According to this document, the number of days which in the course of the year were exempt from labour did not exceed sixty-three in the seventh century. Their number was considerably increased in the subsequent period. In the notes on festivals ascribed to St Boniface, it has increased to seventy-one, including the two Sundays on which Easter and Pentecost fall. These notes are included in the collection known as statuta quædam S. Bonifacii,[53] and even if they do not owe their origin to St Boniface, they belong without doubt to his period. Days in which rest from labour (sabbatismus) is enjoined in this document are Christmas (four days), the Circumcision, Epiphany, Purification, Easter (four days), Ascension, Nativity of St John the Baptist, the festival of SS. Peter and Paul, the Assumption, the Nativity of Our Lady, St Andrew’s Day (30th November). Pentecost is passed over because it has already been mentioned in the thirty-fourth canon, but it was to be celebrated in the same manner as Easter, that is, during four days with a vigil.
In the Frankish Empire, during the ninth century, the regulations for holy days were everywhere reduced to order, and in consequence we possess numerous ordinances bearing on the subject. With the exception of festivals of local saints and patrons, they present little variety. With regard to the Assumptio B.V.M. alone, there seems to have been some fluctuations in France at the beginning of the ninth century, as a statement of the Council of Aix-la-Chapelle in 809 proves. The Council enumerates the following festivals: Natalis Domini, natales S. Stephani, S. Joannis Evangelistæ, SS. Innocentium, octabas Domini (the Circumcision), Epiphania, Purificatio S. Mariæ, Pascha dies octo, Litania major, scensa Domini, Pentecoste, natales S. Joannis Baptistæ, SS. Petri et Pauli, S. Martini, S. Andreæ. De Assumptione S. Mariæ interrogandum reliquimus.[54] The Council of Mainz in 813, however, in its thirty-sixth canon, includes this last festival along with the others, as well as the litania with four days, i.e. including the preceding Sunday. It also directs that, besides the commemoration of those martyrs and confessors whose relics repose within the diocese, the anniversary of the dedication of the church shall also be celebrated.[55] About the same time, i.e. in 827, Bishop Hetto of Basle put out a statute, in the eighth chapter of which the festivals entailing rest from servile work (dies feriandi) are enumerated: Christmas and the three following days, Octava Domini, Theophania, Purificatio S.M., Pascha (which, according to the seventh chapter, was prolonged for eight days), the three Rogation days, the Ascension, the Saturday before Pentecost, St John Baptist, the festivals of the Apostles, Assumptio S. Mariæ, St Michael, the Dedication of the Church, and the Feast of the patron saint, these two last to be observed locally. Three other days, i.e. St Remigius, St Maurice, and St Martin, were not exempt from servile work.[56] This arrangement differs from the preceding, inasmuch as it includes all the Apostles, while the other mentions only SS. Peter and Paul, and St Andrew. The festivals of the Apostles are also absent from the list given by the Council of Mainz in 809.
The Council of Mainz in 813, and the statutes of Bishop Rudolph of Bourges and Bishop Walter of Orleans in the same century, prescribe eight days for the festival of Pentecost, as well as for Easter, and mention in addition the Nativity of our Lady and St Remigius as festivals.[57] The Council of Ingelheim in 948 retained the Easter octave but reduced the festival of Pentecost to four days, which were finally reduced to three by the Council of Constance.[58] A few additions to these festivals are given in the collections of canons put out at a subsequent period by Burchard of Worms[59] and Ivo of Chartres.[60]
The Canon Law contains two lists of festivals, the one representing the state of things in the twelfth, the other that in the thirteenth century. The former, in the decretal of Gratian,[61] enumerates all the Sundays in the year from Vespers to Vespers, and then, throughout the year, the following days are exempt from servile work: Christmas and the three following days, St Silvester, Octava Domini, Theophania, Purificatio S. Mariæ, Easter and the entire Easter week, the three Rogation days, the Ascension, the days of Pentecost (probably three), St John the Baptist’s Day, all the Apostles, St Lawrence, Assumptio and Nativitas B.M.V., the Dedication of the Church, St Michael and All Saints, and, finally, the festivals approved by the bishop of the diocese. This list exhibits a further increase on its predecessors.
The decretal of Gregory IX., Conquestus est nobis, of the year 1232,[62] is important for the Middle Ages, although it does not represent the highest point in the development. According to it, legal business was not to be transacted on the Natalis Domini, S. Stephani, Joannis Evangelistæ, SS. Innocentium, S. Silvestri, Circumcisionis, Epiphaniæ, Septem Diebus Dominicæ Passionis, Resurrectionis cum septem Sequentibus, Ascensionis, Pentecostes cum duobus qui sequuntur, Nativitatis Baptistæ, Festivitatum omnium Virginis Gloriosæ, Duodecim Apostolorum et præcipue Petri et Pauli, Beati Laurentii, Dedicationis Beati Michælis, Sollemnitatis omnium Sanctorum ac Diebus Dominicis ceterisque sollemnitatibus, quas singuli episcopi in suis diæcesibus cum clero et populo duxerint sollemniter celebrandas. Setting down the number of Our Lady’s feasts as five, and the Apostles’ as eleven, we have here ninety-five days in the year on which no legal proceedings took place, not counting the particular festivals of the country and diocese. The above-mentioned decretal is silent concerning servile work. We may assume that there were ten out of the fifteen days exempt from legal proceedings on which servile work was permitted, and thus the total of days exempt from labour must have amounted to eighty-five in the course of the year, omitting the festivals proper to the diocese.[63]
With this, the highest point of development was almost attained, for only a very few festivals were added later, such as Corpus Christi, and, for certain localities, the Conception of Our Blessed Lady, and one or two more, but the number of local festivals might, under certain circumstances, be largely augmented. Between the thirteenth and the eighteenth centuries there were dioceses in which the number of days exempt from labour reached or even exceeded a hundred, so that, generally speaking, in every week there was another day besides the Sunday on which ordinary occupations were laid aside.[64] In some dioceses[65] the number of festivals observed exceeded those proscribed by lawful authority.[66]
In the Byzantine Empire the number of days exempt from legal proceedings was even more considerable than in the West. A distinction was made between whole holidays and half holidays. The Emperor Manuel Comnenus reduced their number by a constitution, dated March 1166. According to this, the first-class comprised no fewer than sixty-six days, not including Sundays, and the second comprised twenty-seven.
From the Calendar of Calcasendi,[67] we learn what were the festivals observed by the Copts in Egypt, in the eighth century, under Mahomedan rule. They distinguished between greater and lesser festivals, and kept seven of each.
The greater festivals are:—
1. Annuntiatio, Calcasendi adds: Innuunt per eam annuntiationem consolatoris, qui ipse est juxta eorum disciplinam Gabriel, Mariæ, super quam sit pax, de nativitate Jesu, super quam sit misericordia Dei. The festival was held on 29th Barchamoth—25th March.