e not seen a
great number of texts contrary to property?'[2] The closeness of the
analogy between the patristic treatment of slavery and of property
appears forcibly in the following passage of Lactantius: 'God who
created man willed that all should be equal. He has imposed on all
the same condition of living; He has produced all in wisdom; He has
promised immortality to all; no one is cut off from His heavenly
benefits. In His sight no one is a slave, no one a master; for if we
have all the same Father, by an equal right we are all His children;
no one is poor in the sight of God but he who is without justice, no
one rich but he who is full of virtue.... Some one will say, Are there
not among you some poor and others rich; some servants and others
masters? Is there not some difference between individuals? There is
none, nor is there any other cause why we mutually bestow on each
other the name of brethren except that we believe ourselves to be
equal. For since we measure all human things not by the body but by
the spirit, although the condition of bodies is different, yet we have
no servants, but we both regard them, and speak of them as brothers in
spirit, in religion as fellow-servants.'[3] Slavery was declared to
be a blessing, because, like poverty, it afforded the opportunity of
practising the virtues of humility and patience.[4] The treatment
of the institution of slavery underwent a striking and important
development in the hands of St. Augustine, who justified it as one of
the penalties incurred by man as a result of the sin of Adam and Eve.
'The first holy men,' writes the Saint, 'were rather shepherds than
kings, God showing herein what both the order of the creation desired,
and what the deserts of sin exacted. For justly was the burden of
servitude laid upon the back of transgression. And therefore in all
the Scriptures we never read the word _servus_ until Noah laid it as
a curse upon his offending son. So that it was guilt, and not nature,
that gave origin to that name.... Sin is the mother of servitude and
the first cause of man's subjection to man.'[5] St. Augustine also
justifies the enslavement of those conquered in war--'It is God's
decree to humble the conquered, either reforming their sins herein or
punishing them.'[6]

[Footnote 1: _Op. cit._, p. 318.]

[Footnote 2: _Ibid._, p. 321.]

[Footnote 3: _Div. Inst_., v. 15-16.]

[Footnote 4: Chryst., _Genes._, serm. v. i.; _Ep. ad Cor._, hom. xix.