~ 100 ~
further we shall see that the process of exhaustion would in itself, by a combination of Jewish and planetary prejudices, have almost settled the choice of this day for the Christian Eucharist, even if there were not, as undoubtedly there were, other considerations. Saturday was impossible not only, as suggested above, through the wish of the Jewish Christian to avoid clashing with the Sabbath, but also through the profound prejudices of the planetist. It might be all very well for the Jew to use Saturn's day for a holy-day, which to the Gentile mind was not the 'Princess Sabbath' as Heine painted it, but served mainly to enforce taboos. It would be a very different matter to celebrate the Eucharist of joy and thanksgiving on a day with such sinister associations. Jupiter is a beneficent planet and Thursday, as being according to the narrative in Acts the day of the Ascension and according to western reckoning of the Last Supper, might have appealed to Christians, but Thursday is a Jewish fast-day, as also is Monday. Mars is like Saturn a sinister planet and this would rule out Tuesday. Mercury, whose day for some reason or other became at an early date a Christian fast-day, is a neutral planet. In fact, the only real competitor of Sunday was Friday.
I have often wondered whether the Church had any feeling of the planetary significance of Friday. On the face of it indeed it might seem that the day of Venus could have little but evil
