“The third council of Orleans, A. D. 538, says in its twenty-ninth canon: ‘The opinion is spreading amongst the people, that it is wrong to ride, or drive, or cook food, or do anything to the house, or the person on the Sunday. But since such opinions are more Jewish than Christian, that shall be lawful in future, which has been so to the present time. On the other hand agricultural labor ought to be laid aside, _in order that the people may not be prevented from attending church_.’”[797] Observe the reason assigned. It is not lest they violate the law of the Sabbath, but it is that they may not be kept from church. Another authority states the case thus:— “Labor in the country [on Sunday] was not prohibited till the council of Orleans, A. D. 538. It was thus an institution of the church, as Dr. Paley has remarked. The earlier Christians met in the morning of that day for prayer and singing hymns in commemoration of Christ’s resurrection, and then went about their usual duties.”[798] In A. D. 588, another council was holden, the occasion of which is thus stated:— “And because, notwithstanding all this care, the day was not duly observed, the bishops were again summoned to Mascon, a town in Burgundy, by King Gunthrum, and there they framed this canon: ‘Notice is taken that Christian people, very much neglect and slight the Lord’s day, giving themselves as on other days to common work, to redress which irreverence, for the future, we warn every Christian who bears not that name in vain, to give ear to our advice, knowing we have a concern on us for your good, and a power to hinder you to do evil. Keep then the Lord’s day, the day of our new birth.’”[799] Further legislation being necessary, we are told:— “About a year forward, there was a council at Narbon, which forbid all persons of what country or quality soever, to do any servile work on the Lord’s day. But if any man presumed to disobey this canon he was to be fined if a freeman, and if a servant, severely lashed. Or as Surius represents the penalty in the edict of King Recaredus, which he put out, near the same time to strengthen the decrees of the council, ‘Rich men were to be punished with the loss of a moiety of their estates, and the poorer sort with perpetual banishment,’ in the year of grace 590. Another synod was held at Auxerre a city in Champain, in the reign of Clotair king of France, where it was decreed ... ‘that no man should be allowed to plow, nor cart, or do any such thing on the Lord’s day.’”[800] Such were some of the efforts made in the sixth century to advance the sacredness of the Sunday festival. And Morer tells us that, “For fear the doctrine should not take without miracles to support it, Gregory of Tours [about A. D. 590] furnishes us with several to that purpose.”[801]