Or have ye not read in the law, how that on the sabbath days the priests in the temple profane the sabbath, and are blameless?
Ver. 5. Profane the Sabbath] As ye count profaning of it: or they profane it by divine dispensation, while they do servile works in slaying sacrifices, and other things tending to the service of God, such as is now the ringing of the sermon bell among us, as among the Protestants in France the letting off of a harquebus a or pistol, whereby they congregate.
a The early type of portable gun, varying in size from a small cannon to a musket, which on account of its weight was, when used in the field, supported upon a tripod, trestle, or other ‘carriage', and afterwards upon a forked ‘rest'. The name in German and Flemish meant literally ‘hook-gun', from the hook cast along with the piece, by which it was fastened to the ‘carriage'; but the name became generic for portable fire-arms generally in the 16th century, so that the type with the hook was subsequently distinguished as arquebuse à croc. ŒD