The Council of Laodicea of the 4th century outlawed the keeping of the Sabbath (Saturn's day) and encouraged rest on Sunday or the Lord's day. Christ, while observing the Sabbath, set himself in word and act against this absurd rigorism which made man a slave of the day. He reproved the scribes and Pharisees for putting an intolerable burden on men's shoulders (Matt. 23:4), and proclaimed the principle that "the sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath" (Mark 2:27). He cured on the Sabbath, and defended His disciples for plucking ears of corn on that day. In His arguments with the Pharisees on this account He showed that the Sabbath is not broken in cases of necessity or by acts of charity (Matt. 12:3; Mark 2:25; Luke 6:3;14:5). St. Paul enumerates the Sabbath among the Jewish observances which are not obligatory on Christians (Col. 2:16; Gal. 4:9-10; Rom. 14:5). The gentile converts held their religious meetings on Sunday (Acts 20:7; 1 Cor. 16:2) and with the disappearance of the Jewish Christian churches this day was exclusively observed as the Lord's Day or Holy Sunday.