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Guru Granth Sahib
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ਜਪੁ | Jup
ਸੋ ਦਰੁ | So Dar
ਸੋਹਿਲਾ | Sohilaa
ਰਾਗੁ ਸਿਰੀਰਾਗੁ | Raag Siree-Raag
Gurbani (14-53)
Ashtpadiyan (53-71)
Gurbani (71-74)
Pahre (74-78)
Chhant (78-81)
Vanjara (81-82)
Vaar Siri Raag (83-91)
Bhagat Bani (91-93)
ਰਾਗੁ ਮਾਝ | Raag Maajh
Gurbani (94-109)
Ashtpadi (109)
Ashtpadiyan (110-129)
Ashtpadi (129-130)
Ashtpadiyan (130-133)
Bara Maha (133-136)
Din Raen (136-137)
Vaar Maajh Ki (137-150)
ਰਾਗੁ ਗਉੜੀ | Raag Gauree
Gurbani (151-185)
Quartets/Couplets (185-220)
Ashtpadiyan (220-234)
Karhalei (234-235)
Ashtpadiyan (235-242)
Chhant (242-249)
Baavan Akhari (250-262)
Sukhmani (262-296)
Thittee (296-300)
Gauree kii Vaar (300-323)
Gurbani (323-330)
Ashtpadiyan (330-340)
Baavan Akhari (340-343)
Thintteen (343-344)
Vaar Kabir (344-345)
Bhagat Bani (345-346)
ਰਾਗੁ ਆਸਾ | Raag Aasaa
Gurbani (347-348)
Chaupaday (348-364)
Panchpadde (364-365)
Kaafee (365-409)
Aasaavaree (409-411)
Ashtpadiyan (411-432)
Patee (432-435)
Chhant (435-462)
Vaar Aasaa (462-475)
Bhagat Bani (475-488)
ਰਾਗੁ ਗੂਜਰੀ | Raag Goojaree
Gurbani (489-503)
Ashtpadiyan (503-508)
Vaar Gujari (508-517)
Vaar Gujari (517-526)
ਰਾਗੁ ਦੇਵਗੰਧਾਰੀ | Raag Dayv-Gandhaaree
Gurbani (527-536)
ਰਾਗੁ ਬਿਹਾਗੜਾ | Raag Bihaagraa
Gurbani (537-556)
Chhant (538-548)
Vaar Bihaagraa (548-556)
ਰਾਗੁ ਵਡਹੰਸ | Raag Wadhans
Gurbani (557-564)
Ashtpadiyan (564-565)
Chhant (565-575)
Ghoriaan (575-578)
Alaahaniiaa (578-582)
Vaar Wadhans (582-594)
ਰਾਗੁ ਸੋਰਠਿ | Raag Sorath
Gurbani (595-634)
Asatpadhiya (634-642)
Vaar Sorath (642-659)
ਰਾਗੁ ਧਨਾਸਰੀ | Raag Dhanasaree
Gurbani (660-685)
Astpadhiya (685-687)
Chhant (687-691)
Bhagat Bani (691-695)
ਰਾਗੁ ਜੈਤਸਰੀ | Raag Jaitsree
Gurbani (696-703)
Chhant (703-705)
Vaar Jaitsaree (705-710)
Bhagat Bani (710)
ਰਾਗੁ ਟੋਡੀ | Raag Todee
ਰਾਗੁ ਬੈਰਾੜੀ | Raag Bairaaree
ਰਾਗੁ ਤਿਲੰਗ | Raag Tilang
Gurbani (721-727)
Bhagat Bani (727)
ਰਾਗੁ ਸੂਹੀ | Raag Suhi
Gurbani (728-750)
Ashtpadiyan (750-761)
Kaafee (761-762)
Suchajee (762)
Gunvantee (763)
Chhant (763-785)
Vaar Soohee (785-792)
Bhagat Bani (792-794)
ਰਾਗੁ ਬਿਲਾਵਲੁ | Raag Bilaaval
Gurbani (795-831)
Ashtpadiyan (831-838)
Thitteen (838-840)
Vaar Sat (841-843)
Chhant (843-848)
Vaar Bilaaval (849-855)
Bhagat Bani (855-858)
ਰਾਗੁ ਗੋਂਡ | Raag Gond
Gurbani (859-869)
Ashtpadiyan (869)
Bhagat Bani (870-875)
ਰਾਗੁ ਰਾਮਕਲੀ | Raag Ramkalee
Ashtpadiyan (902-916)
Gurbani (876-902)
Anand (917-922)
Sadd (923-924)
Chhant (924-929)
Dakhnee (929-938)
Sidh Gosat (938-946)
Vaar Ramkalee (947-968)
ਰਾਗੁ ਨਟ ਨਾਰਾਇਨ | Raag Nat Narayan
Gurbani (975-980)
Ashtpadiyan (980-983)
ਰਾਗੁ ਮਾਲੀ ਗਉੜਾ | Raag Maalee Gauraa
Gurbani (984-988)
Bhagat Bani (988)
ਰਾਗੁ ਮਾਰੂ | Raag Maaroo
Gurbani (889-1008)
Ashtpadiyan (1008-1014)
Kaafee (1014-1016)
Ashtpadiyan (1016-1019)
Anjulian (1019-1020)
Solhe (1020-1033)
Dakhni (1033-1043)
ਰਾਗੁ ਤੁਖਾਰੀ | Raag Tukhaari
Bara Maha (1107-1110)
Chhant (1110-1117)
ਰਾਗੁ ਕੇਦਾਰਾ | Raag Kedara
Gurbani (1118-1123)
Bhagat Bani (1123-1124)
ਰਾਗੁ ਭੈਰਉ | Raag Bhairo
Gurbani (1125-1152)
Partaal (1153)
Ashtpadiyan (1153-1167)
ਰਾਗੁ ਬਸੰਤੁ | Raag Basant
Gurbani (1168-1187)
Ashtpadiyan (1187-1193)
Vaar Basant (1193-1196)
ਰਾਗੁ ਸਾਰਗ | Raag Saarag
Gurbani (1197-1200)
Partaal (1200-1231)
Ashtpadiyan (1232-1236)
Chhant (1236-1237)
Vaar Saarang (1237-1253)
ਰਾਗੁ ਮਲਾਰ | Raag Malaar
Gurbani (1254-1293)
Partaal (1265-1273)
Ashtpadiyan (1273-1278)
Chhant (1278)
Vaar Malaar (1278-91)
Bhagat Bani (1292-93)
ਰਾਗੁ ਕਾਨੜਾ | Raag Kaanraa
Gurbani (1294-96)
Partaal (1296-1318)
Ashtpadiyan (1308-1312)
Chhant (1312)
Vaar Kaanraa
Bhagat Bani (1318)
ਰਾਗੁ ਕਲਿਆਨ | Raag Kalyaan
Gurbani (1319-23)
Ashtpadiyan (1323-26)
ਰਾਗੁ ਪ੍ਰਭਾਤੀ | Raag Prabhaatee
Gurbani (1327-1341)
Ashtpadiyan (1342-51)
ਰਾਗੁ ਜੈਜਾਵੰਤੀ | Raag Jaijaiwanti
Gurbani (1352-53)
Salok | Gatha | Phunahe | Chaubole | Swayiye
Sehskritee Mahala 1
Sehskritee Mahala 5
Gaathaa Mahala 5
Phunhay Mahala 5
Chaubolae Mahala 5
Shaloks Bhagat Kabir
Shaloks Sheikh Farid
Swaiyyae Mahala 5
Swaiyyae in Praise of Gurus
Shaloks in Addition To Vaars
Shalok Ninth Mehl
Mundavanee Mehl 5
ਰਾਗ ਮਾਲਾ, Raag Maalaa
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<blockquote data-quote="Archived_member15" data-source="post: 167308" data-attributes="member: 17438"><p>Slavery:</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>What is technological advancement without moral advancement? </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>The Catholic Church had all but eradicated slavery from the Christian populations of Europe by the 1100s. The Catholic Church kept a consistent campaign against race based slavery from 1400s until the 1890s. </p><p> </p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">"...The Roman Catholic Church, as an institution, sustained a legal opposition toward slavery. Beginning in the fifteenth century, [particularly], Popes expressed their position in different papal bulls and letters to monarchs..." </span></p><p> </p><p><strong><em><span style="font-size: 12px">- The Historical encyclopedia of world slavery, Volume 1; Volume 7</span></em></strong></p><p><em><strong><span style="font-size: 12px">By Junius P. Rodriguez </span></strong></em></p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p><u><span style="font-size: 15px">Vouthon's Catholic Church and slavery timeline</span></u></p><p> </p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">* Jesus Christ (the big man Himself <img src="http://forums.catholic.com/images/smilies/wink.gif" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> ): </span></p><p> </p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">"...And the Lord said: Go out, those who wish to do so, from your bonds..." </span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><em>- Saint Clement of Alexandria, Miscellanies 6.44</em></strong></span></p><p> </p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">* c.185-254: Origen says that he favours the Jewish practice of freeing all slaves after seven years. </span></p><p> </p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">* c.335-394: Gregory of Nyssa opposes slavery outright: </span></p><p> </p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">"...When someone claims God's property as his own and assigns dominion to his own race, so as to consider himself the lord of men and women, is he not through pride overstepping his own nature and imagining that he is different from those under him?...You condemn human beings - whose nature is free and who possess free will - to slavery </span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">and you make laws in opposition to God, overturning his law for human nature. As though resisting and fighting against divine decrees, you bring under the yoke of slavery one who was made specifically to be the lord of the earth and appointed ruler by the Creator...Irrational animals are the only slaves of human beings...But in dividing human nature into slaves and lords you have caused it to be enslaved to itself and to own itself...He who knew human nature rightly said that the whole world was not worth being given in exchange for a human soul. Therefore, whenever a human being is for sale, nothing less than the Lord of the Earth is led to the marketplace...'I got me slave-girls and slaves.' For what price, tell me? What did you find in existence worth as much as this human nature? What price did you put on rationality? How many obols did you reckon the equivalent of the likeness of God? How many staters did you get for selling that being shaped by God? God said, Let us make man in our own image and likeness. If he is in the likeness of God, and rules the whole earth, and has been granted authority over everything on earth from God, who is his buyer, tell me? Who is his seller? To God alone belongs this power; or, rather, not even to God himself. For his gracious gifts, it says, are irrevocable. God would not therefore reduce the human race to slavery, since he himself, when we had been enslaved to sin, spontaneously recalled us to freedom. But if God does not enslave what is free, who is he that sets his own power above God's?..." </span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><em>- Saint Gregory of Nyssa (Homilies on Ecclesiastes)</em></strong></span></p><p> </p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">* Circa 400: St. Augustine speaks of the granting of freedom to slaves as a great religious virtue, and declares the Christian law against regarding God's rational creation as property.</span></p><p> </p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">* 400-425: Acacius of Amida opposes slavery </span></p><p> </p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">* 415-493: Saint Patrick, himself a former slave, argues for the abolition of slavery. He particularly is appalled by the treatment of female captives. <em>The Letter to Coroticus</em> is addressed to an Irish chieftan who had taken some of Patrick's converts into slavery. When Coroticus fails to respond to a plea to to set the captives free, Patrick responds by excommunicating Coroticus. Patrick proclaims that one cannot be a Christian and own slaves. The suffering of women slaves moved Patrick deeply; he remarked on their courage and tenacity. He tells us that "slavery is in and of itself horrific". Patrick so rejected the practice of slavery that he calls for Coroticus and his soldiers to make reparations and do penance. </span></p><p> </p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">"...Wherefore, then I plead with you earnestly, ye holy and humble of heart, it is not permissible to court the favour of such people, nor to take food or drink with them, not even to accept alms, until they make reparation to God in hardships, through penance, with shedding of tears, and set free the baptized servants of God and handmaids of Christ, for whom he died and was crucified...Where, then, will Coroticus with his criminals, rebels against Christ, where will they see themselves, they who distribute baptized women as prizes - for a miserable temporal kingdom, which will pass away in a moment?..." </span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><em>- Saint Patrick (415-493), Letter to Coroticus </em></strong></span></p><p> </p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">"...But the greatest is the suffering of those women who live in slavery. All the time they have to endure terror and threats. But the Lord gave His grace to many of His maidens; for though they are forbidden to do so, many of them follow Him bravely..." </span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><em>- Saint Patrick (415-493), Confession </em></strong></span></p><p> </p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">* 500s: While in power Pope Gregory the Great attempts to repress slave-dealing. He wrote: "<strong>Since our Redeemer, the Author of all life, deigned to take human flesh, that by the power of His Godhood the chains by which we were held in bondage being broken, He might restore us to our first state of liberty, it is most fitting that men by the concession of manumission should restore to the freedom in which they were born those whom nature sent free into the world, but who have been condemned to the yoke of slavery by the law of nations</strong>". </span></p><p> </p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">* 588-650 - Saint Eligius uses his vast wealth to purchase British and Saxon slaves in groups of 50 and 100 in order to set them free.</span></p><p> </p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">* Circa 610: St. Isidore of Seville writes: </span></p><p> </p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">"...I can hardly credit that a friend of Christ, who has experienced that grace, which bestowed freedom on all, would still own slaves...God has made no difference between the soul of the slave and that of the freedman..."</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><em>- Saint Isidore of Seville (c. 560 – 4 April 636)</em></strong></span></p><p> </p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">* 626 – 680: Saint Bathilde (wife of King Clovis II) becomes famous for her campaign to stop slave-trading and free all slaves </span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">* 851: Saint Anskar begins his efforts to halt the Viking slave trade</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">* 1000s: Church teaches that no Christians are allowed to be slaves to other Christians. That the Church willingly baptized slaves is claimed as proof that they have souls, and so both kings and bishops—including William the Conqueror (1027-1087) and Saints Wulfstan (1009-1095) and Saint Anselm (1033-1109)—forbid the enslavement of Christians. The Protestant Rodney Stark wrtites, "<strong>Since, except for small settlements of Jews, and the Vikings in the north, everyone was at least nominally a Christian, that effectively abolished slavery in medieval Europe, except at the southern and eastern interfaces with Islam where both sides enslaved one another's prisoners. But even this was sometimes condemned: in the tenth century, bishops in Venice did public penance for past involvement in the Moorish slave trade and sought to prevent all Venetians from involvement in slavery</strong>".</span></p><p> </p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">* 1167: Pope Alexander III condemns slavery and declares it unnatural: </span></p><p> </p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">"...Christian men ought to be exempt from slavery, [moreover] nature having made no slaves, all men have an equal right to liberty..." </span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><em>- Pope Alexander III, Papal Bull (concerning the Muslim King of Valencia's enslavement of captives), 1167 </em></strong></span></p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">*1100s: According to the historian James Bowden, "[By this time] mainly by the voice of the Church, slavery had been extinguished in western Europe". For the first time in history we have basically an entire continent where no European is permitted to enslave another European. </span></p><p> </p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">* 1200s: "<strong>...Saint Thomas Aquinas deduced that slavery was a sin, and a series of popes upheld his position. It is significant that in Aquinas's day, slavery was a thing of the past or of distant lands. Consequently, he gave very little attention to the subject per se, paying more attention to serfdom, which he held to be repugnant.However, in his overall analysis of morality in human relationships, Aquinas placed slavery in opposition to natural law, deducing that all "rational creatures" are entitled to justice. Hence he found no natural basis for the enslavement of one person rather than another, "thus removing any possible justification for slavery based on race or religion." Right reason, not coercion, is the moral basis of authority, for "one man is not by nature ordained to another as an end." Here Aquinas distinguished two forms of "subjection" or authority, just and unjust. The former exists when leaders work for the advantage and benefit of their subjects. The unjust form of subjection "is that of slavery, in which the ruler manages the subject for his own [the ruler's] advantage." Based on the immense authority vested in Aquinas by the Church, the official view came to be that slavery is sinful...</strong>" - Rodney Stark </span></p><p> </p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">* 1400s: Unable now, because of the Church, to enslave fellow Christian Europeans, the emerging Spanish and Portugese Empires look abroad to find slaves in other countries. Thus begins the new "racial", "chattel" slave trade of Africans and natives from around the world. The Church condemns this from the very beginning. </span></p><p> </p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">* 1435: Pope Eugene IV condemns the enslavement of native peoples in the newly colonized Canary Islands. His bull Sicut Dudum rebuked European enslavers and commanded that: </span></p><p> </p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong>“...All and each of the faithful of each sex, within the space of fifteen days of the publication of these letters in the place where they live, that they restore to their earlier liberty all and each person of either sex who were once residents of the Canary Islands … who have been made subject to slavery. These people are to be totally and perpetually free and are to be let go without the exaction or reception of any money..."</strong></span></p><p> </p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">* 1462: Pope Pius II (1405-1464) announces in a papal encyclical that slavery is a 'great misfortune' and a 'great crime' - meaning that it was not a natural condition for mankind - and encourages individual Catholics to release their slaves. </span></p><p> </p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">* 1464 - 1448: Rodney Stark: "...<strong>Pope Pius II (1458 to 1464) and Pope Sixtus IV (1471 to 1484) followed with additional bulls condemning enslavement of the Canary Islanders, which, obviously, had continued</strong>. What this episode displays is the weakness of papal authority at this time, not the indifference of the Church to the sin of slavery..." </span></p><p> </p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">* 1519: Bartholomew De Las Casas, a Dominican, now being considered for sainthood, argues against slavery and becomes "<strong>The Defender of the Native Americans</strong>":</span></p><p> </p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">"...<strong>No one may be deprived of his liberty nor may any person be enslaved</strong>....”</span></p><p> </p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">* 1514: James Bowden writes: "<strong>The rapid development of this atrocious system, under the fostering influences of Spanish and Portugese avarice and cruelty, did not pass without strong and decided censure. It was emphatically denounced by the highest authorities in the Catholic Church and at times by the most powerful men in the state. Pope Leo X declared against slavery at a very early stage of its existence, and he did so under somewhat extraordinary circumstances. The Dominicans, an order of the Church who witnessed the horrors of this cruel bondage, held that it was utterly repugnant to the Gospel, and pleaded for its entire abolition. Another order of the church took a different view and eventually an appeal was made by the contending parties to the Pope, as head of the Church. His reply was a memorable one</strong>..." </span></p><p> </p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">And this was his reply:</span></p><p> </p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">"Not only the Christian religion, but nature herself, cries out against slavery" </span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><em>- Pope Leo X, 1514</em></strong></span></p><p> </p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">* 1537: Pope Paul III Pope Paul in the bull Sublimis Deus described the enslavers as allies of the devil and declared attempts to justify such slavery "null and void." Accompanying the bull was another document, Pastorale Officium, which attached a latae sententiae excommunication remittable only by the pope himself for those who attempted to enslave the Indians or steal their goods.</span></p><p> </p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">Pope Paul III wrote:</span></p><p> </p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">"...<strong>The exalted God loved the human race so much that He created man in such a condition that he was not only a sharer in good as are other creatures, but also that he would be able to reach and see face to face the inaccessible and invisible Supreme Good...Seeing this and envying it, the enemy of the human race, who always opposes all good men so that the race may perish, has thought up a way, unheard of before now, by which he might impede the saving word of God from being preached to the nations. He (Satan) has stirred up some of his allies who, desiring to satisfy their own avarice, are presuming to assert far and wide that the Indians...be reduced to our service like brute animals, under the pretext that they are lacking the Catholic faith. And they reduce them to slavery, treating them with afflictions they would scarcely use with brute animals... by our Apostolic Authority decree and declare by these present letters that the same Indians and all other peoples - even though they are outside the faith - ...should not be deprived of their liberty... Rather they are to be able to use and enjoy this liberty and this ownership of property freely and licitly, and are not to be reduced to slavery</strong><strong> and that whatever happens to the contrary is to be considered null and void</strong>. ..." [Ibid., pp.79-81 with original critical Latin text]</span></p><p> </p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">Pope Paul not only condemned the slavery of Indians but also "all other peoples." Furthermore they are to have complete liberty "even though they are outside the faith", not Catholics. The Protestant historian James Bowden writes: "In two separate briefs, Pope Paul III imprecated a curse on any Europeans who should enslave the Indians or any other class of men". </span></p><p> </p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">* 1591: Pope Gregory XIV condemns slavery in the Bull, "<em>Cum Sicuti</em>"</span></p><p> </p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">* 1639: Pope Urban VIII (1623 to 1644), at the request of the Jesuits of Paraguay, issues a bull <em>Commissum nobis</em> reaffirming the ruling by "our predecessor Paul III" that those who reduced others to slavery were subject to excommunication. </span></p><p> </p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">* 1686: the Congregation of the Holy Office (the Roman Inquisition now 'Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith') takes up the matter. On March 20, 1686, it ruled in the form of questions and answers:</span></p><p> </p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">It is asked:</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><em>Whether it is permitted to capture by force and deceit Blacks and other natives who have harmed no one?</em></span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">Answer: no.</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><em>Whether it is permitted to buy, sell or make contracts in their respect Blacks or other natives who have harmed no one and been made captives by force of deceit?</em></span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">Answer: no.</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><em>Whether the possessors of Blacks and other natives who have harmed no one and been captured by force or deceit, are not held to set them free?</em></span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">Answer: yes.</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><em>Whether the captors, buyers and possessors of Blacks and other natives who have harmed no one and who have been captured by force or deceit are not held to make compensation to them?</em></span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">Answer: yes</span></p><p> </p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">* 1741: Benedict XIV condemns slavery and the slave trade in the bull <em>Immensa Pastorum</em></span></p><p> </p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">* 1815: Pope Pius VII - At the Congress of Vienna after the Napoleonic Wars, the pope demanded of the victorious Congress powers the immediate suppression of the slave trade and the outlawing of slavery itself. </span></p><p> </p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">* 1839: Pope Gregory XVI's 1839 bull, <em>In Supremo</em>, reiterated papal opposition to enslaving "<strong>Indians, blacks, or other such people</strong>" and forbade "<strong>any ecclesiastic or lay person from presuming to defend as permissible this trade in blacks under no matter what pretext or excuse</strong>". It clearly condemned slavery:</span></p><p> </p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong>"...We, by apostolic authority, warn and strongly exhort in the Lord faithful Christians of every condition that no one in the future dare bother unjustly, despoil of their possessions, or reduce to slavery Indians, Blacks or other such peoples..."</strong></span></p><p> </p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">* In the Bull of Canonization of the Jesuit Peter Claver, named the "Slave of the slaves", one of the most illustrious adversaries of slavery, Pius IX spoke of the "supreme villainy" (summum nefas) of the slave trade. </span></p><p> </p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">* In 1888 and again in 1890, Pope Leo XIII forcefully condemned slavery and sought its elimination where it persisted in parts of South America and Africa.</span></p><p> </p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">He wrote: </span></p><p> </p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">"...The maternal love of the Catholic Church embraces all people. As you know, venerable brother, the Church from the beginning sought to completely eliminate slavery, whose wretched yoke has oppressed many people. It is the industrious guardian of the teachings of its Founder [Jesus] who, by His words and those of the apostles, taught men the fraternal necessity which unites the whole world. From Him we recall that everybody has sprung from the same source, was redeemed by the same ransom, and is called to the same eternal happiness. He assumed the neglected cause of the slaves and showed Himself the strong champion of freedom. Insofar as time and circumstances allowed, He gradually and moderately accomplished His goal. Of course, pressing constantly with prudence and planning, He showed what He was striving for in the name of religion, justice, and humanity. In this way He put national prosperity and civilization in general into His debt. This zeal of the Church for liberating the slaves has not languished with the passage of time; on the contrary, the more it bore fruit, the more eagerly it glowed... St. Gregory the Great, Hadrian I, Alexander III, Innocent III, Gregory IX, Pius II, Leo X, Paul III, Urban VIII, Benedict XIV, Pius VII, and Gregory XVI stand out. They applied every effort to eliminate the institution of slavery wherever it existed. They also took care lest the seeds of slavery return to those places from which this evil institution had been cut away..." </span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><em><strong>- Pope Leo XIII, CATHOLICAE ECCLESIAE, 1890</strong></em></span></p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">* 1965 Pope Paul VI wrote in Gaudium et Spes, “Whatever insults human dignity, such as subhuman living conditions, arbitrary imprisonment, deportation, slavery . . . the selling of women and children; as well as disgraceful working conditions, where men are treated as mere tools for profit, rather than as free and responsible persons; all these things and others of their like are infamies indeed . . . they are a supreme dishonor to the Creator."</span></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Archived_member15, post: 167308, member: 17438"] Slavery: What is technological advancement without moral advancement? The Catholic Church had all but eradicated slavery from the Christian populations of Europe by the 1100s. The Catholic Church kept a consistent campaign against race based slavery from 1400s until the 1890s. [SIZE=3]"...The Roman Catholic Church, as an institution, sustained a legal opposition toward slavery. Beginning in the fifteenth century, [particularly], Popes expressed their position in different papal bulls and letters to monarchs..." [/SIZE] [B][I][SIZE=3]- The Historical encyclopedia of world slavery, Volume 1; Volume 7[/SIZE][/I][/B] [I][B][SIZE=3]By Junius P. Rodriguez [/SIZE][/B][/I] [U][SIZE=4]Vouthon's Catholic Church and slavery timeline[/SIZE][/U] [SIZE=3]* Jesus Christ (the big man Himself [IMG]http://forums.catholic.com/images/smilies/wink.gif[/IMG] ): [/SIZE] [SIZE=3]"...And the Lord said: Go out, those who wish to do so, from your bonds..." [/SIZE] [SIZE=3][B][I]- Saint Clement of Alexandria, Miscellanies 6.44[/I][/B][/SIZE] [SIZE=3]* c.185-254: Origen says that he favours the Jewish practice of freeing all slaves after seven years. [/SIZE] [SIZE=3]* c.335-394: Gregory of Nyssa opposes slavery outright: [/SIZE] [SIZE=3]"...When someone claims God's property as his own and assigns dominion to his own race, so as to consider himself the lord of men and women, is he not through pride overstepping his own nature and imagining that he is different from those under him?...You condemn human beings - whose nature is free and who possess free will - to slavery [/SIZE] [SIZE=3]and you make laws in opposition to God, overturning his law for human nature. As though resisting and fighting against divine decrees, you bring under the yoke of slavery one who was made specifically to be the lord of the earth and appointed ruler by the Creator...Irrational animals are the only slaves of human beings...But in dividing human nature into slaves and lords you have caused it to be enslaved to itself and to own itself...He who knew human nature rightly said that the whole world was not worth being given in exchange for a human soul. Therefore, whenever a human being is for sale, nothing less than the Lord of the Earth is led to the marketplace...'I got me slave-girls and slaves.' For what price, tell me? What did you find in existence worth as much as this human nature? What price did you put on rationality? How many obols did you reckon the equivalent of the likeness of God? How many staters did you get for selling that being shaped by God? God said, Let us make man in our own image and likeness. If he is in the likeness of God, and rules the whole earth, and has been granted authority over everything on earth from God, who is his buyer, tell me? Who is his seller? To God alone belongs this power; or, rather, not even to God himself. For his gracious gifts, it says, are irrevocable. God would not therefore reduce the human race to slavery, since he himself, when we had been enslaved to sin, spontaneously recalled us to freedom. But if God does not enslave what is free, who is he that sets his own power above God's?..." [/SIZE] [SIZE=3][B][I]- Saint Gregory of Nyssa (Homilies on Ecclesiastes)[/I][/B][/SIZE] [SIZE=3]* Circa 400: St. Augustine speaks of the granting of freedom to slaves as a great religious virtue, and declares the Christian law against regarding God's rational creation as property.[/SIZE] [SIZE=3]* 400-425: Acacius of Amida opposes slavery [/SIZE] [SIZE=3]* 415-493: Saint Patrick, himself a former slave, argues for the abolition of slavery. He particularly is appalled by the treatment of female captives. [I]The Letter to Coroticus[/I] is addressed to an Irish chieftan who had taken some of Patrick's converts into slavery. When Coroticus fails to respond to a plea to to set the captives free, Patrick responds by excommunicating Coroticus. Patrick proclaims that one cannot be a Christian and own slaves. The suffering of women slaves moved Patrick deeply; he remarked on their courage and tenacity. He tells us that "slavery is in and of itself horrific". Patrick so rejected the practice of slavery that he calls for Coroticus and his soldiers to make reparations and do penance. [/SIZE] [SIZE=3]"...Wherefore, then I plead with you earnestly, ye holy and humble of heart, it is not permissible to court the favour of such people, nor to take food or drink with them, not even to accept alms, until they make reparation to God in hardships, through penance, with shedding of tears, and set free the baptized servants of God and handmaids of Christ, for whom he died and was crucified...Where, then, will Coroticus with his criminals, rebels against Christ, where will they see themselves, they who distribute baptized women as prizes - for a miserable temporal kingdom, which will pass away in a moment?..." [/SIZE] [SIZE=3][B][I]- Saint Patrick (415-493), Letter to Coroticus [/I][/B][/SIZE] [SIZE=3]"...But the greatest is the suffering of those women who live in slavery. All the time they have to endure terror and threats. But the Lord gave His grace to many of His maidens; for though they are forbidden to do so, many of them follow Him bravely..." [/SIZE] [SIZE=3][B][I]- Saint Patrick (415-493), Confession [/I][/B][/SIZE] [SIZE=3]* 500s: While in power Pope Gregory the Great attempts to repress slave-dealing. He wrote: "[B]Since our Redeemer, the Author of all life, deigned to take human flesh, that by the power of His Godhood the chains by which we were held in bondage being broken, He might restore us to our first state of liberty, it is most fitting that men by the concession of manumission should restore to the freedom in which they were born those whom nature sent free into the world, but who have been condemned to the yoke of slavery by the law of nations[/B]". [/SIZE] [SIZE=3]* 588-650 - Saint Eligius uses his vast wealth to purchase British and Saxon slaves in groups of 50 and 100 in order to set them free.[/SIZE] [SIZE=3]* Circa 610: St. Isidore of Seville writes: [/SIZE] [SIZE=3]"...I can hardly credit that a friend of Christ, who has experienced that grace, which bestowed freedom on all, would still own slaves...God has made no difference between the soul of the slave and that of the freedman..."[/SIZE] [SIZE=3][B][I]- Saint Isidore of Seville (c. 560 – 4 April 636)[/I][/B][/SIZE] [SIZE=3]* 626 – 680: Saint Bathilde (wife of King Clovis II) becomes famous for her campaign to stop slave-trading and free all slaves [/SIZE] [SIZE=3]* 851: Saint Anskar begins his efforts to halt the Viking slave trade[/SIZE] [SIZE=3]* 1000s: Church teaches that no Christians are allowed to be slaves to other Christians. That the Church willingly baptized slaves is claimed as proof that they have souls, and so both kings and bishops—including William the Conqueror (1027-1087) and Saints Wulfstan (1009-1095) and Saint Anselm (1033-1109)—forbid the enslavement of Christians. The Protestant Rodney Stark wrtites, "[B]Since, except for small settlements of Jews, and the Vikings in the north, everyone was at least nominally a Christian, that effectively abolished slavery in medieval Europe, except at the southern and eastern interfaces with Islam where both sides enslaved one another's prisoners. But even this was sometimes condemned: in the tenth century, bishops in Venice did public penance for past involvement in the Moorish slave trade and sought to prevent all Venetians from involvement in slavery[/B]".[/SIZE] [SIZE=3]* 1167: Pope Alexander III condemns slavery and declares it unnatural: [/SIZE] [SIZE=3]"...Christian men ought to be exempt from slavery, [moreover] nature having made no slaves, all men have an equal right to liberty..." [/SIZE] [SIZE=3][B][I]- Pope Alexander III, Papal Bull (concerning the Muslim King of Valencia's enslavement of captives), 1167 [/I][/B][/SIZE] [SIZE=3]*1100s: According to the historian James Bowden, "[By this time] mainly by the voice of the Church, slavery had been extinguished in western Europe". For the first time in history we have basically an entire continent where no European is permitted to enslave another European. [/SIZE] [SIZE=3]* 1200s: "[B]...Saint Thomas Aquinas deduced that slavery was a sin, and a series of popes upheld his position. It is significant that in Aquinas's day, slavery was a thing of the past or of distant lands. Consequently, he gave very little attention to the subject per se, paying more attention to serfdom, which he held to be repugnant.However, in his overall analysis of morality in human relationships, Aquinas placed slavery in opposition to natural law, deducing that all "rational creatures" are entitled to justice. Hence he found no natural basis for the enslavement of one person rather than another, "thus removing any possible justification for slavery based on race or religion." Right reason, not coercion, is the moral basis of authority, for "one man is not by nature ordained to another as an end." Here Aquinas distinguished two forms of "subjection" or authority, just and unjust. The former exists when leaders work for the advantage and benefit of their subjects. The unjust form of subjection "is that of slavery, in which the ruler manages the subject for his own [the ruler's] advantage." Based on the immense authority vested in Aquinas by the Church, the official view came to be that slavery is sinful...[/B]" - Rodney Stark [/SIZE] [SIZE=3]* 1400s: Unable now, because of the Church, to enslave fellow Christian Europeans, the emerging Spanish and Portugese Empires look abroad to find slaves in other countries. Thus begins the new "racial", "chattel" slave trade of Africans and natives from around the world. The Church condemns this from the very beginning. [/SIZE] [SIZE=3]* 1435: Pope Eugene IV condemns the enslavement of native peoples in the newly colonized Canary Islands. His bull Sicut Dudum rebuked European enslavers and commanded that: [/SIZE] [SIZE=3][B]“...All and each of the faithful of each sex, within the space of fifteen days of the publication of these letters in the place where they live, that they restore to their earlier liberty all and each person of either sex who were once residents of the Canary Islands … who have been made subject to slavery. These people are to be totally and perpetually free and are to be let go without the exaction or reception of any money..."[/B][/SIZE] [SIZE=3]* 1462: Pope Pius II (1405-1464) announces in a papal encyclical that slavery is a 'great misfortune' and a 'great crime' - meaning that it was not a natural condition for mankind - and encourages individual Catholics to release their slaves. [/SIZE] [SIZE=3]* 1464 - 1448: Rodney Stark: "...[B]Pope Pius II (1458 to 1464) and Pope Sixtus IV (1471 to 1484) followed with additional bulls condemning enslavement of the Canary Islanders, which, obviously, had continued[/B]. What this episode displays is the weakness of papal authority at this time, not the indifference of the Church to the sin of slavery..." [/SIZE] [SIZE=3]* 1519: Bartholomew De Las Casas, a Dominican, now being considered for sainthood, argues against slavery and becomes "[B]The Defender of the Native Americans[/B]":[/SIZE] [SIZE=3]"...[B]No one may be deprived of his liberty nor may any person be enslaved[/B]....”[/SIZE] [SIZE=3]* 1514: James Bowden writes: "[B]The rapid development of this atrocious system, under the fostering influences of Spanish and Portugese avarice and cruelty, did not pass without strong and decided censure. It was emphatically denounced by the highest authorities in the Catholic Church and at times by the most powerful men in the state. Pope Leo X declared against slavery at a very early stage of its existence, and he did so under somewhat extraordinary circumstances. The Dominicans, an order of the Church who witnessed the horrors of this cruel bondage, held that it was utterly repugnant to the Gospel, and pleaded for its entire abolition. Another order of the church took a different view and eventually an appeal was made by the contending parties to the Pope, as head of the Church. His reply was a memorable one[/B]..." [/SIZE] [SIZE=3]And this was his reply:[/SIZE] [SIZE=3]"Not only the Christian religion, but nature herself, cries out against slavery" [/SIZE] [SIZE=3][B][I]- Pope Leo X, 1514[/I][/B][/SIZE] [SIZE=3]* 1537: Pope Paul III Pope Paul in the bull Sublimis Deus described the enslavers as allies of the devil and declared attempts to justify such slavery "null and void." Accompanying the bull was another document, Pastorale Officium, which attached a latae sententiae excommunication remittable only by the pope himself for those who attempted to enslave the Indians or steal their goods.[/SIZE] [SIZE=3]Pope Paul III wrote:[/SIZE] [SIZE=3]"...[B]The exalted God loved the human race so much that He created man in such a condition that he was not only a sharer in good as are other creatures, but also that he would be able to reach and see face to face the inaccessible and invisible Supreme Good...Seeing this and envying it, the enemy of the human race, who always opposes all good men so that the race may perish, has thought up a way, unheard of before now, by which he might impede the saving word of God from being preached to the nations. He (Satan) has stirred up some of his allies who, desiring to satisfy their own avarice, are presuming to assert far and wide that the Indians...be reduced to our service like brute animals, under the pretext that they are lacking the Catholic faith. And they reduce them to slavery, treating them with afflictions they would scarcely use with brute animals... by our Apostolic Authority decree and declare by these present letters that the same Indians and all other peoples - even though they are outside the faith - ...should not be deprived of their liberty... Rather they are to be able to use and enjoy this liberty and this ownership of property freely and licitly, and are not to be reduced to slavery[/B][B] and that whatever happens to the contrary is to be considered null and void[/B]. ..." [Ibid., pp.79-81 with original critical Latin text][/SIZE] [SIZE=3]Pope Paul not only condemned the slavery of Indians but also "all other peoples." Furthermore they are to have complete liberty "even though they are outside the faith", not Catholics. The Protestant historian James Bowden writes: "In two separate briefs, Pope Paul III imprecated a curse on any Europeans who should enslave the Indians or any other class of men". [/SIZE] [SIZE=3]* 1591: Pope Gregory XIV condemns slavery in the Bull, "[I]Cum Sicuti[/I]"[/SIZE] [SIZE=3]* 1639: Pope Urban VIII (1623 to 1644), at the request of the Jesuits of Paraguay, issues a bull [I]Commissum nobis[/I] reaffirming the ruling by "our predecessor Paul III" that those who reduced others to slavery were subject to excommunication. [/SIZE] [SIZE=3]* 1686: the Congregation of the Holy Office (the Roman Inquisition now 'Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith') takes up the matter. On March 20, 1686, it ruled in the form of questions and answers:[/SIZE] [SIZE=3]It is asked:[/SIZE] [SIZE=3][I]Whether it is permitted to capture by force and deceit Blacks and other natives who have harmed no one?[/I][/SIZE] [SIZE=3]Answer: no.[/SIZE] [SIZE=3][I]Whether it is permitted to buy, sell or make contracts in their respect Blacks or other natives who have harmed no one and been made captives by force of deceit?[/I][/SIZE] [SIZE=3]Answer: no.[/SIZE] [SIZE=3][I]Whether the possessors of Blacks and other natives who have harmed no one and been captured by force or deceit, are not held to set them free?[/I][/SIZE] [SIZE=3]Answer: yes.[/SIZE] [SIZE=3][I]Whether the captors, buyers and possessors of Blacks and other natives who have harmed no one and who have been captured by force or deceit are not held to make compensation to them?[/I][/SIZE] [SIZE=3]Answer: yes[/SIZE] [SIZE=3]* 1741: Benedict XIV condemns slavery and the slave trade in the bull [I]Immensa Pastorum[/I][/SIZE] [SIZE=3]* 1815: Pope Pius VII - At the Congress of Vienna after the Napoleonic Wars, the pope demanded of the victorious Congress powers the immediate suppression of the slave trade and the outlawing of slavery itself. [/SIZE] [SIZE=3]* 1839: Pope Gregory XVI's 1839 bull, [I]In Supremo[/I], reiterated papal opposition to enslaving "[B]Indians, blacks, or other such people[/B]" and forbade "[B]any ecclesiastic or lay person from presuming to defend as permissible this trade in blacks under no matter what pretext or excuse[/B]". It clearly condemned slavery:[/SIZE] [SIZE=3][B]"...We, by apostolic authority, warn and strongly exhort in the Lord faithful Christians of every condition that no one in the future dare bother unjustly, despoil of their possessions, or reduce to slavery Indians, Blacks or other such peoples..."[/B][/SIZE] [SIZE=3]* In the Bull of Canonization of the Jesuit Peter Claver, named the "Slave of the slaves", one of the most illustrious adversaries of slavery, Pius IX spoke of the "supreme villainy" (summum nefas) of the slave trade. [/SIZE] [SIZE=3]* In 1888 and again in 1890, Pope Leo XIII forcefully condemned slavery and sought its elimination where it persisted in parts of South America and Africa.[/SIZE] [SIZE=3]He wrote: [/SIZE] [SIZE=3]"...The maternal love of the Catholic Church embraces all people. As you know, venerable brother, the Church from the beginning sought to completely eliminate slavery, whose wretched yoke has oppressed many people. It is the industrious guardian of the teachings of its Founder [Jesus] who, by His words and those of the apostles, taught men the fraternal necessity which unites the whole world. From Him we recall that everybody has sprung from the same source, was redeemed by the same ransom, and is called to the same eternal happiness. He assumed the neglected cause of the slaves and showed Himself the strong champion of freedom. Insofar as time and circumstances allowed, He gradually and moderately accomplished His goal. Of course, pressing constantly with prudence and planning, He showed what He was striving for in the name of religion, justice, and humanity. In this way He put national prosperity and civilization in general into His debt. This zeal of the Church for liberating the slaves has not languished with the passage of time; on the contrary, the more it bore fruit, the more eagerly it glowed... St. Gregory the Great, Hadrian I, Alexander III, Innocent III, Gregory IX, Pius II, Leo X, Paul III, Urban VIII, Benedict XIV, Pius VII, and Gregory XVI stand out. They applied every effort to eliminate the institution of slavery wherever it existed. They also took care lest the seeds of slavery return to those places from which this evil institution had been cut away..." [/SIZE] [SIZE=3][I][B]- Pope Leo XIII, CATHOLICAE ECCLESIAE, 1890[/B][/I][/SIZE] [SIZE=3]* 1965 Pope Paul VI wrote in Gaudium et Spes, “Whatever insults human dignity, such as subhuman living conditions, arbitrary imprisonment, deportation, slavery . . . the selling of women and children; as well as disgraceful working conditions, where men are treated as mere tools for profit, rather than as free and responsible persons; all these things and others of their like are infamies indeed . . . they are a supreme dishonor to the Creator."[/SIZE] [/QUOTE]
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