Sunday in Olden Times.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume IX, Issue 3030, 16 October 1888, Page 3

Sunday in Olden Times.

By the sth and Otb Edward VI,, and by tlio Ist Elizabctli it was provided that overy inhabitant of the Malm or dominion shall diligently and faithfully, having no lawlul or reasonable excuse to bo absent, endeavor themselves to tboir parish i church, or chapel accustomed; or, upon reasonablo let, to some usual place where common prayer shall bo used-on Sundays and holidays—upen penalty of forfeiting for every non-attendance twelve ponco, to be levied by the churchwardens to the uso of tho poor. But tbo application ol theso provisions to tlio attendance upoiM)ther holidays than Sundays seenrTb have been soon dropped. The statute of James 1., re-enacting tlio I penalty of one shilling for default in I attendance nt church, is limited to | Sundays; and the latter day, alone is i in the Afilyf Willium and Mary, and f George I™ by which exceptions in favour of dissenters from tlio Church | of England wero introduced, As the statute of James applied solely to Sundays, there was no civil punishment left for this neglect, though it remained punishable, under tlio fifth and sixth of Edward VI, by ecclesiastical censure., Mr Vansittar't Neule, in his" Feusts and Fasts," however, cites sevoral f cases which appear to settle that the ecclesiastical courts had not the power to compel any person to attend liia parish church, because the.i have no right to decido the bounds of parishes. _ Tbero woro, however, from time to time, suits commonced against individuals for this in gleet of attendance at ill rjli ; these actions boing generally instigated by personal motives than with religious : feeling, lessor Amos, in his treatise on Hale's" History ; of the Pleas "in the Crown," e:ntes tlio following cases:—ln tlio year 1817, 1 a'tho 6p;i,ig seizes for iiidforil, , S.r Moutoguo B:irgoyne, was proso- ' cuted for having been absont from liia parish church for several months, when tho action was defeated by proof of tho defendant having bet n indis* • posed. And in the Report of Prison Inspectors to the Houso if Lords, in 1811, it appoared, that in 1830 ten persons were in prison for recreancy in not attending tlioir parish churches. A mother was prosecuted by her own son." These enaotments remained in our Statute Book until, in common with many other penal and disabling laws "in regard to religious opinions, they woro swept away by tho Statuto Oth and 10th Vict., c. CO. It also appears that in old times many indivuUla oonsidored it their duty to part of tboir worldly wealth for keeping the congregation awake, Somo curious provisions wcro mado for this purpose. At Acton Church, in Cheshire, .about livo-ai]d.%n.ty years ago, one of the churchwardens or tho apparitor used to go rouud tho church during sorvico, with a long wand in his hand; and if any of tho congregation ' wero asleep, they were instantly awolio by a tap on the head, At Dunchuroh a similar custom existed; ■ a porson bearing a stout wand, shaped like a hay-fork at tho ond, - stepped stoalthily up mid down tho ' nave and tlio aisle, and, whenover he saw an individual asleep, ho touched him so effectually that tho spell was , brokon; this being sometimes done by fitting tho fork to tho nape of the , neck. Wo road of the boadlo in another ' Church going round tho cdifico during Borvico, catfjing a long stall', at ono : end of which was a fox's brush, and , at tho other a ltnob; with tho foriM' ho gmtly tickled tlio faces of ' tho femalojpjpers, while on tho heads of tneir male compeers he bestowed with, tho knob a sensible i rap i In somo parishes, persons were ' regularly appointod to whip dogs out J of church ; and " dog-whipping" is ( a charge in some sexton's accounts , to tho piEßont dav, , i \— |