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268 Luigi Conti

It the Church urged slaves to be patient, it also demanded that masters
should consider them and treat them like men, like brothers, for before God
'there is neither bond nor free ... for ye are all one in Christ Jesus'.
Furthermore, if the Church was careful to baptize slaves it was because
it considered them to be men, or rather sons of God. But the spreading of the
Gospel also meant developing them as human beings, giving them a greater
awareness of their dignity, which would lead them to accept the responsibility
for their own liberation. This is the reason for the hostility that existed between
settlers and missionaries, and for the resistance of the latter, which finally
aroused or fostered liberation movements among the slaves themselves.
The Church's missionary activities in this field can be seen in detail in the
archives of the religious orders and institutes which throughout the centuries
of slavery devoted themselves, sometimes in tragic circumstances, to preaching
the Gospel to the Indians and the Negroes, and to promoting their human
dignity.

Notes

1. O. Rainaldi, Annales, X (a. 1482), Lucca 1752, p. 341-2.


2. Bullarium Taurinense, XIV, Turin 1868, p. 712-13.


3. ibid., p. 712-14.


4. In a letter of 20 September 1841 addressed to the king of France, Pius VII wrote:
   'Ad interponenda vero huiusmodi officia religio ipsa nos movet, quae improbat
   execraturque turpissimum illud commercium, quo Nigritae, tamquam si non
   homines sed pur putaque animantia forent, emuntur, venduntur, ac miserrimae
   vitae durissimisque laboribus usque ad mortem exantlandis dovoventur. Itaque
   inter maxima, quae sanctissima eadem religio orbi contulit, hona, servitutis magnam
   partem abrogatae aut mitius exercitae beneficium mérito ab omnibus recensetur.'
   In the same Letter Pope Pius VII addresses both churchmen and laymen in these
   terms : ' And we forbid any ecclesiastic or layman to dare on any pretext whatever
   to maintain that this trade in Blacks is allowed, or to preach or teach in public or
   private, in any manner whatsoever, anything in contradiction to this Papal Letter. '


5. Itaque ad maiestatem tuam, cuius egregiam erga nos voluntatem cognitam penitus
   planeque perspectam habemus, paterna haec officia dirigimus, maeque intomo
   cordis affectu hortamur in Domino atque obsecramus, ut, singulari sua prudentia
   in consilium advocata, omnem det operam, uti opportunae illae hac de re legum
   poenarumque sanctiones in omnibus suarum, qua late patent, ditionum partibus
   accurate serventur, ac probrosum demum Nigritarum commercium summo cum
   religionis atque humani generis commodo radicitus extirpatur.'


6. Acta Gregorii XVI, II, Rome 1901, p. 387 et seq.


7. Acta Leonis XIII, VIII, Rome, 1889, p. 169-92.