Based on the example of the Jesuits who taught at Rome's Jesuit University (Collegio Romano) between 1550 and 1650, this volume looks at the ways in which Catholic theologians thematised and interpreted slavery. The examination of the theological history is not restricted to the justification of slavery in the debates about natural law, but for the first time is expanded to take account of the various (contemporary) theological disciplines: biblical exegesis, scholastic theology, moral theology and casuistry. A chapter devoted to the Jesuit missions sheds light on actual encounters with slavery. Jesuits themselves could be slaves or slave-owners. Thus the possibilities and boundaries of the Christian ethis of humanisation are explored. sakriti opis