Few issues are likely to have had as far-reaching consequences as the development of the Christian holy day, Sunday. Every seven days since the early Middle Ages the Christian world has engaged in some kind of change in behaviour, ranging from participation in a simple worship service to the cessation of every activity which could conceivably be construed as work. The restrictions which arose in the medieval world are by no means trivial: they called for bringing to a complete halt all physical labour, all commerce, all legislative activity, and, in some cases, even such private activities as bathing and sexual intercourse. How did these beliefs arise? They certainly find little support in the pages of the New Testament, nor do the early Church fathers seem to promote the creation of a kind of taboo day to replace the Jewish sabbath.

A close examination of the surviving testimony reveals that Sunday observance involving rest did not and, in truth, could not have been an important dogma until the Church was able to gain some influence in the secular affairs of the state, placing its inception in the time of Constantine. From that time on, the Church sought to free Sunday from the pursuits of everyday life so that Christians might devote the day to the practice of religion: attendance at church services, private devotion and prayer and the performance of good deeds. This could not have been an easy matter. The economic rewards for Sunday work and the temptation to make the day when everyone was already gathered for church the favourite market day were strong incentives to ignore the Church's edicts. And as if such pressures were not enough to make enforcing Sunday rest difficult, the Church was also faced with the uncomfortable fact that, as noted above, there were no early and universally accepted authorities which had spoken unambiguously in favour of a work-free Sunday.

At a time when some were encouraging an increase in Sunday restrictions, but when no firm Church tradition had yet been established, one enterprising churchman decided to take matters into his own hands and wrote a document that would clearly solve this predicament.