612
things were created by him, and for him:
and he is before all things, and by him
all things consist.”
Jesus is our great Exemplar, and in
his life and death he taught the strictest
obedience. He died, the just for the un-
just, the innocent for the guilty, that
THE WATCHMAN
the honor of God's law might be pre-
served, and yet man not utterly perish.
If we are true servants of God, we shall
follow our Saviour’s example, and there
will be no question in our minds whether
or not we shall obey the divine law of
ten commandments,
|
|
THE MOTHER OF THE BLUE LAWS
PERCY T. MAGAN
I
(Concluded)
FINING AND FIOGGING.
Y the canons of the Council
of Berkhampstead, A. b.
697, it was enacted that
“the master who obliges
his slave to do any servile
work between sunset on the
Saturday and sunrise on the
Monday, is to pay a fine of
thirty shillings. The slave guilty of work-
ing without his master’s orders, shall pay
a fine of six shillings to his master or be
flogged.”
By a treaty between Edward the Elder
and Guthurn the Dane it was decreed:
“The Dane who trades upon the Lord's
day shall forfeit the article, and pay a
fine of twelve pence. The Englishman
shall pay thirty shillings.” According
to this it would appear that it was more
comfortable to be a Dane than an En-
glishman.
“ FIGHTING, MARRYING, AND PI,UNDER-
ING.”
About the year 1032 King Canute of
England made some remarkable laws in
which he sanctioned the enactments of
the Council of Enham. He laid it down
as a legal maxim that crime is more crim-
inal on the Lord’s day than on any other
day, and provided that if any one “by
fighting, marrying, plundering, or the
perpetration of any other flagitious of-
fence, shall violate a solemn festival, the
compensation for his offence shall be
doubled according to its nature.” Why
fighting, marrying, and plundering should
be grouped in the same category does
not appear. Marrying certainly differs
widely in its nature from the other two.
Of a truth this is an extraordinary classi-
fication.
It was held that to do any work on
Sunday was as bad as to commit adul-
tery ; to throw a ball on Sunday was rep-
resented as being as great a sin as to do
murder on a week day. It was preached
that to make a wedding dinner on that
day was worse than for a father to take
a knife and cut the throat of his own son.
It was even taught that to ring more
bells than one on the Lord's day, to call
the people to church, was as great a sin
as to do an act of murder. There was a
law in France forbidding to “ travel, cook
victuals, make beds, sweep house, cut
hair, or shave on Sunday.” Food for
Sunday must all be prepared on Satur-
day. Milkmen were not allowed to “cry
the sale of their milk ” except on certain
hours of that day.
Toward the close of the thirteenth
century, William Le Maire, bishop of
Angers, commanded that barbers should
not shave beards, or otherwise exercise
their office on Sundays. * Blood-let-
ting 7 is also especially prohibited, “ ex-
cept when there is imminent peril of
death or disease.”
When men could not go to a barber's
shop to get shaved, they took to shaving
themselves, so another law was passed
which made it an offence for a man even
to shave himself on Sunday.
MEN MUST GO TO CHURCH
It was enacted that all persons living
in the cities who did not attend church
for three successive Sundays should be
excommunicated. This law, of course,
But
it would appear that some of them were
brought the faithful to the service.
not even then very reverently inclined,
for they would only stay a few minutes,
and then walk out. So another canon
provided for the excommunication of
such as “ shall leave the church while the
priest is preaching.” Moreover, none
were to be allowed to partake of the com-
munion who upon entering the church
should remain only until prayer was of-
fered.
AND SINGING HYMNS AS YOU COME
But to make people walk to church,
and to make them come whether they
liked it or not, and stay to the end of the
service no matter what, was not enough,
they must be made to show their piety
en route. So it was enacted that “ all
men must sing and chant hymns and
psalms on the way to and from church,
so that their pious feelings might be
made known to all.” But if you didn't
have shoes or stockings that were fit to
walk in, vou must go barefoot; for it
was enacted that no man should “ com-
mand, or cause to be sold, or place or put
on any one’s feet or legs, any shoes, hose,
or galoshes.” The penalty was a fine of
twenty shillings, a third of which went
to the king, a third to the “ governors of
the mystery of cordwainers, and a third
to the informers.” The act was later
repealed by Henry VIII.
In the year 1260 a Jew of Tewkesbury
fell into a sink-hole on the Sabbath day.
Because it was the Sabbath his brethren
the Jews would not permit him to be
pulled out. The next day was Sunday,
and the Roman Catholics would not al-
low him to be rescued, and by Monday
morning he was dead. Certainly this
was a case of out-Phariseeing the Phari-
sees.
Absurd as the anecdote may appear, it
was paralleled later at Montelais, near
Nantes, France. There three men were
buried 430 feet deep by the bursting of
a shaft in a coal-mine. One was lucky
enough to be extricated before the ar-
rival of Sunday, when by law the work
was made to cease, and by the time Mon-
day came all the rest had perished.
Many more laws and incidents might
be cited, but the above are sufficient to
prove the claim of the Catholic Church
to being the mother of the bluest of the
Blue Laws.
And vet in spite of all this legal and
ecclesiastical authority, the records of
contemporaries tell us that the priest
could not put down the constant habit of
Sunday work, or secure regular attend-
ance at church, till it came to be a com-
mon saving, “A stinking goat of a Jew
has more reverence for his holy days
than thou, O communicant of the Church
of Rome.” ?
+Le Breton, Hamp. 2, 367.
5 Berthold of Ratisbon.