Note 853 — Chapter VIII · THE HEBREW SABBATH

Constitutiones Apostolicæ, ii, 59, 1, vii, 23, 2, viii, 33, 1; Concilium Laodicenum, can. 16 (Labbe-Mansi, Sacrorum conciliorum collectio, ii, 567); Socrates, Historia ecclesiastica, vi, 8. The church council held at Laodicea in 363 A.D. anathematized as Judaizers those who refrained from work on Saturday (Concilium Laodicenum, can. 29; Labbe-Mansi, op. cit., ii, 580). The anathema did not penetrate to the ancient Christian kingdom of Abyssinia, where Saturday is still strictly observed. “The ox and the ass are at rest. Agricultural pursuits are suspended. Household avocations must be laid aside, and the spirit of idleness reigns throughout the day.... When, a few years ago, one daring spirit presumed, in advance of the age, to burst the fetters of superstition, his majesty the king of Shoa, stimulated by the advice of besotted monks, delegated his wardens throughout the land, and issued a proclamation, that whoso disturbed the original dreamy stillness of the Jewish Sabbath should forfeit his property to the royal treasury, and be consigned to the state dungeon” (W. C. Harris, The Highlands of Ethiopia, New York [1843], p. 272). The Celts kept Saturday as a day of rest, with special religious services on Sunday (A. Bellesheim, History of the Catholic Church in Scotland, Edinburgh, 1887-1890, i, 86).