To John, Bishop of Syracuse, on Felix, Once the Slave of a Samaritan

Gregory to John, and so on. [a] Felix, the bearer of this letter, has complained to us that, though he was born of Christian parents, he was given as a slave by a certain Christian to a Samaritan, which is a dreadful thing even to say. And though neither the order of law nor reverence for religion allows men of such a superstition to own Christian slaves in any way whatever, he asserts that he remained in that man’s service for eighteen years. But he says that when your predecessor Maximianus of holy memory learned of it, he set him free from the service of that Samaritan, moved, as was fitting, by a priest’s zeal. [b]

But the son of this Samaritan is said to have become a Christian five years later, and certain persons, as Felix tells it, are trying to claim him back into his service. So let your holiness inquire carefully into the facts we have been told, and if they are found to be true, take care to protect him, and allow no one, on any pretext whatever, to wrong him. For the laws plainly forbid slaves of that superstitious sect who come to the faith before their masters to be claimed back into their service. How much more, then, ought this man, born of Christian parents and a Christian from childhood, not to be subjected in any way to this dispute! All the more so, since he could not lawfully have been the slave even of that man’s father, who clearly deserved rather to be punished by law for his wicked presumption. And so, as we have said, let your holiness’s defense protect him reasonably, so that no one is free, under any pretext whatever, to trouble him in any degree.