Class Notes 3/1

Slavery and Baptism: Promise of Freedom or Practices in Conflict?

Slavery in Early Christianity

• In Rome, it is possible that every fourth person was a slave
• Outside of Rome, it is possible that every sixth person was enslaved, as low as 1/10 in different parts
• Individuals were born into slavery or taken into slavery by force
• Not entirely based on race or ethnicity
• primarily through war
• Various types of slavery
• household
• agricultural
• labor: shopkeeping
• prostitution: common within slavery
• Manumission was a possibility and slaves could purchase freedom
• Unprobable

Slavery Signified Visually

• Roman slave collar
• instructions for return if they escape
• Gold bracelet
• Branded and tattooed

The Promise of Baptism

• Galatians 3 (Written by Paul)
• “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus”
• For Paul, you become part of body of Christ after baptism
• Metaphorically you become a free, Jewish male
• 1 Corinthians 7 (Written by Paul)
• “For whoever was called in the Lord as a slave is a freed person belonging to the Lord, just as whoever was free when called is a slave of Christ”
• Act out your role in society
• Used to justify slavery

Slavery in the Byzantine Period (4th century CE)

• Increasing number of slaves in the center of Xian theology, Africa and Egypt
• Many Xians were slaves
• The importance of slave and slaveholder fulfilling their duties to one another was stressed

Council Of Gangra (343)

• Canon 3. If any one shall teach a slave, under the pretext of pity, to despise his master to run away from his service, and not to serve his own master with good will and all honour, let him be anathema
• Shows us that Christianity was used as a tool to push against slavery

What Happens when a slave wants to join the clergy or Monastery?

• Before the 6th century CE, the master had to give permission. However, at this time slaves who had not committed a crime, could find asylum in the church and become part of an order
• Those who became priests could be granted freedom (change in social status)
• Did not need to be Christian in order to do this, although they became Christian before joining the clergy
• 1050:the church can grant asylum for a slave even if they committed a crime, but becomes property of the church
• Bishops owned, bought, gifted slaves just like other wealthy individuals

Literature in the 9th -11th Centuries

• There is a shift in which the slave is imagined as having an inner life
• This coincides with the rise of Arab/Muslim presence and the growing numbers of Xians taken as slaves by non-Christian forces
• Literary trope of the freeborn Xian who becomes a slave and lives a saintly life among non-Xians
• Beginning of shift in thinking towards slavery

Muslim Slaves in Naples

• In the 9th century, Muslim forces from Sicily becomes allies of the Neapolitans against Benevento. During this period there is significant economic exchange between Arab Muslims and Neapolitans
• After the Norman Conquest of Sicily the 11th century, increasing numbers of Muslims are taken into slavery by Italian Christians
• In the 16th and 17th centuries the population increases even more
• What is the problem for medieval Neapolitans?
• Increasing population of Muslims
• Do we convert slaves to Christianity or expel them
• What is their solution to the problem?
• Don’t want to expel them
• Seeking solutions for conversion
• What is interesting about this solution according to Mazur?
• Systematic/Efficient effort for conversions
• Post-Reformation/Council of Trent
• Creation of Jesuits
• Catholic order of priests to combat heresy
• Missionizing
• Ignatius of Loyal
• Francis Xavier
• Revitalization of spreading Christianity

Bonsignore Cacciaguerra

• Charismatic spiritual guide to many influential people in Naples
• From Sienna
• His view on slavery
• Even though their body was enslaved, their souls are free
• Frees his own slaves
• “If you weren’t enslaved, you would never have become Christian”
• Becomes dominant argument of pro-slavery Christians

Cacciaguerra is the tip of the iceberg

• Paolo Burali d’Arezzo’s Congrega dei Catecumeni educated converted slaves in the teachings of Christianity
• Efforts of the Jesuits at conversion, as part of their mission to combat heresy and proved charity to unbelievers
• Congregation of the Epiphany/of Slaves
• The use of “the scaffold”
• Motivation to convert in the last moments before a person was executed

Success?

• Mazur notes the high numbers of slave conversions in Naples during the 16th-17th centuries
• Why did so many slaves covert?
• Convenience
• Opportunity in Rome for freedom

Pope Paul III

• Offers freedom to converted slaves who come to the Capitoline in Rome
• In Naples, they reject this view

How this Played out in the Southern US

• Henry Box Brown’s (escaped slave) letter
• Shows that some slaves wanted to convert
• Took baptism into their own hands