According to this, the Sunday service was to include reading of
the Scriptures, prayer, and a sermon, ordinarily on some text of
scripture which would be explained with reasons therefore and
applied to peoples' lives so they could see it they had sinned or
not. The ending of episcopal patronage gave some parishes the
right to elect their own ministers.
All festivals and holy days were abolished, e.g. Christmas,
Easter, Whitsuntide. Instead, scholars, apprentices, and servants
were to have recreation and stores were to be closed every second
Tuesday of the month. The usual merry-making, music, dancing, and
sports after the Sunday service were discontinued.
A day for fasting: the last Wednesday of every month, was declared
by statute. This day was to be "kept with the more solemn
humiliation, because it may call to remembrance our sins, and the
sins of our forefathers, who have turned this Feast, pretending
the memory of Christ into an extreme forgetfulness of him, by
giving liberty to carnal and sensual delights, being contrary to
the life which Christ himself led here upon earth, ...". This
statute lasted for only five years from 1644 because observance of
it was not consistent throughout the country.
Educational opportunities such as in grammar schools were more
widespread and stronger than ever before or since until the 1800s.
About 78% of men in London were literate, and 30% of men
nationwide.
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