332                           CHRISTIANITY AND SLAVERY.
Church took it upon itself to defend the liberty of all those
who are freed, in whatever manner it may be (585). The
Church instituted the redemption of captives (506) ; it per-
mitted the ecclesiastical property (585), even to the sacred
vessels (625), to be sold to ransom them. It interdicted
the enslavement of a free man (566). It forbade a slave
to be sold outside the limits of France (650). It forbade
one Christian to hold another in slavery (922). It released
Christians from the hands of Jews or heathens (538, 625,
633). It multiplied the causes for emancipation, so far as
to declare the slave free who has been forced to work on
Sunday, and also he who had been held at the baptismal
font by his masters or their children, — a touching custom,
by whioh the slave was born at the same moment to liberty
and religion. It punished, before all, the bishops and priests
who transgressed its decisions (656). It freed slaves who
wished to enter religion or the orders (597, 655).* It
interdicted the traffic in slaves (743).
To these decisions of the councils we might add others
concerning marriage, the right of asylum, etc. We will
confine ourselves to remarking, that this slow but persistent
action extended from one end of Europe to the other. The
councils, the dates and deoisions of which we have just
cited, were held at Orleans and at Toledo, at Kome and at
Bheims, at Lyons and at Lerida, at Chalons and at Lateran.
The influence of the Church was exercised also in another
manner. It acted on the law ; by degrees the Gospel pene-
trated the learned statutes of the Empire and the sanguinary
codes of the barbarians.f    But here it did not act directly,
* The two most common modes of enfranchisement, became emancipation
before the Church, and emancipation by charter. The greater part of these
charters set forth as their reason, the salvation of ihe souL
t Influence du Christianisme sur le droit civil des Romains, by M. Troplong.
L'Eglise et t'Empire au quatrième siècle, by Albert de Broglie. See the works of
Augustin Thierry, Guizot, Ozanam, Naudet, Mgr. Gerbet, Balmès, Rohrbacher,
Bonald, etc.