“We ordain, according to the true meaning of the Holy Ghost, and of the apostles as thereby directed, that on the sacred day wherein our own integrity was restored, all do rest and cease from labor.”[779]
Soon after this edict of the pope, the emperor Leo, A. D. 469, put forth the following decree:—
“It is our will and pleasure, that the holy days dedicated to the most high God, should not be spent in sensual recreations, or otherwise prophaned by suits of law, especially the Lord’s day, which we decree to be a venerable day, and therefore free it of all citations, executions, pleadings, and the like avocations. Let not the circus or theater be opened, nor combating with wild beasts be seen on it.... If any will presume to offend in the premises, if he be a military man, let him lose his commission; or if other, let his estate or goods be confiscated.”[780]
And this emperor determined to mend the breach in Constantine’s law, and thus prohibit agriculture on Sunday. So he adds:—
“We command therefore all, as well husbandmen as others, to forbear work on this day of our restoration.”[781]
The holy doctors of the church had by this time very effectually despoiled the Sabbath of its glory, transferring it to the Lord’s day of Pope Sylvester; as Augustine testifies; yet was not Sabbatical observance wholly extinguished even in the Catholic church. The historian Socrates, who wrote about the middle of the fifth century, thus testifies:—
“For although almost all churches throughout the world celebrate the sacred mysteries on the Sabbath of every week, yet the Christians of Alexandria and at Rome, on account of some ancient tradition, refuse to do this. The Egyptians in the neighborhood of Alexandria, and the inhabitants of Thebais, hold their religious meetings on the Sabbath, but do not participate of the mysteries in the manner usual among Christians in general—for after having eaten and satisfied themselves with food of all kinds, in the evening, making their oblations, they partake of the mysteries.”[782]
As the church of Rome had turned the Sabbath into a fast some two hundred years before this, in order to oppose its observance, it is probable that this was the ancient tradition referred to by Socrates. And Sozomen, the cotemporary of Socrates, speaks on the same point as follows:—
“The people of Constantinople, and of several other cities, assemble together on the Sabbath, as well as on the next day; which custom is never observed at Rome, or at Alexandria. There are several cities and villages in Egypt where, contrary to the usages established elsewhere, the people meet together on Sabbath evenings; and although they have dined previously, partake of the mysteries.”[783]
On the statement of these historians, Cox remarks:—