What was the Medieval Catholic Church's position on slavery?

Answer 1

During the Middle Ages, the Church repeatedly prohibited the sale of Christian slaves to masters who were not Christian and the exportation of slaves to lands that were not Christian. It also condemned slavery in general on a number of occasions.

Slavery was common all in much of the world at the time the Middle Ages started. Certainly it was common in most of the Roman Empire, and it was common practice under Islam. The people of Western Asia included groups that raided into Eastern Europe for slaves, the Vikings took slaves, though mostly for their own use. St. Patrick was a slave because he was taken in a raid by Irish slave pirates. Slavery was used as a form of punishment in the Middle Ages; a person who committed a crime and could not pay the fine could be sold into slavery, with the money going to pay the fine, including compensation for victims or their families. In fact people sold themselves into slavery during times of famine, just to get food. These things being the case, the Church might have had a job it could not finish if it tried to stop slavery altogether.

The opposition to slavery did have effect, however. In 1066, only a few weeks after The Battle of Hastings, King William I made a law that slavery of Christians was not permitted, and slave trade was abolished in England altogether in 1102 by Henry I, as a result of the condemnation of slavery by the Council of London. Similar work was being done outside England in Western Europe.

It should be noted that slavery and serfdom are not the same thing, and so condemnations of slavery did not amount to condemnations of serfdom. Serfs could not be bought or sold, and had important rights under the system of serfdom, under which they were largely, though not entirely, free.

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Answer 2

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