There existed, of course, the practice of various types of slavery before the 15th century. However, it was not until the 15th century, and with growing frequency from the 16th to the 19th centuries, that racial slavery as we know it became a major problem. It is this form of servitude that is called to mind when we think today of the institution of slavery, and is the type which was to prevail in parts of the New World for over four centuries.
From 1435 to 1890, we have numerous bulls and encyclicals from several popes written condemning both slavery and the slave trade.
Eugene IV: Sicut Dudum, 1435
January 13, 1435, Sicut Dudum.
“They have deprived the natives of their property or turned it to their own use, and have subjected some of the inhabitants of said islands to perpetual slavery (subdiderunt perpetuae servituti#, sold them to other persons and committed other various illicit and evil deeds against them… Therefore We … exhort, through the sprinkling of the Blood of Jesus Christ shed for their sins, one and all, temporal princes, lords, captains, armed men, barons, soldiers, nobles, communities and all others of every kind among the Christian faithful of whatever state, grade or condition, that they themselves desist from the aforementioned deeds, cause those subject to them to desist from them, and restrain them rigorously. These people are to be totally and perpetually free and are to be let go without the exaction or reception of any money.”
The date of this Bull, 1435, was significant Nearly 60 years before Europeans find New World, we already had the papal condemnation of slavery
Eugene IV was clear in his intentions both to condemn the enslavement of the residents of the Canary Islands
Paul III: Sublimis Deus, 1537
Two other bulls would be published to implement the teaching of Sublimis, one to impose penalties on those who fail to abide by the teaching against slavery, and a second to specify the sacramental consequences of the teaching that the Indians are true men#
The first central teaching of this beautiful work is the universality of the call to receive the Faith and salvation:
"And since mankind, according to the witness of Sacred Scripture, was created for eternal life and happiness, and since no one is able to attain this eternal life and happiness except through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, it is necessary to confess that man is of such a nature and condition that he is capable to receive faith in Christ and that everyone who possesses human nature is apt for receiving such faith
“Seeing this and envying it, the enemy of the human race, who always opposes all good men so that the race may perish, has thought up a way, unheard of before now, by which he might impede the saving word of God from being preached to the nations# He has stirred up some of his allies who, desiring to satisfy their own avarice, are presuming to assert far and wide that the Indians of the West and the South who have come to our notice in these times be reduced to our service like brute animals, under the pretext that they are lacking the Catholic Faith# And they reduce them to slavery #Et eos in servitutem redigunt#, treating them with afflictions they would scarcely use with brute animals#”
The second core teaching of Sublimis Deus which follows from this is the necessity of restoring and maintaining the liberty of the Indians:
"Therefore, We, # # # noting that the Indians themselves indeed are true men and are not only capable of the Christian faith, but, as has been made known to us, promptly hasten to the faith’ and wishing to provide suitable remedies for them
Thus, we see that Eugene IV and Paul III did not hesitate to condemn the forced servitude of Blacks and Indians, and they did so once such practices became known to the Holy See# Their teaching was continued by Gregory XIV in 1591 and by Urban VIII in 1639# Indeed Urban, in his document Commissum Nobis, appealed to the teaching of his predecessors, particularly Paul III# The pontifical teaching was continued by the response of the Holy Office on March 20, 1686, under Innocent XI, and by the encyclical of Benedict XIV, Immensa Pastorum, on December 20, 1741# This work was followed by the efforts of Pius VII at the Congress of Vienna in 1815 to have the victors over Napoleon outlaw slavery#
Gregory XVI: In Supremo, 1839
The 1839 Constitution In Supremo by Gregory XVI continued the antislavery teaching of his predecessors
The introduction of In Supremo tells us that it was written to turn Christians away from the practice of enslaving blacks and other peoples# In it, Gregory first mentioned the efforts of the Apostles and other early Christians to alleviate out of the motive of Christian charity the suffering of those held in servitude, and that they encouraged the practice of emancipating deserving slaves# At the same time, he noted that:
“There were to be found subsequently among the faithful some who, shamefully blinded by the desire of sordid gain, in lonely and distant countries did not hesitate to reduce to slavery #in servitutem redigere# Indians, Blacks and other unfortunate peoples, or else, by instituting or expanding the trade in those who had been made slaves by others, aided the crime of others# Certainly many Roman Pontiffs of glorious memory, Our Predecessors, did not fail, according to the duties of their office, to blame severely this way of acting as dangerous for the spiritual welfare of those who did such things and a shame to the Christian na#e#”
Gregory then cited the various predecessors and their antislavery teachings, even recalling the familiar phrase in servitutem redigere contained in the work of Paul III and his successors# He mentioned the efforts of Clement I, Pius II, Paul III, Benedict XIV, Urban VIII and Pius VII, before concluding this historical summary:
“Indeed these sanctions and this concern of Our Predecessors availed in no small measure, with the help of God, to protect the Indians and the other peoples mentioned from the cruelties of the invaders and from the greed of Christian traders#”
However Gregory was well aware that there was still much work to be done:
“The slave trade, although it has been somewhat diminished, is still carried on by numerous Christians# Therefore, desiring to remove such a great shame from all Christian peoples ### and walking in the footsteps of Our Predecessors, We, by apostolic authority, warn and strongly exhort in the Lord faithful Christians of every condition that no one in the future dare to bother unjustly, despoil of their possessions, or reduce to slavery #in servitutem redigere# Indians, Blacks or other such peoples# Nor are they to lend aid and favor to those who give themselves up to these practices, or exercise that inhuman traffic by which the Blacks, as if they were not humans but rather mere animals, having been brought into slavery in no matter what way, are, without any distinction and contrary to the rights of justice and humanity, bought, sold and sometimes given over to the hardest labor#”
Thus, the historical papal teaching against unjust servitude and the slave trade was upheld, and in 1839 was once again presented to the Christian faithful for their adherence#
“We prohibit and strictly forbid any Ecclesiastic or lay person from presuming to defend as permissible this trade in Blacks under no matter what pretext or excuse, or from publishing or teaching in any manner whatsoever, in public or privately, opinions contrary to what We have set forth in these Apostolic Letters#”
The text of the Papal Constitution itself clearly condemned both the slave trade and slavery, as is apparent from the preceding paragraph citations# Both of the above citations prohibit the slave trade# Likewise, in the first paragraph we read that slavery itself is also condemned: “### no one in the future dare to ### reduce to slavery #in servitutem redigere# Indians, Blacks or other such peoples#” In the second paragraph, the prohibition of “opinions contrary to what We have set forth in these Apostolic Letters” indicates that no one may hold that slavery itself is somehow not condemned#
not old testamament slavery but close : )
also most of the timeThe slaves had rights in Israel’s social system, unlike other nations. When we think of slavery it conjures up the image of racial prejudice, but this was not the case. They did not treat them as non-human or animals but as men made in the image of God.
shalom
God Bless
Hope this helps !!!
