The Covenant Code

See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Covenant_Code
The historical code covers:
- Women as property (and restitution for damage / missuse)
- Treatment of Slaves
- Status of mothers 
- care of members of lesser social classes, including converts, widows and orphans
The Church in Evermarch keeps slaves. They have a database. It is possible to be sold into slavery. You can sell yourself into slavery, as Helen and Gary did.
Lorric briefly explained the letter he had received from his ex-wife and the bishop listened patiently, checking his computer as he did so, but when Lorric had finished, he said, ‘there is nothing you can do Mr Lorric. She did it herself, sold herself over to the church. There is a note here in her file, that it was either that or be burned as a witch.’
Chapter 5:
‘Slaves, Thomas,’ sighed. ‘The Covenant Code, if you want to talk about law, allows for the punishment of slaves.’
‘Not murder though, Your Grace,’ wheedled Thorman. ‘And in such numbers? At least one of the farms had church property on it. We could close down the whole place based on that alone. How can any of this be God’s will?’
Chapter 7:
Thorman nodded to him in dismissal, but Dreek was not going to be got ridden off so easily. ‘Elder Richie will want to know the reason why so much of our property has been confiscated. He’ll want to know under what law it was done.’
‘Under the Covenant Code as always, Mr Dreek,’ replied Thorman dryly. ‘Slaves were being killed on your farms, which is directly against the code. The slaves were removed for their safety.’
Chapter 11
‘It not great news. From what I’ve learned, your two friends here, and many like them, were sold to the church in Goldengreens with very dubious paperwork. There may be some grounds for emancipation on that, but right now the church in Evermarch is not doing anything about it. For you though, Ray sold you perfectly legally. The church paperwork is all in order. I suppose I could try and buy you, but the Temple very rarely sell slaves. I could maybe get you transferred back and then put in a request for a slave and have you assigned to me.’ 
Category:Paradise
Category:Paradise Notes