attle
and fish and fowl, but never that man should exercise a like
dominion over his fellow-man. * * * * * * * * * Monuments, laws,
institutions, through a continuous series of ages, teach and
splendidly demonstrate the great love of the Church towards
slaves, whom in their miserable condition, she never left
destitute of protection, and always to the best of her power
alleviated. Therefore, praise and thanks are due to the Catholic
Church, since she has merited it in the prosperity of nations,
by the very great beneficence of Christ, our Redeemer and
banisher of slavery, and cause of true liberty, fraternity and
equality among men. Toward the end of the fifteenth century, when
the base stain of slavery was almost blotted out from among
Christian nations, the Catholic Church took the greatest care
that the evil germs of such depravity should nowhere revive.
Therefore, she directed her provident vigilance to the
newly-discovered regions of Africa, Asia and America, for a
report had reached her that the leaders of the expeditions,
Christians though they were, were wickedly making use of their
arms and ingenuity to establish and impose slavery on those
innocent nations. Indeed, since the crude nature of the soil
which they had to overcome, nor less the wealth of metals which
had to be extracted by mining, required very hard work, unjust
and inhuman plans were entered into; for a new traffic was begun,
slaves being transported for that purpose from Ethiopia, which at
that time, under the name of the _slave trade_, too much occupied
those colonies."[490]

The fact that the Catholic Church has been a leader of mankind to
light and Christian liberty is attested by leading non-Catholic
scholars and historians. The historian Lecky, who holds no brief for
Catholicism, says: "The Catholic Church was the very heart of
Christendom and the spirit that radiated from her penetrated into all
the relations of life. Catholicism laid the very foundations of modern
civilization. Herself the most admirable of all organizations,
there was formed beneath her influence, a vast network of
organizations--political, municipal and social--which supplied a large
proportion of the materials of almost every modern structure. In the
transition from slavery to serfdom, and in the transition from serfdom
to liberty, she was