380 1HLRD PERIOD. A.D. 311-590.
military exercises, on Sunday.' He exempted the lil)(;ration of slaves, M'lueh as an act of Christian humanity and charity, might, with special propriety, take place on that day.' But the Sunday law of Constantino must not be overrated. He enjoined the observance, or rather forbade the public desecration of Sunday, not under the name of Sdbhaium or Dies Domini^ but under its old astrological and heathen title. Dies Soils, familiar to all his subjects, so that the law was as applicable to the worshippers of Hercules, Apollo, and Mithras, as to the Christians. There is no reference whatever in his law either to the fourth commandment or to the resurrection of Christ. Besides he expressly exempted the country districts, where paganism still j)revailed, from the prohibition of labor, and thus avoided every appearance of injustice. Christians and pagans had been accustomed to festival rests ; Constantino made these rests to synchronize, and gave the preference to Sunday, on which day Christians from the beginning celebrated the resu' rectiou of their Lord and Saviour. This and no more was implied in the famous enactment of 321. It was only a step in the right direction, but probably the only one which Constantino could prudently or safely take at that period of transition from the rule of paganism to that of Christianity. For the army, however, he went beyond the limits of nega-
' Lex Constantini a. 321 (Cod. Just. 1. iii., Tit. 12, 3): Imperator Constantinus Aug. Helpidio : " Omncs judices, urbanscque plebes et cunctarum artium officia venerabili die Solis quiescant. Ruri tamen positi agrorum culturte libere licenterque in serviant, quonJam frequenter cvcnit, ut non aptius alio die frumenta sulcis aut viueae Bcrobibus mandentur, ne occasioue momenti pcrcat commoditas coelesti provisione concessa. Pat. Non. Mart. Crispo ii. et Constantino ii. Coss." In English: "On the venerable Day -of the Sun let the magistrates and people residing in cities rest, and let all workshops be closed. In the country, however, persons engaged in agri culture may freely and lawfully continue their pursuits ; because it often happens that another day is not so suitable for grain-sowing or for vine-planting ; lest by ne^lectin"' the proper moment for such operations the bounty of heaven should be lost. (Given the 7th day of March, Crispus and Constantine being consuls each of them for the second time.)" The prohibition of military exercises is mentioned by Eusebius, Vita Const. IV. 10, 20, and seems to refer to a somewhat later peiiod. In this point Constantine was in advance of modern Christian princes, who prefei Sunday for parades.
* Cod. Theod. 1. ii. tit. 8, 1 : " Sicut indignissimum videbatur, diem Soils . . altcrcantibus jurgiis et noxiis partium contentionibus occupari, ita gratum et jocun
§ 75, THE CIVIL AND EELIGIOUS SUNDAY. 381
tive and protective legislation, to which the state ought to conline itself in matters of religion, and enjoined a certain positive observance of Sunday, in requiring the Christian soldiers tc attend Christian worship, and the heathen soldiers, in the oper field, at a given signal, with eyes and hands raised towards heaven, to recite the following, certainly very indefinite, form of prayer : " Thee alone we acknowledge as God, thee we reverence as king, to thee we call as our helper. To thee we owe our victories, by tliee have we obtained the mastery of oiu' enemies. To thee we give thanks for benefits already received, from thee we hope for benefits to come. We all fall at thy feet, and fervently beg that thou wouldest preserve to us our emperor Constantine and his divinely beloved sons in long life healthful and victorious." '
Constantino's successors pursued the Sunday legislation which he had initiated, and gave a legal sanction and civil significance also to other holy days of the church, which have no Scriptural authority, so that the special reverence due to the Lord's Day was obscured in proportion as the number of rival claims increased. Thus Theodosius 1. increased the num ber of judicial holidays to one hundred and twenty-four. The Yalentinians, I. and II., prohibited the exaction of taxes and the collection of moneys on Sunday, and enforced the previously enacted prohibition of lawsuits. Theodosius the Great, in 386, and still more stringently the younger Theodosius, in 425, forbade theatrical performances, and Leo and Anthemius, in 460, prohibited other secular amusements, on the Lord's Day.' Such laws, however, were probably never rigidly executed. A council of Carthage, in 401, laments the people's passion for theatrical and other entertainments on Sunday. The same abuse, it is well known, very generally prevails to this day upon the continent of Europe in both Protestant and Koman
dum est, eo die, quae sunt maxime TOtiva, compleri; atque ideo emancipandi et manumittendi die festa cuncti licentiam habeant."
' Euseb. Vit. Const, iv. 20.
' Cod. Theod. xv. 5, 2, a. 386: "Nullus Solis die populo spectaculum praebeat." If the emperor's birthday fell on Sunday, the acknowledgment of it, which was ao companied by games, was to be postponed.