preading
the Gospel; and it is one which very much concerns ourselves.

In those days slavery was common throughout all the known world, and,
although the Gospel had wrought a great improvement in the treatment of
slaves, by making the masters feel that they and their slaves were
brethren in Christ, it yet had not forbidden slavery. But there was a
feeling of pity for those who fell into this sad condition by the
chances of war or otherwise. It was a common act of charity for good
Christians to redeem captives and to set them at liberty. This, indeed,
was thought so holy a work, and so agreeable to the words of
Scripture--"I will have mercy, and not sacrifice" (_Hos._ vi. 6; _St.
Matt._ ix. 13), that bishops often broke up and sold even the
consecrated plate of their churches in order that they might get the
means of ransoming captives whom they heard of. And, although slavery
was still allowed by the laws of Christian kingdoms, those laws took
care that Christian slaves should not be under Jews, or masters of any
other than their own religion.

Gregory, then, while he was yet a monk, went one day into the market at
Rome, just after the arrival of some merchants with a large cargo of
slaves for sale. Some of these poor creatures, perhaps, had been taken
in war; others had probably been sold by their own parents for the sake
of the price which they fetched; for we are told that this shocking
practice was not uncommon among some of the ruder nations. As Gregory
looked at them, his eyes fell on some boys with whose appearance he was
greatly struck. Their skin was fair, unlike the dark complexions of the
Italians and other southern nations whom he had been used to see. Their
features were beautiful, and they had long light flowing hair. He asked
the merchants from what land these boys had been brought. "From
Britain," they said; and they told him that the bright complexion which
he admired so much was common among the people of that island. Perhaps
Gregory had never thought of Britain before. It was nearly two hundred
years since the Roman troops had been withdrawn from it, and its
inhabitants had been left to themselves. And since that time the pagan
Saxons had overrun it; the Romans had lost the countries which lay
between them and it; and Britain had quite disappeared from their
knowledge. Gregory, therefore, was obliged to ask whether the people
were Christians or heathens, and he was told that they were still
heathen