=6. Jews as Slave-owners.=――In their owners, at any rate, as events turned out, the captives were, for the most part, fortunate. The principal purchasers of slaves were found among the Jews. Jews were so widely scattered by this time that they seemed to be always and everywhere at hand to buy, and to have the means equally ready to pay. They were the kindest of masters. ‘Remember how ye were slaves in the land of Egypt,’ is the preface to God’s law on the treatment of dependants. ‘For ye know the heart of a stranger,’ is further and tenderly urged. To the credit of these trading Jews, so often tempted to drive a hard bargain, to seem and even to be hard, and sordid, and grasping――to their credit be it said that they acted in the spirit of their Law, and proved the gentlest and most generous slave-owners the world has ever known. So fond grew the grateful slaves of their Jewish masters, that they very often desired to become Jews themselves, and were thus the indirect cause of an immense deal of harsh and suspicious legislation. The Church conscientiously abhorred Jews. It could not be expected to look on calmly at the possible manufacture of more of them. So council after council of the Church busied itself in devising plans to prevent, or in imposing penalties to punish, any conversions to Judaism. =7. Church Councils.=――The early Church, in its practice as in its precepts, borrowed much from the ancient Synagogue. The Sanhedrin was something of a model for the Council. Both assemblies claimed a supreme authority quite independently of political conditions. The new faith had held its first deliberative sitting at Jerusalem about the year 50, when the matter to decide was the question, which had been raised at Antioch, whether heathen converts could dispense with the Abrahamic covenant. According to Church tradition, a brother of Jesus presided at this assembly, and Paul opened the discussion. At any rate, this was the very first so-called Council of the Church. As time went on the meetings multiplied, though the debates were rarely decisive of such great issues as was that first one. Jews were a frequent and favourite subject for discussion, and concerning them the expression of opinion and the consequent legislation were apt to be, unhappily, unanimous. There were occasional exceptions. The Pope or Father of the Church, for the time being, was the head of these councils, and towards the end of the sixth century, when Gregory I. was Pope, his firmness and humanity for a brief while gave some check to the persecuting mania. Pope Gregory was just as much in earnest as any of the Church dignitaries, past or present, in hating the slave trade, but he hated it because it was slavery, and not only because Jews were slave-owners. He loved righteousness and he hated wrong-doing, but he did not put Jewish or Christian labels on these things, and love or hate accordingly. Pope Gregory was several centuries in advance of his age.