96. The custom of enslaving prisoners of war was totally
extinguished in the thirteenth century by the prevailing
influence of Christianity; but it might be proved, from
frequent passages of Gregory of Tours, etc., that it was
practised without censure under the Merovingian race; and
even Grotius himself (de Jure Belli et Pacis, 1. iii. c. 7),
as well as his commentator Barbeyrac, have laboured to
reconcile it with the laws of nature and reason.