This has nothing to do with the thread.
The Laodicea council (364 AD) legislated the first day as the day to break the bread. This was before the Catholic church, that is, if the Catholic church ever issued any canon law regarding Sunday. Which I have never seen!
It is good to support statements with hard evidence.
The Laodicean council may do as they please---God declared otherwise and that is who is the ruler of this universe. It's His opinion that matters.
Missorium of Emperor Theodosius I, who made Nicene Christianity the state religion of the Roman Empire.
With the
Edict of Thessalonica in 380 AD, Emperor
Theodosius I made
Nicene Christianity the
Empire's state religion.
[1][2] The
Eastern Orthodox Church,
Oriental Orthodoxy, and the
Catholic Church each stand in that continuity.
Earlier in the 4th century, following the
Diocletianic Persecution of 303-313 and the
Donatist controversy that arose in consequence,
Constantine had convened councils of bishops to define the
orthodoxy of the Christian faith, expanding on earlier Christian councils. A series of
ecumenical councils convened by successive emperors met during the 4th and 5th centuries, but Christianity continued to suffer rifts and schisms surrounding the issues of
Arianism,
Nestorianism, and
Miaphysitism. In the 5th century the
Western Empire decayed as a
polity: invaders sacked
Rome in
410 and in
455, and
Odoacer, an Arian barbarian warlord, forced
Romulus Augustus, the last nominal Western Emperor,
to abdicate in 476. However, apart from the aforementioned schisms, the church as an institution persisted in
communion, if not without tension, between the
east and
west. In the 6th century the Byzantine armies of the
Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian I recovered Italy and other sections of the western Mediterranean shore. The
Eastern Roman Empire soon lost most of these gains, but it held Rome, as part of the
Exarchate of Ravenna, until 751, a period known in
church history as the
Byzantine Papacy. The
Muslim conquests of the 7th century would begin a process of converting most of the then-Christian world in
West Asia and
North Africa to Islam, severely restricting the reach both of the
Byzantine Empire and of its church. Missionary activity directed from
Constantinople, the Byzantine capital, did not lead to a lasting expansion of the formal link between the church and the Byzantine emperor, since areas outside the empire's political and military control set up their own distinct churches, as in the case of
Bulgaria in 919.
In 311, the dying Emperor
Galerius ended the
Diocletianic Persecution that he is reputed to have instigated, and in 313, Emperor
Constantine issued the
Edict of Milan, granting to Christians and others "the right of open and free observance of their worship".
[26]
Constantine began to utilize Christian symbols such as the
Chi-Rho early in his reign but still encouraged traditional Roman religious practices including
sun worship. In 330, Constantine established the city of
Constantinople as the new capital of the Roman Empire. The city would gradually come to be seen as the intellectual and cultural center of the Christian world.
[27]
Over the course of the
4th century the Christian body became consumed by debates surrounding
orthodoxy, i.e. which religious doctrines are the correct ones. In the early 4th century, a group in
North Africa, later called
Donatists, who believed in a very rigid interpretation of Christianity that excluded many who had abandoned the faith during the Diocletianic persecution, created a crisis in the western Empire.
[28]
A
synod was held in
Rome in 313, followed by another in
Arles in 314, the latter presided over by Constantine while still a junior emperor (see
Tetrarchy). These synods ruled that the Donatist faith was heresy and, when the Donatists refused to recant, Constantine launched the first campaign of persecution by Christians against Christians, and began imperial involvement in Christian theology. However, during the reign of Emperor
Julian the Apostate, the Donatists, who formed the majority party in the Roman province of Africa for 30 years,
[29] were given official approval.
[30]
State church of the Roman Empire - Wikipedia
In 312 A.D., prior to his pivotal victory over his rival Maxentius at the Battle of Milvian Bridge, Constantine became a “Christian” after claiming to see in broad daylight a vision of “
a cross above the sun” with these words emblazoned, “
in hoc signo vinces” (by this sign conquer”). After defeating his enemies and becoming Emperor of Rome, Constantine presided in full royal pomp over the “First Council of Nicea” in 325 A.D.
As a shrewd political genius, his scheme was to unite Christianity and paganism in an effort to strengthen his disintegrating empire. Constantine knew that pagans throughout the empire worshiped the sun on “
the first day of the week,” and he discovered that many Christians and especially in Rome and Alexandria also kept
Sunday because Christ rose from the dead on that day. So Constantine developed a plan to unite both groups on the common platform of Sunday keeping. On March 7, 321 A.D., he passed his famous national Sunday law:
First Sunday Law enacted by Emperor Constantine - March, 321 A.D.
“On the venerable Day of the Sun let the magistrates and people residing in cities rest, and let all workshops be closed. In the country, however, persons engaged in agriculture may freely and lawfully continue their pursuits; because it often happens that another day is not so suitable for grain-sowing or for vine-planting; lest by neglecting the proper moment for such operations the bounty of heaven should be lost. (Given the 7th day of March, Crispus and Constantine being consuls each of them for the second time [A.D. 321].)” Source: Codex Justinianus, lib. 3, tit. 12, 3; trans. in Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church, Vol.3 (5th ed.; New York: Scribner, 1902), p.380, note 1.
Now a professed Christian, Constantine nevertheless remained a devout sun worshipper. “
The sun was universally celebrated as the invincible guide and protector of Constantine,” notes Edward Gibbon in his classic
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, ch. xx, par. 3.
Constantine even printed coins which “
bore on the one side the letters of the name of Christ, on the other the figure of the sun god.” Arthur P. Stanley,
History of the Eastern Church, lect. vi, par. 14.
Again, Constantine’s promotion of Sunday observance was part of his definite strategy to combine paganism with Christianity: “
The retention of the old pagan name of dies Solis, or 'Sunday,' for the weekly Christian festival, is in great measure owing to the union of pagan and Christian sentiment with which the first day of the week was recommended by Constantine to his subjects, pagan and Christian alike, as the ‘venerable day of the Sun.’” – Stanley’s
History of the Eastern Church, p. 184.
In spite of the rising popularity of Sunday sacredness, Church historian Socrates Scholasticus (5th century) wrote: “
For although almost all churches throughout the world celebrate the sacred mysteries [of the Lord's Supper] on the Sabbath of every week, yet the Christians of Alexandria and at Rome, on account of some ancient tradition, have ceased to do this.” – Socrates Scholasticus,
Ecclesiastical History, Book 5, ch. 22.
Another historian also confirmed this by stating, “The people of Constantinople, and almost everywhere, assemble together on the Sabbath, as well as on the first day of the week, which custom is never observed at Rome or at Alexandria.” – Sozomen, Ecclesiastical History, Book 7, ch. 19. Thus even in the 5th century, Sabbath keeping was universally prevalent (except in Rome and Alexandria) along with Sunday keeping. Many Christians kept both days, but as the centuries wore on, Sunday keeping grew in prominence and especially within Roman Catholic territories.
In 330 A.D., Constantine moved his capital from Rome to Constantinople (modern Istanbul), thus preparing the way for the Roman Catholic Popes to reign in Rome
as the successors of Constantine. As the Papal Church grew in power, it opposed Sabbath observance in favour of Sunday sacredness and made the day change official in the Council of Laodicea (A.D. 363-364). Constantine's law had now been fully integrated into the Papal Church and the final step of the Sabbath to Sunday change was complete.
So around the year A.D. 364, the Catholic Church outlawed Sabbath keeping in the Council of Laodicea when they decreed 59 Canon laws. The following is the relevant Canon law: Canon XXIX: “Christians must not judaize by resting on the Sabbath, but must work on that day, rather honouring the Lord's Day; and, if they can, resting then as Christians. But if any shall be found to be judaizers, let them be anathema from Christ.” (Percival Translation).
Four hundred years after the death of Christ and one hundred years after Constantine's linking of Church and State by his Sunday law edict, Rome and Alexandria were the only places in the world where many of the Christians kept
only Sunday and not the true Sabbath. Why was it that Rome and Alexandria were also the first locations that Sunday worship began? Because this is where the pagan practices of Babylon eventually landed after it was conquered. And what was the dominant pagan practice that the Babylonian priests brought with them? Sun worship which was done on Sun-day! See
the history of Sunday worship for more detail.
So one can understand why Rome and Alexandria did not bother to keep the true Sabbath as they had not done so for 200 years. Throughout the entire history of the changeover from Sabbath to Sunday, Rome and Alexandria had worked together. Alexandria provided the philosophical reasons for the changes and Rome provided the decrees and anathemas. Constantine's help was given only to the worldly Church leaders at Rome and those Christians that resisted the errors that were being introduced into the Church met with his opposition. “
Unite with the bishop of Rome or be destroyed,” was Constantine's position.
