MANUMISSION IN THE CHURCHES

 

Emperor Constantine Augustus to Bishop Hosius.

If any person with pious intention should grant deserved freedom to his favorite slaves in the bosom of the Church, he shall appear to give it with the same legal force as that with which Roman citizenship formerly was customarily bestowed under observance of the usual formalities. But it is Our pleasure that such right to manumit in the churches shall be allowed only to those persons who give freedom under the eyes of the bishops (antistites). 1. To clerics, moreover, We further grant that when they bestwo freedom on their own household slaves, not only shall they be said to have given the complete enjoyment of such freedom when they have granted it in sight of the Church and the religious congregation, but also when they have conferred freedom in a last will or ordered it to be given by any words, so that the slaves shall receive heir freedom directly on the day of the publication of the will, without the necessity of any witness or intermediary of the law.

Given on the fourteenth day before the kalends of May in the year of the second consulship of Crispus and Constantine Caesars. April 18, 321.

INTERPRETATION: If any person should wish to manumit in the sacrosanct Church, it is required only that he should be willing to manumit his slaves in the presence of the priests, and he shall know that on their receipt of freedom, those who are manumitted become Roman citizens. But if clerics should wish to bestow freedom on their own slaves, even though they should manumit the slaves out of the sight of the priests, or orally, without any written instrumen, those thus manumitted shall attain a full and complete freedom, namely, that of Roman citizens.

 

(trans. C. Pharr 1952: 87-88)