On what foundations was the revolution begun by St. Gregory of Nyssa built?

First: We are all equal by nature.¹⁰⁵⁶

Second: God alone is Master of all: “what is such a gross example of arrogance … [as a master] regarding himself as something different from his subordinates?”¹⁰⁵⁷

Third: Human beings are free by nature: “‘I got me slaves and slave girls’ he says … This kind of language is raised up as a challenge to God … You have forgotten the limits of your authority and that your rule is confined to control over things without reason.”¹⁰⁵⁸

Fourth: What price can one put on a human slave? “How many obols [a currency] did you reckon the equivalent of the likeness of God?”¹⁰⁵⁹

Fifth: Is not a slave sold with all his possessions? Yet God gave humanity possession of the whole world. Can you put a price on the whole world?

Sixth: How can a contract —a mere scrap of paper — possibly give one person any kind of real possession of another?

Seventh: The difference between a master and a slave is only a difference in title, and nothing more.

1056 St. Gregory of Nyssa, Gregory of Nyssa: Homilies on the Beatitudes , ed., Hubertus R. Drobner and Albert Viciano, trans., Stuart George Hall (Leiden, Boston, Kohn: Brill, 2000) 1.2, 7; 4.2: p. 24, 30, 49.

1057 St. Gregory of Nyssa, Gregory of Nyssa: Homilies on Ecclesiastes , ed., Stuart George Hall, trans., Stuart George Hall and Rachel Moriarty (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter & Co., 1993) 4: p. 73.

1058 St. Gregory of Nyssa, Gregory of Nyssa: Homilies on Ecclesiastes , ed., Stuart George Hall, trans., Stuart George Hall and Rachel Moriarty (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter & Co., 1993) 4: p. 73.

1059 St. Gregory of Nyssa, Gregory of Nyssa: Homilies on Ecclesiastes , ed., Stuart George Hall, trans., Stuart George Hall and Rachel Moriarty (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter & Co., 1993) 4: p. 74.

Eighth: He called for masters to free their slaves on the glorious Feast of the Resurrection, just as the Lord Christ, through His resurrection, liberated us from the bondage of sin.

In another discourse, St. Gregory says that a Christian community ought to practice equality; and therefore, slavery and every kind of injustice have no place in the community of the Church: “We are neither slaves nor lords; we do not suffer from poverty, are not wealthy due to a noble birth, nor are we humble because of a lowly birth. We do not have honor from exercising authority nor do life’s vicissitudes afflict us … Here freedom of speech and equality under the law are the common heritage of all who sincerely desire peace and who freely choose it.”¹⁰⁶⁰

1060 St. Gregory of Nyssa, Concerning Those Who Have Died J.35; J.37: pp. 16, 17.