DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.15#0308
THE HISTORY OF SUNDAY. 295
Theodosius prohibited not only secular business,
but theatrical amusements, horse racing, and the
baiting of animals. A few years later the Council
of Carthage expressed in a canon regret that the
multitude preferred flocking to the circus than to
the church on Sundays. At length, in 425, Theo-
dosius the Younger issued a prohibition against
Sunday work and Sunday sports, which was ex-
panded forty-four years later into the famous law
of Leo and Anthemius, ordaining that on Sunday
' no office of the law should be executed, no persons
summoned or arrested as sureties, no pleading or
judgment take place, and that also there should be
no theatrical shows, or games in the circus, or
baiting of wild beasts.'
Such was the beginning of Sunday observance,
though time was required to develop fully the
Sunday as now known.
In the time of Leo the Philosopher (889-910)
Sunday field-work, which had hitherto been per-
mitted as a work of necessity—for nature does not
observe any Sabbath rest—was forbidden by an
imperial law. Athelstane, Edgar, and Canute for-
bade all Sunday tradings ; and it appears from one
of Edgar's laws that in those days Sunday was held
to begin at three o'clock on Saturday afternoon,
and to continue till dawn on Monday. Soon after,
Theodosius prohibited not only secular business,
but theatrical amusements, horse racing, and the
baiting of animals. A few years later the Council
of Carthage expressed in a canon regret that the
multitude preferred flocking to the circus than to
the church on Sundays. At length, in 425, Theo-
dosius the Younger issued a prohibition against
Sunday work and Sunday sports, which was ex-
panded forty-four years later into the famous law
of Leo and Anthemius, ordaining that on Sunday
' no office of the law should be executed, no persons
summoned or arrested as sureties, no pleading or
judgment take place, and that also there should be
no theatrical shows, or games in the circus, or
baiting of wild beasts.'
Such was the beginning of Sunday observance,
though time was required to develop fully the
Sunday as now known.
In the time of Leo the Philosopher (889-910)
Sunday field-work, which had hitherto been per-
mitted as a work of necessity—for nature does not
observe any Sabbath rest—was forbidden by an
imperial law. Athelstane, Edgar, and Canute for-
bade all Sunday tradings ; and it appears from one
of Edgar's laws that in those days Sunday was held
to begin at three o'clock on Saturday afternoon,
and to continue till dawn on Monday. Soon after,