ABSTRACT
The 'large scale slave society', implies both quantitative and qualitative criteria. This chapter deals with the qualitative aspects of a 'slave society'. It discusses the relevant terminology, the institutional ecology and general conditions of slavery, the sources of slaves, flight and manumission, and opportunities for slaves to gain enhanced status as Patterson's 'ultimate slaves'. There is an immense German-language literature on medieval Bavaria, and several good, general surveys and other useful historical reference works exist. The Episcopal cities were the principal urban centres in medieval Bavaria. Many, probably most, historians of medieval Europe view slavery as a Roman institution which had become marginal to or was fast declining in medieval society dominated at the lower social levels by, admittedly dependent, small peasant proprietors and tenants. Consequently, historians are forced to deploy verbal gymnastics and circumlocutions in their efforts to demonstrate that, whatever they find in the records of medieval Europe, it is not really slavery.
