Section II. On Cessation from Servile Works

I. Object of the precept. On feasts of precept the following are prohibited: 1. forensic acts; 2. unless legitimate customs or particular indults provide otherwise, public market, fairs, and other public sales and purchases; 3. servile works (can. 1248).

1. Forensic acts. Judicial acts are understood (both those concerning secular causes and those concerning ecclesiastical causes), which are exercised with judicial solemnity or apparatus, such as the citation of witnesses, the request for a judicial oath, the judicial investigation of a case, the pronouncement and execution of a sentence. But it is lawful to excommunicate, to dispense; likewise to perform preparatory actions privately, for example to consult an advocate, prepare a defense, etc. - Besides, where the prohibition is not observed, those whom it concerns are commonly excused on account of avoiding harm (St. Alphonsus, III, 284).

2. Public market. Therefore, of itself it is not lawful to sell or buy in public shops, much less in the forum. Yet custom and competition permit in many places that food and drink be sold in public shops, likewise, especially in the country, clothes, shoes, etc. (St. Alphonsus, III, 286). For the rest, however, today on account of the laws in force, those who sell with open doors are less easily excused.

3. Fairs; these likewise can be permitted on account of custom; if they fall on a feast day, in many places they are anticipated or deferred; but if this is not done, many nevertheless can attend fairs, either on account of custom or on account of an excusing cause (St. Alphonsus, III, 286).

4. Other public sales. Therefore purchases and sales made privately, even before a notary, are not prohibited. Contracts of lease, exchange, etc., are equated with purchases (St. Alphonsus, III, 285). Custom here and there permits some public sales, for example of doves which in French are called pigeons-voyageurs.

5. Servile works. Works are called servile which are exercised by the powers of the body rather than of the soul, and immediately serve the utility of the body, for example rural works, such as plowing, etc.; works of the mechanical arts, such as the shoemaking art, etc. They are called servile because they were formerly done by servants. Liberal works are those which are done by the powers of the soul rather than of the body, and immediately serve the utility of the soul or its cultivation, for example to study, to read, to teach, to play the organ, etc. They are called liberal because they were chiefly exercised by free men. Common or intermediate works are called those which are exercised promiscuously by all, such as making a journey, hunting, etc. (St. Thomas, II-II, q. 122, a. 4, ad 3; St. Alphonsus, III, 272, 279).¹ Besides, note that the servility or liberality of a work depends neither on the intention of the one working, so that it makes no difference whether it is done for the sake of utility or recreation, for oneself or for another, for gain or gratuitously; nor on bodily fatigue. Hence:

a) Liberal and common works are permitted, except those about which something was said under I, 1, 2, 3, and 4. Servile works are prohibited by the Church because "they are contrary to the observance of the Sabbath, insofar as they impede man's application to divine things" (St. Thomas, cited place). From the prohibition, however, are excepted works necessary for the nourishment and arrangement of the body and the house, which cannot conveniently, or are not customarily, anticipated, such as cooking food (even food to be prepared with greater skill, such as cakes), making beds, cleaning the house or clothing (St. Alphonsus, III, 298).

b) Concerning some works it is more difficult to determine whether they are servile, or at least whether and to what extent they are lawful. Practically these things can be established.

a) It is lawful to write and transcribe (even musical notes); likewise to correct books and to exercise other light accessory labors, for example by drawing necessary lines and gluing superposed paper; likewise it is lawful to form artists' drawings (St. Alphonsus, III, 279).

b) It is lawful to paint, provided one stops at the act of painting. "The reason is that painting, although it requires a material operation, nevertheless does not seem properly able to be called a servile action; indeed, it seems rather to be called liberal. For, just as writing expresses internal concepts, so painting expresses images of things" (St. Alphonsus, III, 280). It is said, provided one stops at the act of painting; for it is unlawful to grind and mix colors, to prepare and stretch panels. Likewise it is forbidden to dye cloths or walls.

c) What has been said about the act of writing and painting is also to be applied to some similar acts. Hence it is lawful: 1. to paint with a needle, but not to sew, nor to do what is called in Dutch breien, in French tricoter, in German stricken (cf. St. Alphonsus, III, 281); 2. to arrange type (St. Alphonsus, III, 279, 282), which nevertheless by common estimation in a public workshop is held to be unlawful; 3. to exercise the photographic art, insofar as it is done without notable labor, for example to form what is called a negative image; 4. to sculpt, insofar as it is a question of the final perfection of a statue; otherwise "the sculptural art commonly, at least in the estimation of men, is numbered among the mechanical arts" (St. Alphonsus, III, 281).

d) Whether to lead draft animals, ships, and carts loaded with merchandise is lawful in itself is disputed; but the accompanying labor of loading and unloading burdens seems to be unlawful or lawful according as it is great or slight (St. Alphonsus, III, 276 ff.).

e) Hunting, fishing, and fowling are lawful, unless they are done with great apparatus and labor (St. Alphonsus, III, 283).

f) Milling, in whatever way the mill is moved, is lawful, provided the application of man is moderate. Yet in our regions custom is opposed (St. Alphonsus, III, 277).

g) Finally, various works to be performed for the convenience of some establishment seem lawful, which bring with them scarcely any bodily labor, for example microscopic examination of milk or of some other material; nevertheless by common estimation they are held to be unlawful if they are performed in the public establishment itself.

¹ This distinction of works used to rest, and still rests, partly on custom; which custom indeed has been tempered somewhat, so that, for example, works which formerly could be servile are now common. We have tried to treat the matter in such a way that every difficulty arising from different custom seems excluded.

II. Obligation of the precept is grave from its kind. Moreover, in servile works, according to St. Alphonsus, for grave matter it is required that the labor be prolonged for two and a half hours (whether continuous or interrupted); if there is question of lighter labor, three hours can be established (St. Alphonsus, III, 305, coll. 282). In judicial apparatus and in market the gravity of the matter depends more on the quality of the business which is transacted (St. Alphonsus, III, 286, 307).

One who commands several persons to work, with grave scandal excluded, more probably does not sin gravely if none of them is objectively guilty of a grave transgression. The reason is that, since the obligation of keeping feast is personal, the transgressions of different persons are not considered to coalesce into one (St. Alphonsus, III, 306).

III. Excusing causes from the precept are enumerated: one's own or another's necessity, charity, piety, and custom.

1. One's own or another's necessity, that is, grave spiritual, bodily, or temporal harm to be averted from oneself or from a third party. Especially excused are:

a) The poor, who otherwise cannot provide for themselves and their own as to food or clothing. Likewise female servants, who otherwise lack time for mending or washing clothes (St. Alphonsus, III, 297). Although, if someone is known as poor, scandal ought to be absent, it is nevertheless better, as far as can be done, to work secretly.

b) Subjects who are compelled by a master to work; yet if servants must often work on Sunday, let them seek another service (St. Alphonsus, III, 296).

c) Bakers and butchers, who otherwise cannot satisfy those asking (St. Alphonsus, III, 298, 299). Nevertheless they are not excused, unless perhaps on account of competition, if the law forbids it, for example, to bakers.

d) Tailors and other workmen, if the matter is urgent, for example for impending weddings or funerals. Yet let them take care that, without a special cause, by taking on more work, or by refusing a sufficient number of workmen, they do not place themselves in such necessity (St. Alphonsus, III, 303).

e) Pharmacists providing necessities to the sick, unless they have agreed among themselves - as is done rather often today - that only one or another should sell on feast days.

f) Farmers, if from a storm or a similar cause grave harm is imminent (St. Alphonsus, Homo Apostolicus, tr. 6, n. 21).

g) Barbers are excused partly on account of necessity, partly on account of custom (St. Alphonsus, III, 290).

h) Blacksmiths who shoe "the horses of travelers, or of those who (on the following day) will set out on a journey at very early morning or go out into the field to work.... Likewise the plowshares of those who otherwise would not be able to work on the following day can be repaired. So also roads, bridges, etc., can be repaired" (St. Alphonsus, III, 300).

i) Whoever cannot interrupt works once begun without grave harm, as those who labor in foundries, and sometimes also in butter-making establishments (St. Alphonsus, III, 300).

j) Those who prepare things which are necessary for a public festivity, for example on account of the arrival or birthday of a Prince, and which cannot conveniently be prepared beforehand. "The reason is that such signs of joy are morally necessary for the commonwealth" (St. Alphonsus, III, 304).

k) Those who would miss an occasion of gain extraordinary in view of their condition, as was explained in n. 704.

l) Avoiding idleness does not excuse by reason of itself; yet by reason of avoiding sin it excuses those who, morally speaking, will not abstain from sin unless they work, for example prisoners who cannot occupy themselves with works lawful in themselves (St. Alphonsus, III, 302). - But to those who complain of idleness, it can be permitted that they perform lighter works for the benefit of a poor person or of a needy church. If these things cannot be done less conveniently, by epikeia it can be permitted (at least if otherwise there is danger that they will run about) that for some hours they be occupied with other labors, though lighter ones. Likewise light domestic labor is lawfully conceded to a workman who otherwise would be exposed to the danger of making himself drunk, etc.

2. Charity permits someone to serve the sick, bury the dead, and generally to do for another what that other could lawfully do for himself.

Question. To what extent is it lawful to work for the poor?

Resp. 1. It is certainly lawful to work to assist either a determined poor person placed in grave necessity, or a community placed in such necessity (St. Alphonsus, III, 293).

Resp. 2. It is certainly unlawful in common necessity to work or make things so that the gain received from the labor or the things may be granted to the poor.

Resp. 3. It is disputed whether in common necessity it is lawful to make things, for example clothes to be distributed to the poor. With St. Alphonsus and others, against some, it seems it must be denied; for, if that opinion were admitted, it would already be lawful for all and always to work; which seems to oppose the sense of the Church (St. Alphonsus, III, 293).

3. Piety permits servile works as follows:

a) Works which are proximately ordered to divine worship are permitted. Such are: ringing bells, playing organs, blowing them, etc. (St. Alphonsus, III, 291).

b) Works which are ordered to divine worship only remotely or by accident are prohibited unless necessity requires them. Such are, for example, "to cultivate the fields of the church, to carry stones and timber for its building, to whitewash the walls of the temple" (St. Alphonsus, III, 293). Nevertheless, with sufficient probability it is lawful "to labor at making necessary ornaments for a needy church" (St. Alphonsus, cited place).

c) Works which are ordered to divine worship neither so proximately nor so remotely are prohibited at most under light sin, indeed according to St. Alphonsus with sufficient probability not at all. Such are: "to sweep the church, to bake hosts, to adorn the altar and church with tapestries, to erect platforms necessary for a festivity or sepulcher, and similar things." Yet "knowingly to prepare platforms on a feast day for viewing a procession is, of itself, a grave sin; but if they were not made the previous day, they are lawfully made on the feast day" (III, 292).

4. What custom permits has been sufficiently indicated above (n. 705).

5. Finally, in doubt whether a sufficient excusing cause is present, a dispensation is required, about which see n. 183; note, however, that a sufficient cause is undoubtedly present if grave danger of notable harm is imminent.