SUNDAY LEGISLATION AND ITS OBSERVANCES. 233 



so he died/'* In 1273 Humphrey de Bohun executed the convey- 

 ance of a tract of land on Sunday, in the feast of the circumcision, f 



It was a frequent practice of our ancient parliaments to assemble 

 on Sunday, and to hold their sittings without intermission. In 23 

 Edward I., a parliament was summoned to meet at Westminster on 

 Sunday next after the feast of St. Martin. The parliament in 28 Ed- 

 ward I., which confirmed Magna Charta, and made the celebrated 

 Articuli super Cartas, was appointed to assemble on the second Sun- 

 day in Lent. In the 35th of the same reign, a parliament was sum- 

 moned to meet at Carlisle on January 20, wnere the king expected 

 the presence of Cardinal Sabines ; but the latter not arriving, the 

 king prorogued the parliament to the Sunday next after Mid Lent, 

 and on Palm Sunday the session terminated, having continued four- 

 teen days, of which three were Sunday s.J The parliaments of 17, 

 21, and 43 Edward III. were each held on a Sunday, the last being 

 Trinity Sunday. It is probable that many other instances might 

 be found by any person who will undertake the trouble of trans- 

 muting the ancient chronological computations into modern terms. || 



Meanwhile our neighbours in France appear to have scandalised 

 the Puritans of this age, by their neglect of Sunday and certain other 

 festivals, suffering the wind and water to turn mills, shaving their 

 beards, and even bleeding veins, without regard to the ordinances of 

 the church in general, and the synodal statutes of Anjou in parti- 

 cular. In 1292, William le Maire (Guillelmus Major), bishop of 

 that province, convoked his third synod, when a statute was passed, 

 which so closely resembles the puritanical enactments of this country, 

 that we might almost suspect it to have served for their model. From 

 the first section, or preamble of the act, we learn that the bishop's 

 predecessor had issued some injunctions on the subject to the rectors 

 and chaplains of the diocese; the second is to the following effect: 



" Whereas on the festival days, which are interdicted in reverence 

 of God and his saints, and especially on Sundays, which are conse- 

 crated to the honour of the Highest Majesty, the faithful of Christ 

 are to abstain from all servile labour, we command and enjoin all and 

 singular our rectors and chaplains, in virtue of their obedience, to 

 inhibit their parishioners, on manifestation of divine judgment, and 

 pain of excommunication, from employing themselves in any servile 

 work on the said festivals, and especially on Sundays; and parti- 

 cularly inhibiting barbers from shaving beards, or otherwise exer- 



* Lei. Collect, torn. i. p. 288. Camden preserves an old epigram, or rather 

 versification of this stoiy, Remains, p. 442 ; and Barrington relates it from 

 Howel's Londinopolis, with the addition " By this* cruel joke the Jew was 

 suffocated." The perpetration of the joke is attributed to a bishop of Magde- 

 burg, where the scene is also laid, by the author of the article SABBATH, in the 

 Eucyclop. Britan. 



t'Dugd. Monast. Anglic, torn, iii, p. 84. Edit. Veter. There are many other 

 instances, but one is sufficient to show the existence of the practice. 



Prynne's Enlargem. 4 Inst. 



Cotton's Abridgm. Records by Prynne, pp. 36, 51, 108. 



|| The parliament of 2 Richard II., at Westminster, was opened on the 

 Quindena 0f Easter, which was Sunday, April 24 ; but Sir llobert Cotton calls 

 it the 25th of April, which fell on Monday in that year. Abridgm. p. 167. 



