institution, and not in any way as a continuation of the Jewish Sabbath. It observed it as the day of the commemora- tion of the resurrection or of the new spiritual creation, and hence as a day of saci^d joy and thanksgiving, standing in bold contrast to the days of humiliation and fasting, as the Easter festival contrasts with Good Friday. So long as Christianity was not recognized and protected by the state, the observance of Sunday was purely religious, a strictly voluntary service, but exposed to continual interrup- tion from the bustle of the world and a hostile community. The pagan Romans paid no more regard to the Christian Sun- day than to the Jewish Sabbath. In this matter, as in others, the accession of Constantine marks the beginning of a new era, and did good service to the church and to the cause of public order and morality. Con- stantine is the founder, in part at least, of the civil observance of Sunday, by which alone the religious observance of it in the church could be made universal and could be properly secured. In the year 321 he issued a law prohibiting manual labor in the cities and all judicial transactions, at a later period also ' For a fuller exposition of the Author's views on the Christian Sabbath, see his Essay on the Anglo-American Sabbath (English and Gennan), New York, 1863. 380 THIKD PERIOD. A.D. 311-590. military exercises, on Sunday.' He exempted the liberation of slaves, which as an act of Christian humanity and charity, might, with special propriety, take place on that day.' But the Sunday law of Constantine must not be overrated. He enjoined the observance, or rather forbade the public desecration of Sunday, not under the name of Sdbbatum or Dies Domini^ but under its old astrological and heathen title. Dies Snlis, familiar to all his subjects, so that the law was as applicable to the worshippers of Hercules, Apollo, and Mithras, as to the Christians. There is no reference whatever in his law eitlier to the fourth commandment or to the resurrection of Christ. Besides he expressly exempted the country districts, where paganism still prevailed, from the proliibition of labor, and thus avoided every appearance of injustice. Christians and pagans had been accustomed to festival rests ; Constantine made these rests to synchronize, and gave the preference to Sunday, on which day Christians from the beginning celebrated the resmTection of their Lord and Saviour. This and no more was implied in the famous enactment of 321. It was only a step in the right direction, but probably the only one which Constantino could prudently or safely take at that period of transition from the rule of paganism to that of Christianity. For the army, however, he went beyond the limits of nega- ^ Lex Constantini a. 321 (Cod. Just. 1. iii., Tit. 12, 3): Imperator Coustantinus Aug. Helpidio : " Omnes judices, uibansque plebes et cunctarum artium ofBcia vene- rabili die Solis quiescant.