 Similar penalties were promulgated later on against the wives and concubines (see the Synod of Melfi, 1189, can.xii), who by the very fact of their unlawful connection with a subdeacon or clerk of higher rank became liable to be seized as slaves ...

Laws sometimes stated that conversion to Christianity, especially by Muslims, should result in the emancipation of the slave, but as such conversions often resulted in the freed slave returning to his home territory and reverting to his old religion, for example in the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem, which had such laws, provisions along these lines were often ignored and became less used.There has been a consistent tradition of charitable aid to slaves, without necessarily challenging the institution of slavery itself.