342                        CHRISTIANITY AND  SLAVERY.
deinceps ulla tenus prsesumat." * In 1167, Pope Alexander
III. (1159-1181) declared that all Christians should be ex-
empt from servitude.^ In 1171, a council assembled at
Armagh, in Ireland, declared all English slaves free.
The revolution was thus accomplished and completed in
ideas ; why be astonished that it was slower in facts ? Cre-
ate individual liberty in the midst of these stormy times !
Apply to the workman the system of paid labor ! Make
his existence dependent on what is called to-day the quan-
tity of labor and the abundance of capital ! All of these
exigencies are anachronisms. The reed, in the midst of
perpetual storms, can do nothing better than to take refuge
at the foot of the oak. It was less important at that time
to extricate beings without enlightenment and resources
from servitude than to change the chain into a light bond,
to soften the master, to upraise the servant, to proscribe
oppression, to organize protection, and to pave the way for
Uberty by unceasingly teaching it to minds and introducing
it into customs. This transformation was wrought in the
bosom of the barbarous peoples successively converted, as
it had been a first time accomplished by tbe influence of
Christianity on the Roman world.
The researches of scholars agree in regarding slavery as
almost extinct in France, Germany, and England from the
eleventh to the thirteenth century. J The foundation of
cities, the organization of trades, the fraternity of military
service, the enthusiasm of the Crusades, the depopulation
resulting from frequent famines, the amelioration * of the
laws, and various other causes, were so many influences,
which united with the constant preaching of Christian
equality to effect this great and slow work.§
* Moehler, note 63.
t Voltaire, Essai sur l'histoire générale, Tom. n. Chap. LXXXTJI.
X Moehler, Biot, Naudet, Yanoski.   It is well known that Bohemia and Den-
mark were not converted until the ninth century, Sweden in the twelfth.         /
§ As to serfhood, traces of it were prolonged to the beginning of our century.