ves of the slave, the Church was striking a blow
for his civil freedom. Though she was not charged with the framing of
the civil laws, she moved the hearts of the slaveowners by moral
suasion, and she moulded the conscience of legislators by an appeal to
the innate rights of men. In the early Fathers of the Church, like St.
Gregory of Nyssa and St. John Chrysostom, the most energetic
reprobation of slavery may be found.

The redemption of captives was another work which engaged the pious
solicitude of the Church. From the fourth to the fourteenth century
Europe was periodically a prey to northern invaders. The usual fate of
the vanquished was death or slavery. They who escaped were carried
into bondage. A more wretched fate awaited the female sex, for they
were reserved to gratify the caprices of their conquerors. Religious
orders were founded to succor and redeem them.[485] "Closely connected
with the influence of the Church," says Mr. Lecky, "in destroying
hereditary slavery, was its influence in redeeming captives from
servitude. In no other form of charity was its beneficial character
more continually and more splendidly displayed."[486]

Among the forces enlisted in the cause of freedom the most potent came
from the Papacy. In every age the voice of the Popes resounded clearly
throughout the world in the interests of human freedom. They either
commended the slaves to the humanity of their masters, or advocated
their manumission, and also condemned the slave trade with all its
abuses. Pope Gregory the Great, who occupied the chair of Peter from
590 to 604, wrote: "Since our Blessed Redeemer, the Author of all
life, in His goodness assumed our human flesh, in order that by
breaking the bond of servitude in which we were held, the grace of His
divinity might restore us to our original liberty, it is a wholesome
deed by the benefits of emancipation to restore the freedom in which
they were born, to men whom nature, in the beginning brought forth
free, and whom the law of nations has subjected to the yoke of
slavery."[487]

On October 7, 1462, Pope Pius II issued a letter in which he reproved
and condemned the slave trade then carried on. Again, a short time
later Leo X denounced slavery in 1537. Paul III forbade the
enslavement of the Indians. In the later centuries on the revival of
slavery by some of the nations, especially among those coming under
the power of Mohammedanism in Persia, Arabia, Turkey and Africa, a