slavery as part of the natural order of human life, and adopted into its own discipline the rule that, apart from the master's consent, there could be no marriage of slaves. In the view of the ancients slaves and children stood in the same position so far as personal liberty went. Bingham says:
"And therefore it was equally a crime for a slave to marry without consent of the master as for a child to do it without consent of parents. And for the same reason a slave was not allowed either to enter himself into a monastery, or take orders, without the consent of his master … because this was to deprive his master of his legal right of service, which, by the original state and condition of slaves, was his due: and the Church would not be accessory to such frauds and in justice, but rather discouraged them by prohibitions and suitable penalties laid upon them."[1]
It is sufficiently evident that this could not be a final, and was never a satisfactory, solution of the problem; with the Gospel in its hands, and with its calendars of martyrs including names of slaves, it was not possible for the Church really to accept the view that slaves were not persons as well as other Christians. Yet it
- ↑ See "Antiquities," book xvi. sect. iii.
