“Preached the word of the Lord, and on the breaking of the Lord’s day and the other festivals, and imposed upon the people penance and gave absolution, upon condition that in future they would pay due reverence to the Lord’s day and the other festivals of the saints, doing therein no servile work.”[846]
“Upon this, the people who were dutiful to God at his preaching, vowed before God that, for the future, on the Lord’s day, they would neither buy nor sell any thing, unless, perchance, victuals and drink to wayfarers.”[847]
The abbot also made provision for the collection of alms for the benefit of the poor, and forbade the use of the churches for the sale of goods, and for the pleading of causes. Upon this, the king interfered as follows:—
“Accordingly, through these and other warnings of this holy man, the enemy of mankind being rendered envious, he put it into the heart of the king and of the princes of darkness to command that all who should observe the before stated doctrines, and more especially all those who had discountenanced the markets on the Lord’s day, should be brought before the king’s court of justice, to make satisfaction as to the observance of the Lord’s day.”[848]
The markets on the Lord’s day, it seems, were held in the churches, and Eustace was attempting to suppress these when he forbade the sale of goods in the churches. And now to confirm the authority of the roll, and to neutralize the opposition of the king, some very extraordinary prodigies were reported. The roll forbade labor “from the ninth hour (that is 3 P. M.) on Saturday until sunrise on Monday.” Now read what happened to the disobedient:—
“One Saturday, a certain carpenter of Beverly, who, after the ninth hour of the day was, contrary to the wholesome advice of his wife, making a wooden wedge, fell to the earth, being struck with paralysis. A woman also, a weaver, who, after the ninth hour, on Saturday, in her anxiety to finish a part of the web, persisted in so doing, fell to the ground, struck with paralysis, and lost her voice. At Rafferton also, a vill belonging to Master Roger Arundel, a man made for himself a loaf and baked it under the ashes, after the ninth hour on Saturday, and ate thereof, and put part of it by till the morning, but when he broke it on the Lord’s day blood started forth therefrom; and he who saw it bore witness, and his testimony is true.
“At Wakefield, also, one Saturday, while a miller was, after the ninth hour, attending to grinding his corn, there suddenly came forth, instead of flour, such a torrent of blood, that the vessel placed beneath was nearly filled with blood, and the mill-wheel stood immovable, in spite of the strong rush of the water; and those who beheld it wondered thereat, saying, ‘Spare us, O Lord, spare thy people!’
“Also, in Lincolnshire a woman had prepared some dough, and taking it to the oven after the ninth hour on Saturday, she placed it in the oven, which was then at a very great heat; but when she took it out, she found it raw, on which she again put it into the oven, which was very hot; and, both on the next day, and on Monday, when she supposed that she should find the loaves baked, she found raw dough.
“In the same county also, when a certain woman had prepared her dough, intending to carry it to the oven, her husband said to her, ‘It is Saturday, and it is now past the ninth hour, put it one side till Monday;’ on which the woman, obeying her husband, did as he commanded; and so, having covered over the dough with a linen cloth, on coming the next day to look at the dough, to see whether it had not, in rising, through the yeast that was in it, gone over the sides of the vessel, she found there the loaves ready made by the divine will, and well baked, without any fire of the material of this world. This was a change wrought by the right hand of Him on high.”[849]
The historian laments that these miracles were lost upon the people, and that they feared the king more than they feared God, and so “like a dog to his vomit, returned to the holding of markets on the Lord’s day.”[850] Such was the first attempt in England after the apparition of St. Peter, A. D. 1155, to supply divine authority for Sunday observance. “It shows,” as Morer quaintly observes, “how industrious men were in those times to have this great day solemnly observed.”[851] And Gilfillan, who has occasion to mention the story of the roll from Heaven, has not one word of condemnation for the pious fraud in behalf of Sunday, but he simply speaks of our abbot as “This ardent person.”[852]