Kentucky Irish American. (Louisville, Ky.) 1898-1968, 1917-03-17
Form 1870

custom. The same desire TO DretrK
the rigor of the law caused the
church to prefer seeing the prisoner
of war. the unredeemed hostage,
the exiled culprit, enslaved rather
than killed. I"
Again in the chapter dealing with
the amelioration of the condition OF
slaves, after showing the Influence
of a strong kingship in combating
the harshness of individual slave
holders, the author thus describes
the function of the church in deal
ing with the condition of the slave.
Another stronghold" she writes,
"of hope for the slave was the
power Of the Roman Catholic
church. What the King represented
within the political sphere the
Bishop represented within the
moral There Is no doubt that
but for the constant good Offices
of the church through her minis
tiers, the improvement in the condi-
of the slave would have been of
far slower growth. The Bishop
OF course could as little as the
King Interfere with the actual own
ership or abolish slavery; but he
tried to exercise religious as well
as a practical pressure upon the
Shareholder. On the one side,
mild treatment of the slave was
always spoken of as one of the
important evidences of a Christian
spirit; on the other side, the
churches and monasteries were rec
ognized places of refuge for the
fugitive or abused slave, the priest
or the Abbot before giving the
slave over exaclins an oath or
promise from the slave-owner to do
the refugee no further harm"
Not only was the church, how
over, actively the champion of the
slave, but what power the King
had to exert in the slaves behalf
he owed to the influence of the
church. For as the author writes:
1T was likewise due 20 the influ-
ence of the church that the Kings
mind acquired the all-encompass-
ing protective power which it very
soon came to have, inasmuch as to
the church the Kings position alone
seemed stable enough to offer sue
cessful resistance to the violence
and contempt for human life which
certainly characterized GermaniC
society"
Again we are told "the church
4 also favored liberation of the slaves
to a degree which far exceeded
that OF any private or public slave
owner" While It is true that al
times and in some places church.
men and monasteries owned slaves
the author goes on TO say that 'tr
this respect, as in many others
the church had to conform to the
economic condition OF the time, and
II. her struggle for material de
p4ndence. which alone could secur,
success to her in her ideal pur
suits, she needed cheap labor ant
took this from whatever source Il
was offered. In holding slaves a.
cultivators of her enormous estates
the church made servitude as com
Portable an existence as 1t coul'
ever become. The slave of tn.
church was more esteemed by th'
law than anyone's except the Kings
and the churchmen we're the frs
who. In Judgment OF q case, mad
distinction between intentional
and unintentiOnal acts. thus by de
Krees opening the way to a NOR
Intelligent Jurisprudence. even 70
the slave
We might thus multiply the man
passages IN this excellent worl
which so fairly and Intelligent
points out the splendid stand of tn
church on so difficult problem 4
an age when slavery was as muc'
part and parcel Of the social an
economic state Of society as 1t wa