Dean Milman observes, “In the old Roman society in the Eastern Empire this distinction between the marriage of the freeman and the concubinage of the slave was long recognised by Christianity itself. These unions were not blessed, as the marriages of their superiors had soon begun to be, by the Church. Basil the Macedonian (A.D. 867-886) first enacted that the priestly benediction should hallow the marriage of the slave; but the authority of the emperor was counteracted by the deep-rooted prejudices of centuries.”—_Hist. of Latin Christianity_, vol. ii. p. 15. _ 123 Cod. Theod._ lib. ii. tit. 25. 124 Ibid. lib. iv. tit. 7. 125 Ibid. lib. ix. tit. 9. _ 126 Corpus Juris_, vi. 1. _ 127 Cod. Theod._ lib. vi. tit. 2. 128 See on all this legislation, Wallon, tome iii.; Champagny, _Charité chrétienne_, pp. 214-224. 129 It is worthy of notice, too, that the justice of slavery was frequently based by the Fathers, as by modern defenders of slavery, on the curse of Ham. See a number of passages noticed by Moehler, _Le Christianisme et l’Esclavage_ (trad. franç.), pp. 151-152. 130 The penalty, however, appears to have been reduced to two years’ exclusion from communion. Muratori says: “In più consili si truova decretato, ‘excommunicatione vel pœnitentiæ biennii esse subjiciendum qui servum proprium sine conscientia judicis occiderit.’ ”—_Antich. Ital._ Diss. xiv. Besides the works which treat generally of the penitential discipline, the reader may consult with fruit Wright’s letter _On the Political Condition of the English Peasantry_, and Moehler, p. 186. 131 On the great multitude of emancipated slaves who entered, and at one time almost monopolised, the ecclesiastical offices, compare Moehler, _Le Christianisme et l’Esclavage_, pp. 177-178. Leo the Great tried to prevent slaves being raised to the priestly office, because it would degrade the latter. 132 See a most admirable dissertation on this subject in Le Blant, _Inscriptions chrétiennes de la Gaule_, tome ii. pp. 284-299; Gibbon’s _Decline and Fall_, ch. xxxviii. 133 Champagny, _Charité chrétienne_, p. 210. These numbers are, no doubt, exaggerated; see Wallon, _Hist. de l’Esclavage_, tome iii. p. 38. 134 See Schmidt, _La Société civile dans le Monde romain_, pp. 246-248. 135 Muratori has devoted two valuable dissertations (_Antich. Ital._ xiv. xv.) to mediæval slavery.