Note 074 The author of the Histoire Politique et Philosophique des deux Indes (tom. i. p. 9) condemns a law of Constantine which gave freedom to all the slaves who should embrace Christianity. The emperor did indeed publish a law which restrained the Jews from circumcising, perhaps from keeping, any Christian slaves (see Euseb. in Vit. Constant.1. iv. c. 27, and Cod. Theod. 1. xvi. tit. ix., with Godefroy's Commentary, tom. v i. p. 247). But this imperfect exception related only to the Jews; and the great body of slaves, who were the property of Christian or Pagan masters, could not improve their temporal condition by changing their religion. I am ignorant by what guides the Abbe Raynal was deceived, as the total absence of quotations is the unpardonable blemish of his entertaining history

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Note to Chapter 20 of DECLINE & FALL by Gibbon