Part 24 (2/2)

The Pope's legates at Constantinople (A.D. 1054) were called to discuss with Nicetas, ”one of the most learned men at that time in the East,” says Bower, whose position was ”that the Sabbath ought to be kept holy, and that priests should be allowed to marry.”--_”History of the Popes,” Vol. II, p. 358._

The people of north Scotland, the ancient Culdee church founded by Columba and his followers, far removed from direct papal influence, was still keeping the seventh-day Sabbath in the eleventh century. Of this church Andrew Lang says in his ”History of Scotland:”

”They worked on Sunday, but kept Sat.u.r.day in a Sabbatical manner.”--_Volume I, p. 96._

Skene, in his cla.s.sic work, ”Celtic Scotland,” says of these Sabbath keepers:

”They seemed to have followed a custom of which we find traces in the early monastic church of Ireland, by which they held Sat.u.r.day to be the Sabbath, on which they rested from all their labors.”--_Book 2, chap. 8._

Margaret, of England, married Malcolm the Great, the Scottish king, in 1069. An ardent Catholic, Queen Margaret at once set about Romanizing the Celtic church. She called in the church leaders, and held long discussions with them. At last, with the help and authority of her royal husband, and quoting the instructions of ”the blessed Pope Gregory,” she succeeded in turning the ancient Culdee church in Scotland away from the Sabbath. (See ”Life of St. Margaret,” by Turgot, her confessor.)

Twelfth to Fourteenth Century

Among the numerous sects of southern Europe and the Alpine valleys, that were pursued and persecuted by Rome, were at least some who saw and obeyed the Sabbath truth. Thus, of one of these bodies, the historian Goldastus says:

”They were called Insabbatati, not because they were circ.u.mcised, but because they kept the Sabbath according to the Jewish law.”--_”Deutsche Biographie,” Vol. IX, art. ”Goldast.,”

p. 327._

Fifteenth Century

Sabbath keepers in Norway drew the condemnation of a church council held in 1435:

”The archbishop and the clergy a.s.sembled in this provincial council at Bergen do decide that the keeping of Sat.u.r.day must never be permitted to exist, except as granted in the church law.”--_Keyser's ”Norske Kirkes Historie,” Vol. II, p. 488._

Sixteenth Century

With the setting free of the Word of G.o.d by the Reformation, and the protest against the doctrine of papal tradition, mult.i.tudes saw that the Sunday inst.i.tution was not of divine origin; while not a few went farther, recognizing the claims of G.o.d's Sabbath. Moravia was a refuge, in those early Reformation days, for many believers in the Reformed doctrines, and among these were Sabbath-keeping Christians:

[Ill.u.s.tration: WALDENSES HUNTED BY THE ARMIES OF ROME

”Dest.i.tute, afflicted, tormented;... they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.” Heb. 11:37, 38.]

”Even most prominent men, as the princes of Lichtenstein, held to the observance of the true Sabbath. When persecution finally scattered them, the seeds of truth must have been sown by them in the different portions of the Continent which they visited.... We have found them [Sabbath keepers] in Bohemia.

They were also known in Silesia and Poland. Likewise they were in Holland and northern Germany.... There were at this time Sabbath keepers in France,... 'among whom were M. de la Roque, who wrote in defense of the Sabbath against Bossuet, Catholic bishop of Meaux.' That Sabbatarians again appeared in England by the time of the Reformation, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth (A.D. 1533-1603), Dr. Chambers testifies in his Cyclopedia [art. 'Sabbath'].”--_Andrews and Conradi, ”History of the Sabbath,” pp. 649, 650._

In this century also, Sabbath keepers appeared in Norway, Sweden, and Finland. In 1554 King Gustavus Vasa, of Sweden, addressed a letter of remonstrance ”to the common people in Finland,” because so many were turning to keep the seventh day.

Seventeenth Century

There was much discussion in England over the authority for Sunday observance. When other church festivals were ignored, as Easter, King Charles I wanted to know why Sunday should be kept. He wrote:

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