HISTORY OF THE SABBATH - Friends of the Sabbath Australia

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History of the Sabbath by J.N AndrewsThese were weighty reasons indeed for Sunday observance. Nor can it be thought strange thatin the Dark Ages a constant succession of such things should eventuate in the universalobservance of that day. Even the Jews were to be compelled to desist from Sabbathobservance, and to honor Sunday by resting on that day from their labor. The earliest mentionof Sunday in English statutes appears to be the following:A.D. 692. "Ina, king of the west Saxons, by the advice of Cenred his father, and Heddes andErkenwald his bishops, with all his aldermen and sages, in a great assembly of the servants ofGod, for the health of their souls, and common preservation of the kingdom, made severalconstitutions, of which this was the third: `If a servant do any work on Sunday by his master'sorders, he shall be free, and the master pay thirty shillings; but if he went to work on his ownhead, he shall be either beaten with stripes, or ransom himself with a price. A freeman, if heworks on this day, shall lose his freedom or pay sixty shillings; if he be a priest, double.' " 24The same year that this law was enacted in England, the sixth general council convened atConstantinople, which decreed that,"If any bishop or other clergyman, or any of the laity, absented himself fromthe church three Sundays together, except in cases of very great necessity, if aclergyman, he was to be deposed; if a layman, debarred the holycommunion." 25In the year 747, a council of the English clergy was called under Cuthbert, archbishop ofCanterbury, in the reign of Egbert, king of Kent, and this constitution made:"It is ordered that the Lord's day be celebrated with due veneration, and whollydevoted to the worship of God. And that all abbots and priests, on this mostholy day, remain in their respective monasteries and churches, and there dotheir duty according to their places." 26Another ecclesiastical statute of the eighth century was enacted and Dingosolinum in Bavaria,where a synod met about 772, which decreed that,"If any man shall work his cart on this day, or do any such common business,his team shall be presently forfeited to the public use, and if the party persistsin his folly, let him be sold for a bondman." 27The English were not behind their neighbors in the good work of establishing the sacrednessof Sunday. Thus we read:A.D. 784. "Egbert, archbishop of York, to show positively what was to bedone on Sundays, and what the laws designed by prohibiting ordinary work tobe done on such days, made this canon:`Let nothing else, saith he, be done onthe Lord's day, but to attend on God in hymns and psalms and spiritual songs.Whoever marries on Sunday, let him do penance for seven days.' " 28In the conclusion of the eighth century further efforts were made in behalf of this favored day:"Charles the Great summoned the bishops to Friuli, in Italy, where . . . theydecreed [A.D. 791] that all people should, with due reverence and devotion,honor the Lord's day. . . . Under the same prince another council was calledthree years later at Frankford in Germany, and there the limits of the Lord'sday were determined from Saturday evening to Sunday evening. 29214
Chapter Twenty – Sunday During the Dark AgesThe five councils of Mentz, Rheims, Tours, Chalons, and Arles, were all called in the year813 by Charlemagne. It would be irksome to the reader to dwell upon the several acts of thesecouncils in behalf of Sunday. They are of the same character as those already quoted. Thecouncil of Chalons, however, is worthy of being noticed in that, according to Morer,"They entreated the help of the secular power, and desired the emperor[Charlemagne] to provide for the stricter observation of it[Sunday]. Which heaccordingly did, and left no stone unturned to secure the honor of the day. Hiscare succeeded; and during his reign, the Lord's day bore a considerable figure.But after his day, it put on another face." 30The pope lent a helping hand in checking the profanation of Sunday:"And thereupon Pope Eugenius, in a synod held at Rome about 826, . . . gavedirections that the parish priest should admonish such offenders and wish themto go to church and say their prayers, lest otherwise they might bring somegreat calamity on themselves and neighbors." 31All this, however, was not sufficient, and so another council was summoned. At this councilwas brought forward - perhaps for the first time - the famous first-day argument now sofamiliar to all, that Sunday is proved to be the true Sabbath because that men are struck bylightning who labor on that day. Thus we read:"But these paternal admonitions turning to little account, a provincial councilwas held at Paris three years after . . . in 829, wherein the prelates complainthat `The Lord's day was not kept with reverence as became religion . . . whichwas the reason that God had sent several judgments on them, and in a veryremarkable manner punished some people for slighting and abusing it. For, saythey, many of us by our own knowledge, and some by hearsay know, thatseveral countrymen following their husbandry on this day have been killedwith lightning, others, being seized with convulsions in their joints, havemiserably perished. Whereby it is apparent how high the displeasure of Godwas upon their neglect of this day.' And at last they conclude that `in the firstplace the priests and ministers, then kings and princes, and all faithful peoplehe beseeched to use their utmost endeavors and care that the day be restored toits honor, and for the credit of Christianity more devoutly observed for the timeto come.' " 32Further legislation being necessary,"It was decreed about seven years after in a council at Aken, under Lewis theGodly, that neither pleadings nor marriages should be allowed on the Lord'sday." 33But the law of Charlemagne, though backed with the authority of the church, as expressed inthe canons of the councils already quoted, by the remissness of Lewis, his successor becamevery feeble. It is evident that canons and decrees of councils, though fortified with themention of terrible judgments that had befallen transgressors, were not yet sufficient toenforce the sacred day. Another and more terrific statute than any yet issued was sought at thehands of the emperor. Thus we read:"Thereupon an address was made to the emperors, Lewis and Lotharius, thatthey would be pleased to take some care in it, and send out some precept or215
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HISTORY OF THE SABBATHandFIRST DAY
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Chapter One - The CreationHISTORY O
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Chapter One - The CreationDr. Gill
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