De convenientia institutorum Romanae Ecclesiae cum Evangelica libertate

1. Since it often happens that one person enters another’s private servitude, it will certainly not be out of place to investigate whether this servitude can accord with evangelical liberty.

For if by Christ’s favor we are rescued from every servitude, how can it accord with Christian law that someone who has enlisted in Christ’s army should be sent to the mill to grind and take up the yoke of servitude? But if servitude disgraces a Christian and is alien to Christian laws, why does the Roman Pontiff, whose duty is to defend Christians’ liberty even at the cost of blood, tolerate this enslavement of human beings and pass over and conceal it with eyes deliberately shut? For it is as disgraceful for a ruler, especially one who acts as Christ’s deputy, to tolerate evils calmly as to commit injustices. Further, those who profess faith in Christ are to be considered children of God; for, as John 1¹ says, He gave them power to become children of God, to those who believe in his name. The children of God, however, are free from every servitude, according to Matthew 17:² Therefore the children are free.

2. Setting aside the rationale and form of servitude by which someone subject to another under any³ right may sometimes be called that person’s slave,⁴ and also that form discussed by the Philosopher in Book I of the Politics,⁵ where he says, “Those who can foresee by their mind are masters by nature, while those who cannot foresee but can carry out bodily what is commanded are slaves by nature,” our discussion concerns the servitude in which someone, by established law, works solely for another’s sake,⁶ that is, for another’s benefit; just as a person is called free who can direct his labor to his own advantage.⁷

3. I think we must carefully observe that this human servitude accords with nature in one respect but conflicts with it in another. For if we consider our nature as it is corrupted by the common fault, it can certainly be called natural in some respect, as can hunger, illness, death, and the other bodily hardships of that kind.⁸ Natural reason first of all advises us to be good and to bring our manner of life into conformity with reason’s laws. If we depart from what is right by sinning, reason advises in the second place that we pay the penalty we have deserved by sin. Since, then, our human nature departed from divine law almost as soon as it came to light, it was rightly imposed upon it, with natural reason consenting, as punishment for sin, that along with other bodily hardships one person could enter another person’s servitude.

Therefore, if we consider the first impulse of our mind,⁹ we must judge this human servitude to be contrary to nature. For since our mind’s first purpose is that we become good and devote ourselves to virtue, when we fall away from virtue and for this reason sink under the yoke of servitude, everyone sees that this bodily servitude occurs contrary to the mind’s original natural inclination.¹⁰ But if we consider the purpose of a nature that has sinned, this outcome of servitude is certainly natural for us, since it is altogether in accord with natural reason that the loss of the divine gift which we deserved by sinning should be followed by many bodily hardships, from which that divine gift had kept us free. Just as nature’s first intention in generation¹¹ is that a fetus be brought forth whole and perfect in every respect, but its second intention is that, if it cannot be born perfect, it be born maimed and weak, as close to perfection as possible—hence even monstrous births are said to come from nature in a certain way¹²—so our reason’s first inclination is that we be adorned with virtue and good conduct; its second is that, if we turn our minds away from virtue¹³ and divine laws, our fault be repaired by bodily hardships, among which servitude is to be counted¹⁴.¹⁵ Hence natural reason declares just all the bodily afflictions that followed humanity’s first sin,¹⁶ such as hunger, thirst, pain, and servitude. We must also consider that, although this servitude is natural in some respect, it was also established by human laws. Natural reason advises that it is a penalty for a human being, handed down to posterity from the crime of our first parents;¹⁷ nevertheless, that a man of this condition should be subjected to another’s servitude¹⁸ was determined by human laws.¹⁹

4. We must by no means pass over this point:²⁰ although²¹ we said above that servitude is twofold—namely, the servitude of one who commits sin and, in the judgment of our Savior, is a slave to sin, and the servitude in which one person is bound by law to another for servile services, that is, services performed through bodily labor—by the greatest grace and favor of Christ we have been redeemed from one servitude, but not from the other. For the Apostle, writing to the Romans, chapter 7,²² says of himself:²³ With my mind I serve the law of God, but with my flesh the law of sin. Since this servitude concerns the flesh and not the mind—“For he is mistaken,” Seneca says in Book III²⁴ of On Benefits,²⁵ “if anyone thinks that servitude descends upon the whole person. The better part is exempt: bodies are subject and assigned to masters, but the mind is its own master”—there is no doubt that this very servitude can befit a Christian too. For Christ did not assume human flesh to disrupt the order of justice, but so that through faith in him justice might be observed to the full.

It must therefore be admitted without doubt that this bodily servitude does not conflict with that Christian liberty which Christ, the Best, won for us,²⁶ especially since our religion counts humility among its greatest gains. Accordingly, if a slave is washed in baptism, he gains freedom from sin, but is not freed from the servitude by which he is assigned to a human master.

5. This can readily be confirmed from very many²⁷ passages of Sacred Scripture, in which Christian slaves are explicitly mentioned.²⁸ The Apostle says in Colossians, chapter 3:²⁹ Slaves, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh, not serving to please the eye, as people-pleasers, but with a sincere heart, fearing God. Likewise, in Ephesians, chapter 6:³⁰ Slaves, obey your masters according to the flesh with fear and trembling, in the sincerity of your hearts, as you would Christ. In writing to Titus, chapter 2,³¹ he also admonishes slaves³² to be subject to their masters. The Apostle Peter too says in his First Epistle, chapter 2:³³ Slaves, be subject to your masters in all fear, not only to the good and gentle but also to the perverse. If Christians were supposed to be free from all human servitude, these Apostles would not have taken such pains to admonish them to serve their masters in fear. For unless some Christians had been slaves,³⁴ the Apostles would have in vain³⁵ directed their exhortation³⁶ to slaves. This servitude also³⁷ seems to have originated in divine law and to have been confirmed by the law of nations, civil law, and pontifical law, which I deliberately pass over. For Noah said to his son Ham:³⁸ He shall be a servant of servants to his brothers.

6. However, although this human servitude does not impair evangelical liberty,³⁹ human laws have set some limits to it.⁴⁰ Some people become slaves by the provisions of canon law, others by the enactments of civil law. But the laws which declare that some become the purchaser’s slaves by purchase must, if applied to Christians, be understood to mean that they had already been assigned to servitude beforehand.⁴¹ For the law does not permit a Christian who has never served as another’s slave to be made a slave by purchase. Yet some are driven into servitude from birth itself: I mean those born to a slave mother. The laws of rulers have laid down many provisions concerning this kind of servitude, but I omit them to be brief.⁴²

I will repeat only this: the condition of servitude has not been abolished by that evangelical liberty which our Savior Christ⁴³ won for us with his blood, since it is servitude of the body alone;⁴⁴ through Christ’s work, however, we have been granted liberty of the mind. For although by grace⁴⁵ we are made children of God,⁴⁶ and are therefore rescued from servitude to sin into complete liberty of mind, we do not escape the servitude by which we can be bound and obligated to another’s service.