By the introduction of diocesan and local festivals, the number of holy days became excessive in some localities, and great uncertainty arose as to which festivals should be celebrated by all, in accordance with the general precepts of the Church, and which should not. This, and the complaints of the poor that they were prevented by the number of holy days from gaining their livelihood, while others again took advantage of them to indulge in laziness or the pursuit of pleasure, was the ground which Gerson had already adduced in his time. The same reasons now induced Pope Urban VIII. to regulate the arrangements of festivals and to fix limits for the whole Church beyond which it would not be lawful to go. For this purpose, he published, on the 24th September 1642, the important constitution _Universa per orbem_, in which the following holy days are prescribed: 1. Feasts of our Lord—Christmas, Easter and Pentecost, with the two following days, New Year, Epiphany, the Ascension, Trinity, Corpus Christi, the Invention of the Cross. 2. Feasts of Our Lady—Candlemas, the Annunciation, the Assumption, and the Nativity. 3. Saints’ Days—St Michael (8th May), Nativity of St John the Baptist, SS. Peter and Paul, St Andrew, St James, St John, St Thomas, SS. Phillip and James, St Bartholomew, St Matthew, SS. Simon and Jude, St Matthias, St Lawrence, St Silvester, St Joseph, St Anne, All Saints’, and the patron saint of the country. The actual reduction was small, and concerned chiefly the lesser saints days, such as St Mary Magdalene, St Cecilia, St Catherine, St Martin, etc. A more important consequence of this constitution was, that the original right of the bishop to appoint festivals, although recognised by the Council of Trent, was rendered practically ineffective. In the eighteenth century, the hatred against the Church which showed itself at the Courts of the Bourbon sovereigns, and the so-called advance of culture, necessitated fresh regulations on this point. First of all, at the request of the provincial synod of Tarragona in 1727, Pope Benedict XIII. consented to the reduction of the number of festivals for a part of Spain. From this arose the distinction between half and whole holy days.[73] Rest from servile work was maintained only on the Sundays and seventeen festivals, _i.e._ half the number given in the list above, and for the other seventeen days it was enjoined that the faithful assist at Mass only. After attendance at divine service, all kinds of work were to be permitted. This permission was extended in 1748, by Benedict XIV., to Naples, Sicily, and several Spanish dioceses.