even to Irenæus and his contemporaries were ancestral, had been compelled a tribute to the unity of the faith.* 66 Down to the end of the fourth, and the beginning of the fifth century, the diversities were not less apparent. "In some churches," says Sozomen, "the interval called Quadragesima, which occurs before the festival of the Resurrection, and is devoted by the people to fasting, is made to consist of six weeks; and this is the case in Illyria and the western regions, in Libya, throughout Egypt, and in Palestine: whereas it is made to comprise seven weeks at Constantinople, and in the neighbouring provinces, as far as Phoenicia. In some churches, the people fast three alternate weeks, during the space of six or seven weeks; whereas in others, they fast continually during the three weeks immediately preceding the festival. Some people, as the Montanists, only fast two weeks."+ Socrates bears like testimony; with the addition of showing further the varieties of manner, as well as of duration. "The fasts before Easter are differently observed. Those at Rome fast three successive weeks before Easter, excepting Saturdays and Sundays. The Illyrians, Achaians, and Alexandrians observe a fast of six weeks, which they term the forty days' fast. Others, commencing their fast from the seventh week before Easter, and fasting three five-days only, and that at intervals, yet call that time the forty days' fast. It is indeed surprising that, thus differing * Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History; B. v., c. 24. + Sozomen, Ecclesiastical History; B. vii., c. 19. Our own term Lent does not carry with it any idea expressive of duration; but belongs to that class of appellations of the season which are taken from the time of year when it occurs. Of such also are the German Lenz, to which our own word is akin, and the Dutch and Flemish Lente, with which it is identical. There are other groups of names which refer to Lent as a season of fasting; in Russ, for instance, it is Post, or Velekie Post, the Fast, or the Great Fast; in Dansk and German respectively, it is Fastetid and Fastenzeit, both of which are equivalent to Fast-tide. In the Eastern Church it is ORIGINAL DURATION OF LENT. 133 in the number of days, they should still give it one common appellation; but some assign one reason, some another, according to their several fancies. There is also a disagreement about abstinence from food, as well as the number of days. Some wholly abstain from things that have life; others feed on fish only of all living creatures; many, together with fish, eat fowl also, saying that, according to Moses, these were likewise made out of the waters. Some abstain from eggs, and all kinds of fruits; others feed on dry bread only; and others eat not even this; while others, having fasted till the ninth hour-three o'clock in the afternoon-afterwards feed on any sort of food without distinction. And among various nations there are other usages, for which innumerable reasons are assigned. Since, however, no one can produce a written command as an authority, it is evident that the apostles left each one to his own free-will in the matter, to the end that the performance of what is good might not be the result of constraint and necessity."* It is most probable, therefore, that the quadragesimal fast was originally a fast of forty hours, which by gradual growth and extension, became protracted to a season of forty days. With the extension of duration, there seems to have been a corresponding extension of idea and significance; and that which was at first a fulfilment of the words of Christ that in His absenceinterpreted as we have seen, as referring to His absence in the tomb, between His Crucifixion and His Resurrection-His disciples should mourn and fast, became a dutiful and sympathetic and isochronous commemoration of His Fasting and Temptation in the wilderness. To this the analogies of Moses and Elias were ready for applicasimply Μεγάλη Νηστεία. Other designations are derived from its forty days' duration, as the Greek Tεσσapaкooтn, and the Latin Quadragesima, the Italian Quaresima, and the French Carême. This is the case in all the Romance languages, and the Celtic dialects. * Socrates, Ecclesiastical History; B. v., c. 22. tion; and these, together with the Jewish practice with which Bishop Hooper connected the origin of Lent, would naturally have the effect, when once the quadragesimal interval of forty hours had been exceeded, of producing and protracting the great Christian fast till it rested again and permanently in a quadragesimal interval of approximately the same number of days. In the Eastern Church, Socrates and Sozomen have shown us that the days of Lenten abstinence were distributed over the seven weeks before Easter, from which all the Saturdays save one, and all the Sundays, were excepted, in order, in the words of St. Chrysostom, "that the souls of wayfarers along the Christian fast might be refreshed, as travellers intermitted their journeys at inns and stations." The Latin Church, however, reserving only the Sundays from the days of fasting, commenced its Lent with the sixth week before Easter. The practice of both communions so far agreed, that each reserved the Sunday, in what season soever it occurred, as an undivertible and unchangeable festival. "The Catholic Church, whilst it observes the forty days' fast before the Sacred Week, sets apart every Sunday as a glad and festive day on which no fasts are at any time observed; for it would be absurd to fast on the Lord's Day.' It resulted from the reservation of the Sunday, or of the Saturday and Sunday, that in the case of each of the two communions, the number of clear fasting-days was thirty-six; a number which has been fondly dwelt on by Cassian and Isidore of Seville as being a tithe of the whole year. The Lenten fast continued to be actually of only thirty-six days' duration, till in the sixth century, Pope Gregory the Great, or alternatively Pope Gregory the Second in the eighth century, completed the full number of forty fasting-days; since the time of which addition, Epiphanius, Expositio Fidei Catholicæ. ECCLESIASTICAL PENALTIES. 135 Lent has always dated its commencement from AshWednesday. The practice of fasting, which had at first been of voluntary observance in the Church, passed successively through the stages of pious and prevailing custom-to which, so late as the fourth century, the people were exhorted with entreaties—and finally of binding enactment. The Council of Orleans, A.D. 541, decreed that any one who should neglect to observe the stated times of abstinence, should be treated as an offender against the laws of the Church. The eighth Council of Toledo, A.D. 653, ordained that those persons who, without apparent necessity, should have eaten flesh during Lent, "should be deprived of it all the rest of the year, and should be forbidden to communicate at Easter." In the eighth century, fasting began to be regarded as a meritorious work; and the breach of its observance at the stated seasons, subjected the offender to excommun ication. In the earlier part of the eleventh century, persons who ate flesh during the appointed time of abstinence, are stated by Baronius to have been punished with the loss of their teeth. The first of the English kings to decree the observance of Lent in his dominions, was Earconbert, the seventh King of Kent (640-664), who, " of his supreme authority commanded the idols, throughout his whole kingdom, to be forsaken and destroyed, and the fast of forty days before Easter to be observed. And, that the same might not be neglected, he appointed proper and condign punishments for the offenders."* It was decreed by the Council of Trent, that confession should be enjoined as peculiarly fit and applicable to this season. Grace," says the late Dr. Faber, in the spirit of his adopted Church, as illustrated in the last sentence 66 "Grace is plentiful in Lent;" a proposition which becomes wholesome and encouraging *Bede's Ecclesiastical History of England. when it is read simply as a particular statement of the general hortatory promise, "Seek, and ye shall find." The more abundant supplies await the more abundant supplications. The time of extraordinary contrition must be a time of extraordinary absolution; and Lent, by hypothesis, and ecclesiastical order, is such a time. It is a characteristic of George Wither's "Hymns and Songs of the Church," that they exhibit in abstract almost the entire body of doctrine and the philosophy of the particular seasons about which they are conversant. The following poem on "Lent" is an example of his nearly exhaustive method :: Thy wondrous fasting to record, And our rebellious flesh to tame, A holy fast to Thee, O Lord, We have intended in Thy name: Oh, sanctify it, we Thee pray, That we may thereby honour Thee, Let us not grudgingly abstain, Thy Church's ordinance obey; Thy rule observing in each part, So Thou shalt our devotions bless, Yet they to make for our avail (By Thy deservings) shall have place. True fasting helpful oft hath been, |