In Supremo Apostolatus
An apostolic letter of 1839 in which Gregory XVI condemns the trade in Black Africans and all enslavement, and forbids any Catholic, cleric or lay, to defend it as permissible.
The letter recalls that the apostles told masters to treat their slaves justly, lists earlier papal letters against the enslavement of the peoples of the Americas and Africa, from Pius II in 1462 to Pius VII, and admits that these had not ended the practice: the trade, it says, is still carried on by numerous Christians. Gregory then warns the faithful not to enslave anyone or to help those who do, and forbids anyone to teach or publish that the traffic is lawful.
It is a primary source for the teaching of the Roman see in 1839. Its warning names both the traffic and the act of reducing people to servitude.
Cited in
- 25 March 1807, firm date