SLAVERY IN BYZANTINE EMPIRE. 55 § 2. other place. They belonged to the land, not to the CHAP. II. individual, and paid a fixed portion of the fruits of the soil as rent to the proprietor. As long as this sum was regularly paid, they enjoyed very nearly the same position as the poor freemen. The colons formed a very important part of the population of the Byzantine empire in the eyes of the treasury. The imperial revenues were so largely drawn from agriculture that the Byzantine legislation is filled with provision for their protection against their landlords, and with restrictions for fixing them irrevocably as tillers of the soils, in order to prevent any diminution in the production of those articles from which the state revenues were principally derived. They were protected against the avarice of the proprietor, who might wish to render them more profitable to himself, by employing their labour in manufactures. But the colons were prevented from acquiring the rights of freemen, lest they should abandon the cultivation of the land, and seek refuge in the cities, where labour was better paid. A considerable number of free labourers existed in Greece, who were employed at a high rate of wages during short periods of the year by the citizens, to cultivate the olive grounds, vineyards, and orchards in the immediate vicinity of the towns. As the number of towns throughout the continent and islands of Greece was still comparatively great, the existence of this class of poor freemen had a considerable influence on the social condition of the Greek people, and must not be overlooked in the political history of the Byzantine empire at the time of its conquest by the Crusaders. There is one social feature in the Byzantine empire which gives it a noble pre-eminence in European history, and contrasts it in a favourable light with the other governments in the middle ages, not excepting that of the Popes. The Emperors of Constantinople were the first sovereigns who regarded slavery as a disgrace to $ 2. CHAP. II. mankind, and a misfortune to the state in which it existed. A knowledge of the writings of the New Testament, and an acquaintance with the principles of Christianity, were far more generally diffused among the Greeks in what are called the dark ages than they have been in many western nations, in what are supposed to be more civilised times. Justinian I., in the sixth century, proclaimed it to be the glory of the Emperor to accelerate the emancipation of slaves; and Alexius I., in the eleventh, gave the most favourable interpretation to the claims of those who sought to establish their personal liberty. The clergy were ordered to celebrate the marriage of slaves, and if their masters attempted to deprive them of the nuptial benediction, and of the rights of Christianity, then the slaves were to be proclaimed free. Alexius I. declares that human society and laws have divided mankind into freemen and slaves; but, though the existing state of things must of necessity continue, it ought to be remembered that in the eye of God all men are equal, and that there is one Lord of all, and one faith in baptism for the slave as for the master.1 The law had long prohibited freemen from selling themselves as slaves, and punished both the buyer and the seller. Slaves were allowed to enter the army, and by so doing, if they obtained the consent of their masters, they acquired their freedom. They were allowed to become ecclesiastics with the consent of their masters.2 Agricultural slavery was evidently verging towards extinction. The facilities that circumstances afforded to rural slaves for escaping into the Sclavonian and Bulgarian settlements, rendered it impossible to compel the slave to 1 Compare 22 Nov. Justin. c. 8, Corpus Juris Civilis, with xvii. Nov. Alex. I. Mortreuil, iii. 158. Bonefidius, 70. 2 Nov. Leonis, ix. x. xi., Corpus Juris Civilis. Leo in these laws declares that fugitive slaves who have become priests, monks, or even bishops, are to be delivered up to their masters without the benefit of prescription, on the ground that a slave cannot possess the feelings suitable to the clerical functions. § 2. submit to as great privations as the colons, and his labour CHAP. II. consequently became too expensive to be advantageously devoted to raising agricultural produce. Agricultural slavery could only be perpetuated with profit on those small and productive properties in the immediate vicinity of towns where free labour was dear, and where there was a great saving in the expense of transport. Domestic slavery continued; but as domestic slavery can only be maintained under circumstances which would call for the employment of an equal number of hired menials, the numbers of such slaves, and their social influence, is not very different from that of domestic servants who supply their place when slavery ceases to exist. Indeed, when slaves are habitually purchased young, they occupy a position superior to that of hired servants, for they are bred up in some degree as members of the family into which they enter. The progress of society among the Greek population, in the twelfth century, was thus evidently tending to enlarge the sphere of civil liberty, and to embody the principles of Christianity in the legislation of the empire. The progress of mankind seemed to require that such a political government should meet with a career of prosperity, the more so as it was surrounded on all sides by rude barbarians. It was not so. Political liberty is indispensable to man's progress in improvement. Human civilisation demanded that new ties, connecting social and political life, should be developed elements of liberty, alien to the condition of the Greek race, were to become the agents employed by Providence in the improvement of man's condition; and the people of western Europe were called upon to take a prominent part in the world's history, to destroy the Byzantine empire and crush the Greek race. CHAP. II. $ 3. SECT. III.-STATIONARY CONDITION OF AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRY The leading feature in civil society, from the fall of the western Roman empire to the time of the Crusades, is the abject condition of the agricultural classes. No rival of Cincinnatus appears as a hero in medieval history. The labourers, who became warriors and princes, returned no more to their ploughs. Century after century, the ruling classes, kings, priests, nobles, and soldiers, seized the whole surplus wealth which the hand of nature annually bestows on agricultural labour. The cultivator of the soil was only left in possession of the scanty portion. necessary to enable him to prolong his existence of hopeless toil, and to rear a progeny of labourers, to replace him in producing wealth with smallest possible consumption of the earth's fruits. Such was the condition of the greater part of Europe, from the commencement of the eighth to the end of the thirteenth century. The general insecurity of property, and decay of commercial intercourse, consequent on the neglect of the old Roman roads, annihilated the middle classes of society, or reduced them to a few individuals, insulated in distant towns, where they belonged to the conquered race, and lived deprived of all political rights. They were despised by their conquerors as belonging to a dastard tribe, and envied by the common people, because they were the possessors of more wealth and knowledge than the rest of their countrymen. This vicious organisation of society produced a perpetual though covert conflict of feelings between the lower and higher classes. The ruling class, whether nobles, gentlemen, or soldiers, viewed the mass of the people with contempt, and treated them with cruelty. The people indulged in vague hopes of being able, by some dispensation of heaven, to exterminate their tyrants, $ 3. and reform society. There hardly exists any European CHAP. II. history that is not filled with rebellions and civil wars, which can be traced to this source. But the people, where they have not been trained to order by local institutions, creating the sense of responsibility in public affairs, can never form any idea of administration; and, consequently, their political struggles generally end in establishing anarchy as a remedy for oppression. Still we must not forget, that the pictures we possess of popular struggles against governmental oppression have received their colouring from the aristocratic class; and, consequently, that we seek in vain in such records for any notice of the wiser aspirations and better feelings of the patient and thinking individuals among the people. It is possible that the social and political evils which arrested the increase of the agricultural population, during the middle ages, was not entirely without beneficial effects. Cities must be recruited from the agricultural population around them. Now, had the rude peasants of the country increased at that time as rapidly as the agricultural population of Ireland during the last half century has done, there might have been some danger that all civilisation would have been overpowered, and either the ruling class would have been exterminated, or it would have reduced the people to a state of hopeless slavery. A great benefit was, moreover, conferred on society in the west of Europe by the dispersion of the ruling classes over the whole surface of the countries they subdued. The social equality that existed among the conquerors made this dispersion extend its influence through every rank; and the military virtues, as well as the learning of the times, were brought into closer contact with the people than they had been in the days of the Roman domination. The enlightened priest and free-minded poet were oftener to be found in the society of a provincial baron than at the court of a royal Suzerain. The |