The decretal of Gregory IX., _Conquestus est nobis_, of the year 1232,[62] is important for the Middle Ages, although it does not represent the highest point in the development. According to it, legal business was not to be transacted on the _Natalis Domini, S. Stephani, Joannis Evangelistæ, SS. Innocentium, S. Silvestri, Circumcisionis, Epiphaniæ, Septem Diebus Dominicæ Passionis, Resurrectionis cum septem Sequentibus, Ascensionis, Pentecostes cum duobus qui sequuntur, Nativitatis Baptistæ, Festivitatum omnium Virginis Gloriosæ, Duodecim Apostolorum et præcipue Petri et Pauli, Beati Laurentii, Dedicationis Beati Michælis, Sollemnitatis omnium Sanctorum ac Diebus Dominicis ceterisque sollemnitatibus, quas singuli episcopi in suis diæcesibus cum clero et populo duxerint sollemniter celebrandas_. Setting down the number of Our Lady’s feasts as five, and the Apostles’ as eleven, we have here ninety-five days in the year on which no legal proceedings took place, not counting the particular festivals of the country and diocese. The above-mentioned decretal is silent concerning servile work. We may assume that there were ten out of the fifteen days exempt from legal proceedings on which servile work was permitted, and thus the total of days exempt from labour must have amounted to eighty-five in the course of the year, omitting the festivals proper to the diocese.[63] With this, the highest point of development was almost attained, for only a very few festivals were added later, such as _Corpus Christi_, and, for certain localities, the Conception of Our Blessed Lady, and one or two more, but the number of local festivals might, under certain circumstances, be largely augmented. Between the thirteenth and the eighteenth centuries there were dioceses in which the number of days exempt from labour reached or even exceeded a hundred, so that, generally speaking, in every week there was another day besides the Sunday on which ordinary occupations were laid aside.[64] In some dioceses[65] the number of festivals observed exceeded those proscribed by lawful authority.[66] In the Byzantine Empire the number of days exempt from legal proceedings was even more considerable than in the West. A distinction was made between whole holidays and half holidays. The Emperor Manuel Comnenus reduced their number by a constitution, dated March 1166. According to this, the first-class comprised no fewer than sixty-six days, not including Sundays, and the second comprised twenty-seven. From the Calendar of Calcasendi,[67] we learn what were the festivals observed by the Copts in Egypt, in the eighth century, under Mahomedan rule. They distinguished between greater and lesser festivals, and kept seven of each. The greater festivals are:—