European University Institute Library

The slaves of the churches, a history, Mary E. Sommar

eng

Includes bibliographical references and index

index present

non fiction

The slaves of the churches

electronic resource

bibliographydictionaries

Mary E. Sommar

Oxford scholarship online.

a history

This is the story of how the church sought to establish norms for slave ownership on the part of ecclesiastical institutions and personnel and for others' behaviour toward such slaves. The story begins in the New Testament era, when the earliest Christian norms were established, and continues through the late Roman Empire, the Germanic kingdoms, and the Carolingian Empire, to the thirteenth-century establishment of a body of ecclesiastical regulations (canon law) that would persist into the twentieth century. Chronicles, letters, and other documents from each of the various historical periods, along with an analysis of the various policies and statutes, provide insight into the situations of these unfree ecclesiastical dependents.--, Provided by publisher