A. D. 858. “The Bulgarians sent some questions to Pope Nicholas, to which they desired answers. And that [answer] which concerned the Lord’s day was that they should desist from all secular work, etc.”[820] Morer informs us respecting the civil power, that, “In this century the emperor [of Constantinople] Leo, surnamed the philosopher, restrained the works of husbandry, which, according to Constantine’s toleration, were permitted in the east. The same care was taken in the west, by Theodorius, king of the Bavarians, who made this order, that ‘If any person on the Lord’s day yoked his oxen, or drove his wain, his right-side ox should be forthwith forfeited; or if he made hay and carried it in, he was to be twice admonished to desist, which if he did not, he was to receive no less than fifty stripes.’”[821] Of Sunday laws in England in this century, we read:— A. D. 876. “Alfred the Great, was the first who united the Saxon Heptarchy, and it was not the least part of his care to make a law that among other festivals this day more especially might be solemnly kept, because it was the day whereon our Saviour Christ overcame the devil; meaning Sunday, which is the weekly memorial of our Lord’s resurrection, whereby he overcame death, and him who had the power of death, that is the devil. And whereas before the single punishment for sacrilege committed on any other day, was to restore the value of the thing stolen, and withal lose one hand, he added that if any person was found guilty of this crime done on the Lord’s day, he should be doubly punished.”[822] Nineteen years later, the pope and his council still further strengthened the sacred day. The council of Friburgh in Germany, A. D. 895, under Pope Formosus, decreed that the Lord’s day, men “were to spend in prayers, and devote wholly to the service of God, who otherwise might be provoked to anger.”[823] The work of establishing Sunday sacredness in England was carried steadily forward:— “King Athelston, ... in the year 928, made a law that there should be no marketing or civil pleadings on the Lord’s day, under the penalty of forfeiting the commodity, besides a fine of thirty shillings for each offense.”[824] In a convocation of the English clergy about this time, it was decreed that all sorts of traffic and the holding of courts, &c., on Sunday should cease. “And whoever transgressed in any of these instances, if a freeman, he was to pay twelve oræ, if a servant, be severely whipt.” We are further informed that, “About the year 943, Otho, archbishop of Canterbury, had it decreed that above all things the Lord’s day should be kept with all imaginable caution, according to the canon and ancient practice.”[825]