state
craft was held to be the profession to
be sought after and followed by free
men, Thus on every hand the serf
was made to feel, and feel keenly, his
servitude Among such surroundings
the Church, ever true to her vocation,
found fertile field in which to work.
And she exercised her healing power
on the one hand by ameliorating the
condition of the serf, and on the other
by softening the character of his bar
barian master and subduing his cruel
ways. She provided the serf with
place to worship his God in and
schools in which to educate his off
spring. But even more than this she
did for him, for she protected him in
all his rights, and even increased
those rights by obtaining for him per-
sonal freedom, as can be read in many
deeds of release by mobiles and char
tiers granted by kings. And so at the
close of the fourteenth century she
can proclaim the abolition of serfdom
throughout Catholic Europe.
"But the Church was not content to
rest here. We have already seen how
and by what method she made the
equality of man under God work on
the internal man until that spirit act
ed on the external world and changed
the condition of things from slavery
to freedom, how that idea had brought,
a name to the nameless, family to
the friendless, and manhood to chat
tel. We will now see how she took