History of European Morals From Augustus to Charlemagne Volume II Part 37

_ 110 Essais_, liv. ii. ch. xiii.

_ 111 Lettres persanes_, lxxvi.

_ 112 Nouvelle Helose_, partie iii. let. 21-22. Esquirol gives a curious ill.u.s.tration of the way the influence of Rousseau penetrated through all cla.s.ses. A little child of thirteen committed suicide, leaving a writing beginning: "Je legue mon ame a Rousseau, mon corps a la terre."-_Maladies mentales_, tome i. p. 588.

113 In general, however, Voltaire was extremely opposed to the philosophy of despair, but he certainly approved of some forms of suicide. See the articles "Caton" and "Suicide," in his _Dict.

philos._

114 Lisle, _Du Suicide_, pp. 411, 412.

115 "Le monde est vide depuis les Romains."-St.-Just, _Proces de Danton_.

116 This fact has been often noticed. The reader may find many statistics on the subject in Lisle, _Du Suicide_, and Winslow's _Anatomy of Suicide_.

117 "There seems good reason to believe, that with the progress of mental development through the ages, there is, as in the case with other forms of organic development, a correlative degeneration going on, and that an increase of insanity is a penalty which an increase of our present civilisation necessarily pays."-Maudsley's _Physiology of Mind_, p. 201.

_ 118 Cod. Theod._ lib. ix. t.i.t. 12.

119 Some commentators imagine (see Muratori, _Antich. Ital. Diss._ xiv.) that among the Pagans the murder of a man's own slave was only a.s.similated to the crime of murdering the slave of another man, while in the Christian law it was defined as homicide, equivalent to the murder of a freeman. I confess, however, this point does not appear to me at all clear.

120 See G.o.defroy's _Commentary_ on these laws.

121 Exodus xxi. 21

122 "Quas vilitates vitae dignas legum observatione non credidit."-_Cod.

Theod._ lib. ix. t.i.t. 7. See on this law, Wallon, tome iii. pp. 417, 418.

Dean Milman observes, "In the old Roman society in the Eastern Empire this distinction between the marriage of the freeman and the concubinage of the slave was long recognised by Christianity itself.

These unions were not blessed, as the marriages of their superiors had soon begun to be, by the Church. Basil the Macedonian (A.D.

867-886) first enacted that the priestly benediction should hallow the marriage of the slave; but the authority of the emperor was counteracted by the deep-rooted prejudices of centuries."-_Hist. of Latin Christianity_, vol. ii. p. 15.

_ 123 Cod. Theod._ lib. ii. t.i.t. 25.

124 Ibid. lib. iv. t.i.t. 7.

125 Ibid. lib. ix. t.i.t. 9.

_ 126 Corpus Juris_, vi. 1.

_ 127 Cod. Theod._ lib. vi. t.i.t. 2.

128 See on all this legislation, Wallon, tome iii.; Champagny, _Charite chretienne_, pp. 214-224.

129 It is worthy of notice, too, that the justice of slavery was frequently based by the Fathers, as by modern defenders of slavery, on the curse of Ham. See a number of pa.s.sages noticed by Moehler, _Le Christianisme et l'Esclavage_ (trad. franc.), pp. 151-152.

130 The penalty, however, appears to have been reduced to two years'

exclusion from communion. Muratori says: "In piu consili si truova decretato, 'excommunicatione vel pnitentiae biennii esse subjiciendum qui servum proprium sine conscientia judicis occiderit.' "-_Antich. Ital._ Diss. xiv.

Besides the works which treat generally of the penitential discipline, the reader may consult with fruit Wright's letter _On the Political Condition of the English Peasantry_, and Moehler, p.

186.

131 On the great mult.i.tude of emanc.i.p.ated slaves who entered, and at one time almost monopolised, the ecclesiastical offices, compare Moehler, _Le Christianisme et l'Esclavage_, pp. 177-178. Leo the Great tried to prevent slaves being raised to the priestly office, because it would degrade the latter.

132 See a most admirable dissertation on this subject in Le Blant, _Inscriptions chretiennes de la Gaule_, tome ii. pp. 284-299; Gibbon's _Decline and Fall_, ch. x.x.xviii.

133 Champagny, _Charite chretienne_, p. 210. These numbers are, no doubt, exaggerated; see Wallon, _Hist. de l'Esclavage_, tome iii. p.

38.

134 See Schmidt, _La Societe civile dans le Monde romain_, pp. 246-248.

135 Muratori has devoted two valuable dissertations (_Antich. Ital._ xiv. xv.) to mediaeval slavery.

136 Ozanam's _Hist. of Civilisation in the Fifth Century_ (Eng. trans.), vol. ii. p. 43. St. Adelbert, Archbishop of Prague at the end of the tenth century, was especially famous for his opposition to the slave trade. In Sweden, the abolition of slavery in the thirteenth century was avowedly accomplished in obedience to Christian principles.

(Moehler, _Le Christianisme et l'Esclavage_, pp. 194-196; Ryan's _History of the Effects of Religion upon Mankind_, pp. 142, 143.)

137 Salvian, in a famous pa.s.sage (_De Gubernatione Dei_, lib. v.), notices the mult.i.tudes of poor who voluntarily became "coloni" for the sake of protection and a livelihood. The coloni, who were attached to the soil, were much the same as the mediaeval serfs. We have already noticed them coming into being, apparently when the Roman emperors settled barbarian prisoners to cultivate the desert lands of Italy; and before the barbarian invasions their numbers seem to have much increased. M. Guizot has devoted two chapters to this subject. (_Hist. de la Civilisation en France_, vii. viii.)

138 See Finlay's _Hist. of Greece_, vol. i. p. 241.

139 Moehler, p. 181.

140 "Non v'era anticamente signor secolare, vescovo, abbate, capitolo di canonici e monistero che non avesse al suo servigio molti servi.

Molto frequentemente solevano i secolari manometterli. Non cosi le chiese, e i monisteri, non per altra cagione, a mio credere, se non perche la manumissione e una spezie di alien.a.z.ione, ed era dai canoni proibito l'alienare i beni delle chiese."-Muratori, _Dissert._ xv. Some Councils, however, recognised the right of bishops to emanc.i.p.ate Church slaves. Moehler, _Le Christianisme et l'Esclavage_, p. 187. Many peasants placed themselves under the dominion of the monks, as being the best masters, and also to obtain the benefit of their prayers.

141 Muratori; Hallam's _Middle Ages_, ch. ii. part ii.

142 See on this subject, Ryan, pp. 151-152; Cibrario, _Economica politica del Medio Evo_, lib. iii. cap. ii., and especially Le Blant, _Inscriptions chretiennes de la Gaule_, tome ii. pp. 284-299.

143 About 5/6ths of a bushel. See Hume's _Essay on the Populousness of Ancient Nations_.

144 The history of these distributions is traced with admirable learning by M. Naudet in his _Memoire sur les Secours publics dans l'Antiquite_ (_Mem. de l'Academie des Inscrip. et Belles-lettres_, tome xiii.), an essay to which I am much indebted. See, too, Monnier, _Hist. de l'a.s.sistance publique_; B. Dumas, _Des Secours publics chez les Anciens_; and Schmidt, _Essai sur la Societe civile dans le Monde romain et sur sa Transformation par le Christianisme_.

145 Livy, ii. 9; Pliny, _Hist. Nat._ x.x.xi. 41.

146 Dion Ca.s.sius, x.x.xviii. 1-7.

147 Xiphilin, lxviii. 2; Pliny, _Ep._ vii. 31.

148 Spartian. _Sept. Severus_.

149 Suet. _August._ 41; Dion Ca.s.sius, li, 1.

150 "Afflictos civitatis relevavit; puellas puerosque natos parentibus egestosis sumptu publico per Italiae oppida ali jussit."-s.e.xt.

Aurelius Victor, _Epitome_, "Nerva." This measure of Nerva, though not mentioned by any other writer, is confirmed by the evidence of medals. (Naudet, p. 75.)

151 Plin. _Panegyr._ xxvi. xxviii.

152 We know of this charity from an extant bronze tablet. See Schmidt, _Essai historique sur la Societe romaine_, p. 428.