What was the position of the popes on slavery?

Answer 1

Another answer from our community:

He would possibly have a abolitionist point of view. The church teaches Slavery has always been bad and that no human must go through that punishment. The Torah(jewish books)or the Old Testament of The Bible teaches this too, but they believe people who were slaves, were born for it. The church and the Pope believe Slavery is morally wrong and no human must go through the treatment which slavery involves.

Answer 2

• It is known that at the time of Ppope Gregory I that the papal estates employed slaves.
• In 1089, Pope Urban II ruled that the wives of priests were to be enslaved.
• Pope Alexander III declared all men entitled to liberty, in opposition to slavery, but "this was in the context of an appeal to a Moorish king to release Christian prisoners of war". Otherwise, his views on slavery are ambiguous. The Third Lateran Council (1179) approved of the enslavement of those who assisted Saracens, and the enslavement of Cathars.
• The legitimacy of slavery is incorporated in the Corpus Iuris Canonici, promulgated by Pope Gregory IX, which remained official law of the Church until 1913.
• Pope Martin V sanctioned the Portuguese trade in African slaves. He anathemised those who sold Christian slaves to Muslims.
• Pope Nicholas V gave the Portuguese the rights to acquire slaves along the African coast by force or trade.
• King Ferdinand of Aragon gave Pope Innocent VIII one hundred Moorish slaves, which he shared out with favoured Cardinals.
• Pope John Paul II apologised in 1993 for the Church's role in the African slave trade.