Abolitionists for the 8th century!

At the end of the eighth century Charlemagne opposed slavery, while the pope and many other powerful and effective clerical voices echoed St. Bathilda. As the ninth century dawned, Bishop Agobard of Lyons thundered: “All men are brothers, all invoke one same Father, God: the slave and the master, the poor man and the rich man, the ignorant and the learned, the weak and the strong…[N]one has been raised above the other…there is no…slave or free, but in all things and always there is only Christ.” Soon, no one “doubted that slavery in itself was against divine law.” Indeed, during the eleventh century both St. Wulfstand and St. Anselm successfully campaigned to remove the last vestiges of slavery in Christendom. The Triumph of Christianity, pages 247-248

<idle musing>
Only 1000 years before the emancipation proclamation! Interesting that the same arguments were being used...I guess there reallyis nothing new under the sun!
</idle musing>