“Let all the judges and town people, and the occupation of all trades rest on the venerable day of the sun; but let those who are situated in the country, freely and at full liberty, attend to the business of agriculture; because it often happens that no other day is so fit for sowing corn and planting vines; lest the critical moment being let slip, men should lose the commodities granted by heaven.”—Corpus Juris Civilis Cod., lib. 3, tit. 12, 3.
12. What further imperial legislation in behalf of Sunday observance was issued in 386?
“By a law of the year 386, those older changes effected by the emperor Constantine were more rigorously enforced, and, in general, civil transactions of every kind on Sunday were strictly forbidden.”—Neander's “Church History,” Vol. II, page 300, edition 1852.
13. At the instance of church bishops, what still further law was secured under Theodosius the Younger, in 425?
“In the year 425, the exhibition of spectacles on Sunday and on the principal feast-days of the Christians was forbidden, in order that the devotion of the faithful might be free from all disturbance.”—Id., pages 300, 301.
14. What does the historian say of this legislation?
“In this way the church received help from the state for the furtherance of her ends.... But had it not been for that confusion of spiritual and secular interests, had it not been for the vast number of mere outward conversions thus brought about, she would have needed no such help.”—Id., page 301.
15. What did Charlemagne's Sunday law of 800 require?
“We decree ... that servile works should not be done on the Lord's day, ... that is, that neither should men do field work, either in cultivating the vineyards or by plowing in the fields, by cutting or drying hay, or by placing a fence, or by making clearings in the woods or felling trees or working on stones or constructing houses or working in the garden; neither should they come together to decide public matters nor be engaged in the hunt.... Women may not do any textile work nor cut out clothes nor sew nor make garments.... But let them come together from all sides to church to the solemnities of the mass, and let them praise God for all things which he does for us on that day.”—“Historical Chronicles of Germany,” Sec. 2, Vol. I, 22 General admonition, 789, M. Martio 23, page 61, par. 81.
16. How does the Sunday law of Charles II, of 1676, read?