SUPEREROGATION
336
SUPERNATURAL
from falling into the excesses of Jewish Sabbatarian-
ism in the observance of the Sunday, and yet we find
St. Caesarius of Aries in the sixth century teaching
that the holy Doctors of the Church had decreed that
the whole glory of the Jewish Sabbath had been trans-
ferred to the Sunday, and that Christians must keep
the Sunday holy in the same way as the Jews had
been commanded to keep holy the Sabbath Day. He
especially insisted on the people hearing the whole of
the Mass and not leaving the church after the Ejiistle
and Gospel had been read. He taught them that
they should come to Vespers and spend the rest of
the day in pious reading and prayer. As with the
Jewish Sabbath, the observance of the Christian Sun-
day began with sundown on Saturday and lasted till
the same time on Sunday. Until quite recent times
some theologians taught that there was an obligation
under pain of venial sin of assisting at Vespers as well
as of hearing Mass, but the opinion rests on no certain
foundation and is now commonly abandoned. The
common opinion maintains that, while it is highly be-
coming to be present at \'espers on Sunday, there is no
strict obligation to be present. The method of reck-
oning the Sunday from sunset to sunset continued in
some places down to the seventeenth century, but in
general since the Middle Ages the reckoning from
midnight to midnight has been followed. When the
parochial system was introduced, the laity were
taught that they must hear Mass and the preaching
of the Word of God on Sundays in their parish church.
However, toward the end of the thirteenth century,
the friars began to teach that the precept of hearing
Mass might be fulfilled by hearing it in their churches,
and after long and severe struggles this was expressly
allowed by the Holy See. Nowadays, the precept
may be fulfilled by hearing Mass in any place except
a strictly private oratory, and provided Mass is not
celebrated oh a portable altar by a privilege which
is merely personal.
The obligation of rest from work on Sunday re- mained somewhat indefinite for several centuries. A Council of Laodicea, held toward the end of the fourth century, was content to prescribe that on the Lord's Day the faithful were to abstain from work :\s far as possible. At the beginning of the sixth century St. Caesarius, as we have seen, and others showed an in- clination to apply the law of the Jewish Sabbath to the observance of the Christian Sunday. The Coun- cil held at Orleans in 538 reprobated this tendency as Jewish and non-Christian. From the eighth century the law began to be formulated as it exists at the present day, and the local councils forbade servile work, public buying and selling, pleading in the law courts, and the public and solemn taking of oaths. There is a large body of civil legislation on the Sun- day rest side by side with the ecclesiastical. It be- gins with an Edict of Constantine, the first Christian emperor, who forbade judges to sit and townspeople to work on Sunday. He made an exception in favour of agriculture. The breaking of the law of Sunday rest was punished by the Anglo-Saxon legislation in England like other crimes and misdemeanours. After the Reformation, under Puritan influence, many laws were passed in England whose effect is still visible in the stringency of the English Sabbath. Still more is this the case in Scotland. There is no federal legisla- tion in the United States on the observance of the Sunday, but nearly all the states of the Union have statutes tending to repress unnecessary labour and to restrain the liquor traffic. In other respects the legis- lation of the different states on this matter exhibit.s considerable variety. On the continent of Europe in recent years there have been several laws passed in the direction of enforcing the observance of Sunday rest for the benefit of workmen.
ViLLlEN. Ifisl. des commandemcTUs de I'Eglise (Paris. 1909); DoBtANCHy ia Did. de thiol, cathol,, s.v. Dimanche (Paris, 1911);
Slater. Manual of Moral Theology (New York, 1908): the moral
theologians generally. f. SlaTER.
Supererogation, Works of. See Works, Good.
Superior, Diocese of (Superiorensis), situated in the northern part of Wisconsin, comprises the following counties: Ashland, Barron, Bayfield, Burnett, Douglas, Iron, Lincoln, Oneida, Polk, Price, Rusk, Sawyer, St. Croix, Taylor, Vilas, and Wash- burn. In area it covers 15,715 square miles, and has its episcopal residence in the city of Superior. On 3 May, 1905, the diocese was established, being formed from the northern part of the Diocese of La Crosse (see La Crosse, Diocese of) and the north- western part of the Diocese of Green Bay (see Green Bay, Diocese of).
When Superior, which is one of the suffragans of Milwaukee, was formed, there were 39 secular and 17 regiilar priests attending to the needs of the people in 93 churches and 33 stations. The CathoUc population at the time wa.s about 38,000. Besides the Enghsh-speaking congregations there were then as there are at present churches in which the spiritual wants of Germans, Poles, French, Itahans, Slovaks and Bohemians were looked after. The sijiritual and other needs of the Indians of the district have been well taken care of. There are flourishing industrial schools at Odonah, Bayfield, and other places, that are under the charge of the Sisters of St. Francis and are attended by the Franciscan Fathers. The bishop, ably seconded by his clergy, has started throughout the diocese wherever it was possible parochial schools for the Christian education of the young. In consequence the various cities and towns have one or more such bringing excellent results, considering the meagre resources available. At Superior and Ashland especially the schools are well attended.
The first bishop of the diocese, still in office, is the Rt. Rev. Augustm Francis Schinner, D. D. He was consecrated 25 July, 1905, and appointed to the see of Superior 13 May of the same year. He came to Superior from Milwaukee, where he had held the position of administrator of the archdiocese after the death of Archbishop Katzer. Bishop Schinner was born in Milwaukee 1 May, 1863. He entered the seminary at St. Francis, Wis., and at the age of twenty-two on 7 March, 1886, w-as ordained priest by Archbishop Heiss of Milwaukee. For about a year he was pastor of the Church at Richfield, Wis., and was then made a professor at St. Francis Semi- nary, Milwaukee. In 1891 Archbishop Katzer selected him as his secretary, and in 1895 he was made vicar-general of the archdiocese, holding the same position under Archbishop Messmer, until liis ap- pointment as Bishop of Superior.
There are now in the diocese the following rehgious communities of men: Franciscans, Jesuits, Servites; and of women: Fransciscan Sisters of the Perpetual Adoration, Sisters of St. Agnes, Sisters of St. Domi- nic, Poor Handmaids of Jesus Christ, Sisters of St. Francis, School-Sisters of St. Francis, P'ranciscan Sisters of Charity, School-Sisters of Notre Dame, Sisters of the Sorrowful Mother, Sisters of the Divine Saviour, Sisters of St. Joseph. There are (1911): secular priests, 56; priests of religious orders, 23; churches with resident priests, 55; missions with churches, 65; chapels, S; stations, 23; high school, 1; parish schools, 23; pupils of parochial schools, 4869; industrial schools, 2; inmates, 225; orphans, 45; total number of young people under Catholic care, 5094; hospitals, 5; Catholic population (Census of 1910): White, 48,028; Indians, 3015.
Official Catholic Director!/, 1905-11; The Catholic Church in Superior, Wis. (Superior, 1905). JoHN J. DriSCOLL.
Supernatural Order, the ensemble of effects exceeding the powers of the created univeree and
