As early as the thirteenth century, under the sanction of Pope Innocent the Third, an important association was organized to promote the emancipation of Christian slaves. This was known as the _Society of the Fathers of Redemption_.[59] During many successive generations its blessed labors were continued, amidst the praise and sympathy of generous men. History, undertaking to recount its origin, and filled with a grateful sense of its extraordinary merits, attributed it to the suggestion of an angel in the sky, clothed in resplendent light, holding a Christian captive in his right hand, and a Moor in the left. The pious Spaniard, who narrates the marvel, earnestly declares that this institution of beneficence was the work, not of men, but of the great God alone; and he dwells, with more than the warmth of narrative, on the glory, filling the lives of its associates, as surpassing far that of a Roman triumph; for they share the name as well as the labors of the Redeemer of the world, to whose spirit they are the heirs, and to whose works they are the successors. "Lucullus," he says, "affirmed that it were better to liberate a single Roman from the hands of the enemy than to gain all their wealth; but how much greater the gain, more excellent the glory, and more than human is it to redeem a captive! For whosoever redeems him not only liberates him from one death, but from death in a thousand ways, and those ever present, and also from a thousand afflictions, a thousand miseries, a thousand torments and fearful travails, more cruel than death itself."[60] The genius of Cervantes has left a record of his gratitude to this Anti-Slavery Society[61]--the harbinger of others whose mission is not yet finished. Throughout Spain annual contributions for its sacred objects continued to be taken for many years. Nor in Spain only did it awaken sympathy. In Italy and France also it successfully labored; and as late as 1748, inspired by a similar catholic spirit, if not by its example, a proposition appeared in England "to establish a _society_ to carry on the truly charitable design of emancipating" sixty-four Englishmen, slaves in Morocco.[62] [Footnote 59: Biot, _De l'Abolition de l'Esclavage Ancien_, p. 437.] [Footnote 60: Haedo, _Historia de Argel_, pp. 142-144; _Dialogo I. de la Captiudad_.] [Footnote 61: Roscoe's Life of Cervantes, p. 50. See his story of _Española Inglesa_.] [Footnote 62: Gentleman's Mag. xviii. p. 413.] War and ransom were not the only agents of emancipation. Even if history were silent, it would be impossible to suppose that the slaves of African Barbary endured their lot without struggles for freedom. Since the first moment they put on my chains, I've thought on nothing but the weight of them, And how to throw them off.