Benevolence, at least so far as it consisted in almsgiving and kindness to the poor, was the cardinal virtue commended in many of the sermons, and exemplified in some of the lives of the saints of the dark ages. We may fairly conclude that the ecclesiastics were, in this respect, friends to the lower classes of society, and often relieved the wants of the indigent, and soothed the minds of the sorrowing. The value of such influence, during ages of disorder and violence, when a stern and almost savage spirit pervaded the upper classes of society, cannot be too highly appreciated. The spirit of kindness nurtured by many in the bosom of the church, produced an improvement in the condition of domestic slaves, and the gradual, but, at length, total extinction of slavery itself. Slaves who belonged to monasteries, or ecclesiastics, were in far better circumstances than those who were in the possession of laymen. Their sufferings under a stern master, are sometimes bewailed by the writers of the day, who allude to them under the touching appellation of those "whom Christ had redeemed at a rich price." Gregory the Great, in the sixth century, set a noble example of manumission, in granting liberty to a number of his own slaves, whom he described as free by nature, but placed by unjust law, under the yoke of bondage. Manumission was a religious ceremony. The person to be set free held a lighted torch in his hand, and was led round the altar; he then laid hold upon its horns, when the formulary of liberation was solemnly repeated.[7] Several charters of manumission, avowedly proceeding from religious motives, are cited by antiquarian writers. Slowly did the great curse of slavery yield to the influence of Christian principles; but its eventual extinction is to be ascribed solely to that spirit of humanity and justice, which Christianity alone could kindle.