SUNDAY
19
SUNDAY
from heatheuism who were passing through a prepara- tory cciurse of iiiiStructicui in the doctrines and dnties of Christianity — that their understandings might be enlight- ened, their liearts receive the truth iu the love of it, and thai they might be led to cultivate those holy habits of heart and life by which they might adorn the doctrine of God their Saviour. Next, he prayed for the penitents who weie undergoing the discipline of the Church that tliey might receive deep and permanent impressions of the exceeding sinfulness of sin, that they might be till- ed with godly sorrow, and might have grace, during the appointed term of their piobation, to bring forth fiuits meet for repentance. In like manner, he made appropri- ate supplications for other descriptions of persons, each of whom left the church when the class to which he be- longed had been commended to the God of all grace; and then the brethren, reduced by the successive depart- ures to an approved company of the faithful, proceeded to the holy service of communion."
Those who neglected ordinances were severely cen- sured. Absence from church for three consecutive Sun- days was to be visited with excommunication. Ir- regularities during attendance, such as refusing to join in prayers or receive the communion, or leaving church during sermon, were strongly condemned. In later times severe measures were employed to secure Sabbath observance, and which could only, in many cases, in- duce hypocrisy, or mere external attendance at church. The kirk -sessions in 1574 appointed "searchers," or " captors," to make the round of the parish and take notice of such as were " vaging abroad." The strange practice lasted for nigh a century and a half. Some of the records of the period are curious. See Walcott, Sacred ArchcBol. s. v. See Lord's Day.
III. Legal Observance of the Day. — As soon as the Christian religion came to be recognised by the State, laws were enacted for the observance of Sunda3^ The emperor Constantine made the first law (A.D. 321) to exempt the day from being juridical, as were the oth- ers. By this law and others he suspended all actions and proceedings of the law on this day, whether ar- rests, pleadings, exactions, sentences of judges, execu- tions, excepting only such as were of absolute neces- sity or of eminent charity, as the manumission of slaves, the appointing of curators and guardians to or- phans, and causes relating to matters of preservation and damage, legacies and trusts, exhibiting of wills, and all cases where great damage might be suffered either by delay or by death. Valentinian prohibited all arrests of men for debt, whether public or private, on this day, and Valentinian junior, with Theodosius the Great, appointed all Sundays in the year to be days of vacation from all business of the law whatso- ever. In like manner, all secular business or servile employments were forbidden, except only such as men were called to by necessity or some great charity, such as harvesting. By a law of Honorius the judges were enjoined to visit the prisons every Sunday to examine the prisoners and ascertain from them whether the keepers of the prison denied them any office of human- ity, and also to give orders that the prisoners, under proper guard, should be alloweil to leave the prisons to bathe themselves. Later laws forbade all husbandry on the Lord's day, allowing only such work as was nec- essary to secure food absolutely required. The Chris- tian laws took care to secure the honor and dignity of the Lord's day by forbidding public games, shows, or ludicrous recreations {Cod. Justin, lib. 3, tit. 12, De Feriis, leg. 11), and the Church was no less careful to guard the service of this daj' from the encroachment of all vain pastimes and needless recreations. The Fourth Council of Carthage made a decree (can. 88) excommu- nicating any person who should forsake the services of the Church to attend a public show.
In England Sunday laws were of early date. The code of Ina, king of the West Sa.xons (about tJ93), pun- ished servile work by fine. Alfred the Great (876) for- bade work, traffic, and legal proceedings ; while the stat- ute 27 Henry IV, c. 5, enacts that all fairs and markets on Sundays, except in harvest, shall cease on pain of forfeiture of goods. The statute 5 and 6 Edward VI,
c. 3, makes Sundays, with Christmas and Easter, holy- days, but permits work in harvest and in cases of ne- cessity. The statute 1 Elizabeth, c. 2, punishes by fine persons absenting themselves from church without ex- cuse. James I, in 1C18, issued his Book of Sports (q. v.), in which he declared certain games, sports, etc., law- ful on Sundays after divine service. This book was reissued by Charles I in 1638. The statute 29 Charles II, c. 7, enacted " that no tradesman, artificer, workman, laborer, or other person whatsoever shall do or exer- cise any worldly labor, business, or work of their ordi- narj' callings upon tlie Lord's day, or any part thereof (works of necessity and charity only excepted);" and " that no person or persons whatsoever shall publicly cry, show forth, or e.xpose to sale any wares, merchan- dise, fruit, herbs, goods, or chattels whatsoever upon the Lord's day or any part thereof." This, somewhat mod- ified by subsetpient laws, is the present Sunday law of England, and is the foundation of the laws on the sub- ject in the United States.