{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/007/0070441.htm","path":"chr/ecf/007/0070441.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/007/0070441.htm","text":"(To purchase a slave, and save a soul, p. 424.)\nThe calm and patient course of the Church in gradually obliterating slavery has been well defended by the pious Spanish Ultramontane writer Jacques Balm\u00e8s. 2865 Of course, he imagines that \u201cthe Catholic Church,\u201d which wrought the change, was his own Tridentine Communion, 2866 Lecky\u2019s remarks on the gladiators and slavery as the product of famines and distress are worthy of note, and even he is forced to recognise the ameliorating influences of Christianity from the beginning. 2867 He says:\u2014\n\u201cChristianity for the first time made charity a rudimentary virtue, giving it a foremost place in the moral type and in the exhortations of its teachers. Besides its general influence in stimulating the affections, it effected a complete revolution in this sphere, by representing the poor as the special representatives of the Christian founder, and thus making the love of Christ rather than the love of man the principle of charity. Even in the days of persecution, collections for the relief of the poor were made at the Sunday meetings. The agap\u00e6, or feasts of love, were intended mainly for the poor; and food that was saved by the fasts was devoted to their benefit. A vast organization of charity, presided over by the bishops, and actively directed by the deacons, soon ramified over Christendom, till the bond of charity became the bond of unity, and the most distant sections of the Christian Church corresponded by the interchange of mercy. 2868 Long before the era of Constantine it was observed that the charities of the Christians were so extensive\u2014it may perhaps be said so excessive\u2014that they drew very many impostors to the Church; and, when the victory of Christianity was achieved, the enthusiasm for charity displayed itself in the erection of numerous institutions that were altogether unknown to the pagan world.\u201d\nSee his chapter (xvii.) Moyens employ\u00e9s par l\u2019\u00e9glise affranchir les esclaves, Civilisation Europ\u00e9ene, vol. i. p. 222, Paris, 1851.\n425:2866\nThe countrymen of Balm\u00e8s, on the contrary, were the authors of the negro slavery of modern times.\n425:2867\nHistory of European Morals, vol. ii. p. 84.\n425:2868\nSee also Elucidation XII. vol. v. p. 563.","title":"Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol VII: Constitutions of the Holy A...","type":"page"}