It was only at this period that we find any of the laws of the Franks
introducing the right of a Christian to refuse service to a Jew. This,
however, was not the case in all the territory, for that over which
Guntram ruled was but a fourth part of the empire.
The following is ep. xxi. lib. iii. indic. xii.
* * * * *
GREGORIUS Venantio, Episcopo Lunensi:
_Quod Judæi non possunt Christiana habere mancipia: sed coloni et
originarii pensiones illis præbere debent._
Multorum ad nos relatione pervenit, a Judæis in Lunensi civitate
degentibus in servitio Christiana detineri mancipia: quæ res nobis tanto
visa est asperior, quanto ea fraternitati tuæ patientia operabatur.
Oportebat quippe te respectu loci tui, atque Christianæ religionis
intuitu, nullam relinquere occasionem, ut superstitioni Judaicæ
simplices animæ non, tam suasionibus quam potestatis jure, quodammodo
deservirent. Quamobrem hortamur fraternitatem tuam, ut secundum
piissimarum legum tramitem, nulli Judæo liceat Christianum mancipium in
suo retinere dominio. Sed si qui penes eos inveniuntur, libertas eis
tuitionis auxilio ex legum sanctione servetur. Hi vero qui in
possessionibus eorum sunt, licet et ipsi ex legum distinctione sint
liberi; tamen quia colendis eorum terris diutius adhæserunt, utpote
conditionem loci debentes, ad colenda quæ consueverant rura permaneant,
pensionesque prædictis viris præbeant: et cuncta quæ de colonis vel
originariis jura præcipiunt, peragant, extra quod nihil eis oneris
amplius indicatur. Quodsi quisquam de his vel ad alium migrare locum,
vel in obsequio suo retinere voluerit, ipse sibi reputet, qui jus
colonarium temeritate suâ, jus vero juris dominii sui severitate
damnavit. In his ergo omnibus ita te volumus solerter impendi, ut nec
direpti gregis pastor reus existas, nec apud nos minor æmulatio
fraternitatem tuam reprehensibilem reddat.
* * * * *
GREGORY _to Venantius, Bishop of Luna_:
That Jews should not have Christian slaves, but that colonists and those
born on their lands should pay them pensions.
_We have learned by the report of many persons that Christian slaves are
kept in servitude by the Jews dwelling in the city of Luna, which is the
more grievous to us as it has been caused by the remissness of you our
brother. For it was becoming you, as well by reason of the place you
hold, as from your regard for the Christian religion, not to allow the
existence of any occasion by which simple souls may be subjected to the
Jewish superstition, not only by the force of persuasion, but by a sort
of right arising from power. Wherefore we exhort you, our brother, that,
according to the regulation of the most pious laws, it should not be
permitted to any Jew to keep a Christian slave under his dominion, and
that if any such be found under them, the liberty of such should be
secured by the process of law and the aid of protection._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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