Chapter I: The Church’s Year (2)

In the Calendar of Polemius Silvius is found, under the 24th March, the remarkable note _Natalis Calicis_. This is owing to the fact that at that period the 25th March was regarded as the day of Christ’s death, and the 27th as the day of His resurrection. The day of the institution of the Holy Eucharist and of the Sacrifice of the Mass was not passed over in even such an imperfect list of the Church’s festivals as that contained in this Calendar. The day had something of a festival character belonging to itself. Indeed, among the Copts it appears as a regular festival.

The name _Natalis Calicis_ seems to have been common in southern and western Gaul, for it is found in Avitus of Vienne, and in Eligius of Noyon, in the sixth and seventh centuries. The same writers mark the day as a festival, _sollemnitas_, on which those who had been put to public penance were everywhere received back into the Church, and on which the Chrism was consecrated.[139]

The most unlikely of the many attempts to explain the German name for the day is that which connects it with St Luke xxiii. 31, and makes the name, Green Thursday, signify that the withered branches, sinners, by their reception again into the bosom of the Church once more grow green.[140] Apart from the fact that this interpretation is far-fetched, it savours too much of the study to have ever given rise to the name among the common people. The fact is that red vestments were worn at the reception of the penitents on Maundy Thursday, but green vestments at the Mass, and this gave rise to the name.[141] The older service-books, however, drawn up before liturgical colours had been introduced and their use had become regulated, do not specify the colour for the vestments, but content themselves with prescribing the use of festal vestments (_vestes sollemniores_) in general. Later on, the Roman custom of wearing white vestments on this day became general.[142]

It was only to be expected that the Church should keep with special solemnity the day on which Christ had celebrated the last passover with His apostles, and had instituted the mystery of His Body and Blood. In fact, Holy Saturday alone of the days of Holy Week can vie with it in this respect. It frequently ranks as a Church festival, and is expressly called a _sollemnitas_.[143]

The ritual directions for Maundy Thursday, of which we possess a considerable number dating from the Middle Ages, naturally begin with the Psalmody. This began at midnight, and its distinguishing feature was, that the lights lit at its commencement did not remain burning, but were extinguished, one at a time, after each psalm, until, at the concluding prayers, the church was in total darkness. The number of candles varied in different places, between fifteen, twenty-four, thirty, and thirty-four.[144] Such was the “dark mattins,” _tenebræ_.

The second characteristic ceremony of the day was the reconciliation of the penitents. These had to remain prostrate on the ground while the Miserere and other prayers were recited over them and their absolution pronounced. On this occasion, as we have remarked above, red vestments were worn. The reconciled penitents were admitted to communion with the rest of the congregation at the Mass which followed.

This Mass was of a festal character, and, in many places, in primitive times, two Masses were celebrated, one at the usual hour in the morning, and the other towards evening at the time of vespers. In other places, on the contrary, there was only one Mass, at which all the faithful communicated.[145] These different customs in course of time became a cause of astonishment and offence, and so Bishop Januarius enquired of St Augustine what ought to be done. The reply was, that each ought to follow the custom of his own diocese. In Rome also, at the period when the Gelasian sacramentary was in use, two Masses were still celebrated, for the sacramentary gives a _Missa ad Vesperum_.[146] The same authority notices only the reconciliation of penitents and the consecration of the Holy Oils among the other ceremonies performed on Maundy Thursday. The Gregorian sacramentary gives only the latter, as also does Ordo I., the earliest of the sixteen ancient Roman ordos.[147] In liturgical writings relating to our subject which belong to the Middle Ages, especially in the pseudo-Alcuin, the consecration of the Holy Oils is given at considerable length.[148] St Cyprian had already spoken of the consecration of oil required for ritual purposes without saying on what day it took place.[149]

At the conclusion of the Mass, the altar was washed by the bishop or officiating priest, and, in the afternoon, the washing of the feet was performed, at which the Superior washed the feet of his subjects, or the bishop the feet of twelve old men representing the twelve apostles. In the Middle Ages, the usual name for this ceremony was _Mandatum_.[150] The washing of the altar and the consecration of the Chrism is spoken of by Isidore of Seville.[151] In the later Middle Ages, to these ceremonies was added the reading of the Bull in _Cœna Domini_, containing a list of errors condemned by the Church under pain of excommunication. The reading of this Bull continued from the fourteenth to the end of the eighteenth century.

Finally, in some countries, the public ceremonial recitation of the Creed by the catechumens (_redditio symboli_) was prescribed for Maundy Thursday, as by the forty-sixth canon of the Synod of Laodicea, and by the sixty-eighth Trullan canon. This, however, in Rome, was done on Holy Saturday by each person in turn from some conspicuous place in the church.[152]

GOOD FRIDAY

The day of our Lord’s Passion was universally regarded as a day of mourning—“_dies amaritudinis_,” St Ambrose calls it, “on which we fast.”[153] A fast day, on liturgical principles, can never be a festival, though, _vice versâ_, a festival can fall on a fixed day of fasting or abstinence, as, for example, the Annunciation.

When, at an early date, the Roman emperor made a law forbidding the Courts to sit on Good Friday, this did not make it a festival. On the contrary, the Church Order of the period of Constantine expressly declares that “both it and Holy Saturday are days of sorrow, and not feasts.”[154] Accordingly, there was enjoined upon all whose health enabled them to observe it, an unbroken fast lasting over the two days, directly based upon St Mark ii. 20. For, as the eighth canon of the fourth Synod of Toledo says, “The whole Church is wont to spend Good Friday in fasting and sorrow, on account of our Lord’s Passion.” There is scarcely any other point on which such liturgical agreement exists in all lands and in all periods of Christian antiquity as on this. The above-named Synod mentions with reprobation a mistaken expression of grief, _i.e._ in many places the churches were shut up for the whole day, and no services, neither divine office nor sermon, were held (seventh canon). The Synod does not blame the omission of Mass, for this was universal. This sentiment of sorrow was outwardly manifested, after the introduction of liturgical colours, by the fact that on Good Friday, black vestments were worn.[155] In the Middle Ages, discussion arose over the question why the days of the saints’ deaths were kept as festivals, but Good Friday as a day of mourning. The monk Helperich, who lived at St Gall at the end of the ninth century, replied; Christ, unlike the saints, attained to no higher degree of glory through His death. He died not for His own sake but for us. The Jews, His enemies, rejoiced over His death, but the apostles bewailed and lamented.[156]

It may be observed here that in Würtemburg, Mecklenburg, Saxony, Reuss ä. L., Altenburg, and Lippe, Good Friday is one of the days of penitence and prayer, but, on the other hand, wherever Calvinism is in the ascendent, the dogmatic significant of the day, as the day of our redemption has been partially changed. There it ranks as a Church festival, and in other respects is given up to excursions and entertainments, just as if someone would pass the day of his father’s death in rejoicings, because a rich inheritance had fallen to him.

The Good Friday services began at night with mattins, at which the lights were extinguished in the same manner as on the previous day. In addition, the low tone in which the devotions were pitched, and the omission of the _Gloria Patri_ at the end of the psalms, gave outward expression to the sentiment of sorrow.

The liturgy proper to Good Friday, according to the rite now in use, begins with the prostration (_humi prostratio_) of the celebrant on the steps of the altar. Then, without their title being given out, follow lections from the prophets, in which the death of the Messias and its virtue were foretold. These sufferings themselves are described in the words of the Passion according to St John, which are said or sung immediately afterwards. Then follow the general intercessions, at the conclusion of which, the Host, consecrated on the previous day, is brought to the altar from the place where it has been reserved. The paternoster is then sung followed by the elevation of the Host and the communion of the celebrant. This _missa præsanctificatorum_ is nothing more than an elaborate rite of communion. It is preceded by the _Adoratio Crucis_, and followed by the laying of the Cross in the sepulchre, which dates from about the tenth century.

At an earlier period, the ceremonies were simpler, and even restricted to psalmody, for Innocent I., says,[157] that in his time, generally speaking, Mass was not celebrated on Good Friday and Holy Saturday. This is still the custom among the Greeks and Russians. Their Good Friday service consists of the singing of psalms and the veneration of a representation of our Lord on the Cross, similar to our _adoratio crucis_. At the evening service, that is, a painted, not carved, representation of the dead Christ is brought in and venerated.[158] These expressions must be taken quite literally, in the sense that on Good Friday not even the _missa præsanctificatorum_ was celebrated, nor the now usual Mass on the morning of Holy Saturday. For the Gelasian sacramentary gives no Mass for either of these days but only the various prayers, so too the old Gallic missal,[159] and the same must be understood when we hear of the Churches in parts of Spain not being opened on Good Friday. Sermons, however, were preached on Good Friday, for we possess several of Leo I., and Gregory the Great preached on this day. It is difficult to say what was the custom as to Holy Communion. In France, the people seem to have communicated, but not in Rome or in Germany; at least Rabanus Maurus is silent on the point.[160]

According to the evidence afforded by the ancient service-books, it may be conjectured that the adoption of the _missa præsanctificatorum_, as well as the striking insertion of the Greek passages in the Reproaches, is due to Greek influence. That alterations were made at a considerably later date in these parts of the rite will be noticed elsewhere.

With regard to the service-books of the Roman Church in particular, we find a rubric in the Gelasian sacramentary, directing that the Holy Cross be placed on the altar, and then that the priests and attendant clerics take their position at the altar in silence and begin the solemn intercessions for the whole Church, for all estates of men, etc.; the intercessions being prefaced by the summons to kneel (_flectamus genua_). The genuflection seems at that time to have been made also before the prayer for the Jews, for the rubric directs the deacon to proceed “_ut supra_.”[161] The prayers are the well-known Good Friday prayers. There is no mention at this point of the _Adoratio Crucis_, but at the conclusion of the intercessions, the sacred Species, in both kinds, which had been consecrated the previous day were brought from the sacrarium by the deacons and placed on the altar. The priest consumed them, having first adored and kissed the Cross. Whereupon all present adored the Cross and communicated. It must not be forgotten, in this connection, that the Gelasian sacramentary does not represent the Roman rite in its purity, but embellished with numerous Gallican additions, which probably owe their origin to Alcuin or his contemporaries. The same is true of the edition of the Gregorian sacramentary employed in France.

In this last we find the general intercessions recurring twice in Holy Week, on Wednesday and again on Good Friday,[162] but they are not placed at the beginning of the liturgy, as they are in the Gelasian sacramentary. After the bishop has taken his seat, the tract, _Domine audivi_, a lection from the Scriptures, and then another tract followed in succession. The Passion according to St John came next, and then the prayers in question. At their conclusion the altar was stripped. The solemn adoration of the Cross before the altar by clergy and people took place at the time of vespers, and, during it, the antiphon, _Ecce lignum crucis_, was sung. The _missa præsanctificatorum_ proceeded in essentially the same manner as at present, except that the elevation is not expressly mentioned. The altar remained bare from the afternoon of Maundy Thursday until Good Friday morning. The Gregorian sacramentary in its original form knew nothing of these rites. It proscribed nothing more for Good Friday than the nine prayers still in use and a blessing of the catechumens.

A full description of the whole ritual for Holy Week is to be found in the first of the ancient Roman Ordos edited by Mabillon, which gives both the psalmody and the special ceremonies. Mabillon attributes this ordo to the ninth century.[163] According to it, the psalmody began at midnight. As on the previous day, the candles were gradually extinguished, and the sad character of the service was indicated by the low tone taken for the prayers and by the omission of the _Gloria Patri_. The consecrated Host was brought back from the place where it had been reserved the day before, and the _missa præsanctificatorum_ commenced. This consisted of preface, Our Father, the prayer _Libera me_, the pax, and communion of the people. This last is omitted from the existing Roman rite. The adoration of the Cross preceded the Mass, as at present. In monasteries a procession took place within the cloister. The ceremonies of the Mass here described agree in all essential points with the Frankish edition of the Gregorian sacramentary, as, for instance, in the recitation of the _orationes sollemnes_ on both Wednesday and Good Friday. Thus the earlier liturgical services for Good Friday were replaced in the ninth century by an elaborate ritual, which agrees in all important respects with that in use at the present day.[164]

HOLY SATURDAY

This too is a day of mourning, as appears also from the fact that, in the Eastern Church, it is numbered among the fast days, although originally in the East no Saturday was kept as a fast. But the sadness of the day is already modified by the approach of the Resurrection, and the Alleluia, which has not been heard since Septuagesima, is sung again at the Mass.[165]

The solemnity begins, as on the preceding days, with the night office, at which the lights are again extinguished. This custom is very ancient, but the use of the triangle with the _lumen Christi_ is of later introduction.[166]

Mediæval writers begin their description of the other ceremonies with the blessing of the fire, which, even then, was performed early in the morning. Concerning the origin of this rite, it has been held that it took place not only on Holy Saturday, but every evening at Vespers.[167] Still the evidence for this is not sufficiently strong, and, on the other hand, this rite harmonises in an especial way with Holy Saturday as the appointed date for the administration of baptism, for which a favourite name was illumination (_illuminatio_, φωτισμός). The name _illuminandi_ was common also for those about to be baptised.

To the same association of ideas, the Paschal candle certainly owes its origin. It is not yet clear where we are to look for the origin of this custom. In Spain, there is evidence to show that the blessing of a candle or lamp (_lucerna_) on Easter night was common. The fourth synod of Toledo (633), in its ninth canon, recommends the adoption of this practice to the churches of Galicia. The Paschal candle is a symbol of Christ, and is blessed through the chanting of the _præconium paschale_ or _Exsultet_, a grand song of triumph, said to have been composed by St Augustine. This candle, placed in its own candlestick near the altar, is lit at High Mass throughout Eastertide. Two prefaces for its blessing are found in the writings of Bishop Ennodius of Pavia († 521), and mediæval liturgical writers generally attribute the blessing of the Paschal candle to Pope Zosimus.[168]

At an earlier period, the special ceremonies of Holy Saturday commenced in the afternoon, the forenoon being devoted to decorating the church and preparing for the festival.[169] These ceremonies are, the blessing of the Paschal candle, the lections from the Old Testament, and the blessing of the baptismal font, all of which are only preparatory to the solemn administration of baptism. As has been said, these ceremonies only commenced towards evening and continued into the night, which was observed as a vigil (_pervigilium paschale_). When they were concluded, the neophytes were baptised, and then, also in the night, followed the Mass of the day. To this the newly baptised, along with the people and clergy, proceeded in a solemn procession from the baptistery, when there was one, to the principal church. The Emperor Constantine allowed the streets and squares of the capital to be illuminated on this night. He himself as a catechumen passed the night in prayer in his private chapel, and hallowed the Easter festival by the bestowal of rich alms. The Mass is entitled in the service-books, _in vigilia paschæ_. Since it came after midnight, the Alleluia could be sung at it. This arrangement as regards the time of the Mass still held good in the eleventh century, for Rupert of Deutz (_De div. Off._, 7, 11) still speaks of it as being the established practice, and only later on were the above-mentioned ceremonies and the Mass transferred to the afternoon of Saturday, the Alleluia thus coming before its time. Upon this followed the psalmody of Easter, which had to be made as short as possible on account of the length of these ceremonies. Sermons also were usually short at Easter, for the same reason.[170]

In the early centuries, the Roman rite was much simpler. The festival commenced with the recitation of the creed by the candidates for baptism and a prayer by the Pope over them. Then followed the other preparations for baptism, the renunciations, four lessons from the Old Testament, the singing of Psalm xli., two prayers, the blessing of the baptismal water, the baptism itself, and the confirmation of the baptised. The Mass concluded the function.[171]

We must now see what special features the other liturgical documents contained. In the _missale Gallicanum_,[172] we find, after the prayers for each of the hours, the _Exsultet_, and the blessing of the Paschal candle, then the general intercessions for all estates of Christian men, concluding with intercessions for the neophytes and _competentes_. Upon this follows the baptismal rite (_opus ad baptizandum_), viz., the exorcisms, the blessing of the baptismal water, the washing of the feet, and the baptism itself. Then come the prayers for the Mass. The rite in the _Missale Gothico-Gallicanum_ is exactly the same.[173]

The Gelasian sacramentary prescribes the following rite for Holy Saturday: Early in the morning, the exorcisms shall be made over the catechumens, and, after they have made their solemn renunciations, they shall repeat the creed (_redditio symboli_). About the eighth hour, the clergy shall assemble in the _sacrarium_, commence the litanies there, and proceed to the altar; at the _Agnus Dei_, the Paschal candle is to be lighted and blessed, but without the chanting of the _Exsultet_. Then the lections from the Old Testament are read, each with a prayer, and after them takes place the blessing of the font and the baptism of the neophytes.

According to the edition of the Gregorian sacramentary used in France, the clergy and people assemble in the church about the eighth hour, _i.e._ about 2 P.M., according to present reckoning. Two candles were then lit, which were held by notaries, one on the right, the other on the left of the altar; while a lector from the pulpit read the Old Testament lections, each of which concluded with a prayer. Thereupon the clergy and the bishop proceeded in procession, the notaries with the candles leading the way, to the baptistery, where the baptismal water was blessed. After the blessing of the water, which was the same as that now in use, the baptism followed, at which it is to be observed a distinction is made between children and those who are grown up. The former were confirmed also immediately after baptism, the ritual and significance of confirmation being here clearly shown.[174] After the baptism, the litanies are sung in the church by singers, who then intoned the _Gloria in Excelsis_. The Mass of the day brought the function to a close.

Just as the Church marked the anniversary of the dedication of a church and of ordination by a special festival, so was the anniversary of their baptism a day of joy and thanksgiving for the baptised. It was also a day for renewing their baptismal vows, and for serious self-examination. The Church provided for this inasmuch as she was accustomed to celebrate this anniversary, and appointed a special Mass for it. It was called the _pascha annotina_.[175] A festival of this nature had a _raison d’être_ only so long as it was customary to baptise people when they were grown up. When it became general to baptise little children immediately after their birth, this festival fell out of use. The _pascha annotina_, however, appears in the _Homilarium_ compiled by Paul the Deacon by command of Charlemagne, about 785-90, and in the Sacramentary of Essen, composed between 850 and 874.

EASTER AND THE EASTER OCTAVE

If one wishes to form a correct idea of the festival of Easter, one must always bear in mind its close connection with the solemn administration of baptism. The preliminary ceremonies began on Saturday afternoon and lasted throughout the night. When the number to be baptised was very large, the administration of baptism and the Easter festival could be combined. This connection was lost at only quite a late date, in days when all remembrance of the grounds for it had died out, and people had no longer any idea of the catechumenate. The chief and most striking ceremonies were then transferred to the forenoon, and it is much to be regretted that, in those centuries, no creative force was forthcoming to form something in keeping with the altered conditions of the time. Owing to the alteration in the hour, many of the ceremonies are rendered meaningless.

The interval thus produced was occupied by the festival commemoration of the Resurrection, and by a great procession. The latter can easily be traced back to the solemn procession of the catechumens and clergy from the baptistery to the cathedral, which took place in primitive times after baptism. It was probably ignorance of this custom which led later writers to trace the origin of this procession to the words of Christ to His disciples: “I will go before you into Galilee” (St Matt. xxvi. 32; xxviii. 16),[176] directing them to go to Galilee after His resurrection.

The Easter ceremonies varied in different countries and in different dioceses. The earliest mention of them appears in the _Ordo Romanus_ belonging to the thirteenth century which goes by the name of Cardinal James Cajetan.[177] It would lead us too far from our subject to describe them and the other customs formerly observed on Easter Day; besides, such special points of ritual are better dealt with in connection with the liturgy itself. We shall here only mention the blessing of food, especially those kinds of food which, after having been forbidden in Lent, again become lawful, such as flesh meat in particular, eggs, cheese, butter, and other things as well. The original object of this blessing of food was plainly to check the tendency to over-indulgence which might assert itself after a prolonged period of self-denial.[178]

We must now return to the account of the Gallic pilgrim. She speaks of processions to the different churches and to the Mount of Olives as having taken place in Jerusalem not only on Easter Day, but on the other days of the octave as well. She finds no other points to notice in which the customs at Jerusalem differed from those observed at her own home. On the Saturday and Sunday after Easter, the narrative of St Thomas’s unbelief formed the Gospel, as at the present day.[179]

With regard to the Easter octave, the two first days rank as festivals of the first class. On Monday, the supper at Emmaus is commemorated, the Gospel being St Luke xxiv. 13-35; on Tuesday, the appearance of our Lord and His apostles, narrated in St Luke xxiv. 36-47; on Wednesday, His appearance by the Sea of Tiberias to Peter and the others, as they were fishing, St John xxi. 1-14; on Thursday, His appearance in the garden to Mary Magdalen, St John xx. 11-18; on Friday, His appearance on the mountain in Galilee, St Matt. xxviii. 16-20; on Saturday, the Gospel contains the account of the first appearance of Jesus to Mary Magdalen immediately after His resurrection, St John xx. 1-9.

The following Sunday forms the conclusion of the Easter octave, and, accordingly, was formerly called simply _octava paschæ_, or _pascha clausum_, later it was called White Sunday, _dominica in albis_, _scil._ _deponendis_, because the neophytes wore their white baptismal garments until this day. When Easter ceased to be the day for baptisms, it was appointed, as being in harmony with White Sunday, that children should receive their first communion, and renew their baptismal vows. Rabanus Maurus[180] further observes that in his time confirmation was given on White Sunday. The prayers during the Easter octave contain references to the two great sources of festal gladness, the resurrection of our Lord and the increase in the number of the faithful. The prayers for the third, fifth, and sixth ferias are specially concerned with the latter, while the Gospels throughout are occupied with the appearances of our Lord after His resurrection to His disciples. The Epistles, however, are either for the most part taken from the Acts, or describe that spiritual renewal of mankind which follows upon the work of redemption. The prayers for the whole octave, with the exception of two on Monday, are the same at the present day as those in the Gregorian sacramentary.[181] For the following Sundays, until Whitsunday, they only occasionally agree with the prayers of this sacramentary, being taken bodily, with two unimportant exceptions, from the Gelasian. The Sundays lead up to the fulfilment of Christ’s redemptive work and His return to the Father. The Gospels from the third to the fifth are accordingly taken from the sixteenth chapter of St John.

Right in the middle of the period anciently called _quinquagesima_, that is to say on the twenty-fifth day after Easter, or, in other words, on the Wednesday of the fourth week after Easter, the event recorded in St John vii. 1 was formerly commemorated in certain churches. In the midst of the feast of Tabernacles, Christ went up into the Temple and taught (St John vii. 14). On the last day of the feast, He stood in the Temple and cried, referring to the usual libation of the Jews on this day,[182] “If any man thirst, let him come to Me and drink” (v. 37). On this day, in the Eastern Churches, the rite of blessing the waters still takes place, which is not to be confused with that which is performed on the 6th January, in honour of the baptism of Jesus in Jordan (_missa aquæ_). This commemoration is called by the Greeks μεσοπεντεκοστή, _festum mediæ pentecostes_. The name, as we have already observed, belongs to the oldest ecclesiastical terminology, according to which Pentecost meant not Whitsunday but the whole period from Easter to Whitsunday.[183]

6. _The Preparation for Easter—Quadragesima and the Fast_

The chief festivals are usually preceded by a time of preparation, consisting in many cases of only a single day, the vigil, but the preparation for Easter extends over nine weeks, and is composed of two parts, Lent, the more immediate preparation, and the three preceding Sundays, as a more distant and merely liturgical preparation.

In Lent, it is the fast which plays the chief part, and presents itself as the essential feature of the whole time of preparation. From it, also, the other developments take their rise.[184]

There are indications that, in the earliest times, Christians fasted on all Wednesdays and Fridays throughout the year. This pious custom seems to have been so generally observed that, without having been enjoined by any formal enactment, it had, so to speak, the force of law. It is mentioned in the Didaché, in Hermas, and by Tertullian.[185] The latter calls these fasts “station-fasts,” and mentions that the fast lasted until 3 P.M. The custom had possibly been adopted from the Jews, for the Pharisees and Jewish ascetics in the time of Christ were wont to fast twice a week, on Monday and Thursday.[186]

With regard to the East, Clement of Alexandria mentions[187] Wednesday and Friday as fast days, and, which is especially remarkable, these days were also so observed in the period after Constantine, at least for a great part of the year. The _Didascalia_ enjoins that these days be kept as fasts in the time after Whitsunday. The preceding season, the fifty days between Easter and Whitsunday, was a season of unmixed gladness, and so, according to the _Didascalia_, in Whitsun Week, these days were not fasts. We are led to the conjecture that this custom fell out of use in proportion as fasting became otherwise regulated, and the fast of forty days before Easter became a general law.

That fasting should form an essential feature in the commemoration of Passion-tide had already been indicated in our Lord’s words (St Matt. ix. 15): “Can the children of the bridegroom mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with them?” To which question He Himself replied, “The days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then shall they fast.” The days when the Bridegroom was taken away were held from the first to be those in which He lay in the grave, Good Friday and Holy Saturday. In the earliest times, these days were everywhere kept as fasts, and were observed by all, with exception of the quartodecimans, as obligatory fasts of the strictest kind.[188]

This fact is supported by a remark of St Irenæus, in an official letter addressed to Pope Victor (189-99), on the occasion of the second dispute about Easter. It is given, for the most part, by Eusebius in his history of the Church.[189] This is the earliest evidence for the fast before Easter. It shows that the practice had not yet received a fixed and special form. Some, for instance, thought only one day ought to be kept as a fast, Good Friday; others fasted for two days, Good Friday and Holy Saturday—the two days, as Tertullian says, on which the Bridegroom was taken away. Others again fasted for more than two days (unfortunately, it is not said for how many), and others reckoned as their fast day, forty consecutive hours. That is to say, they kept a continuous fast for forty hours night and day, and regarded this as their fast day.[190] Which these forty hours were is easy to say, for our Lord lay in the grave for about forty hours, from the afternoon of Good Friday until Easter morning, or from Good Friday morning to the evening of Saturday.

Irenæus and Tertullian know nothing as yet of the fast of forty days, although in their days it was the universal custom to fast, and that very strictly, on the two last days of Holy Week. About the middle of the third century, a week’s fast was customary in many places—the entire Holy Week being fasted on water and bread and salt, while on the last two days nothing whatever was eaten. The _Didascalia_ describes the fast in the same way, and also the Apostolic Constitutions (5, 15). After this manner, accordingly, the fast was observed in Syria, and Dionysius witnesses to the same practice in Alexandria.[191]

However the words, “The fast shall be broken when a Sunday intervenes,”[192] found on the well-known statue of Hippolytus in Rome, show that already, by the middle of the third century, the fast extended over several weeks. The fast here alluded to must have extended over fourteen days at least. The disputed canons of Hippolytus (the twentieth and twenty-second) receive some confirmation from this passage.

In the fourth century, many witnesses to the fast of forty days are forthcoming, both writers, such as Eusebius, Cyril of Jerusalem, Ambrose, etc., as well as ecclesiastical enactments, _e.g._, the sixty-ninth of the Apostolic Canons. The Fifth canon of the First Council of Nicæa, in particular, mentions Lent as an observance already established. Nevertheless it clearly was not as yet uniformly observed in all parts of the Church, as the Festal Letters of St Athanasius bear witness.

These letters are in any case the most important evidence for the fast of forty days before Easter. The first of them, for the year 329, is satisfied with appointing “a holy fast of six days” from the Monday to the Saturday in Holy Week;[193] the second, however, for 330, and all the following require a fast of forty days, beginning on the Monday of the sixth complete week before Easter.[194] The Festal Letters give no direct explanation of how, and for what reason, the six days’ fast was changed into a fast of forty days.

However, the covering letter which Athanasius sent along with his eleventh Festal Letter, written from Rome in 339, throws some light upon the process. He writes, namely, to Serapion, first Abbot and then Bishop of Thmuis, that he may announce the fast of forty days to his brethren and impress upon them the necessity of the fast, “lest, when all the world fasts, we only who live in Egypt be derided for not fasting.” This warning is repeated with still greater emphasis: Serapion is to instruct those under him that they must fast forty days,[195] which seems to show that the custom of fasting for forty days was not yet in force in Egypt, though elsewhere it was universally observed, and especially in Rome. At the conclusion of the nineteenth Festal Letter is found a sharp reproof of those who disregarded the fast.[196] This is the forty days’ discipline (ἄσκησις) observed during the six weeks before Easter according to Eusebius.[197]

The Gallic pilgrim, already so often quoted, gives the following minute information concerning the manner in which the fasts were observed in Jerusalem in the fourth century. The preparatory period before Easter lasted eight weeks, not forty days, as in Gaul, and all the days of the week, Saturday and Sunday excepted, were fasted. Holy Saturday was an exception to this rule, being kept as a fast. Thus there were in all forty-one fast days, which were called in Greek ἑορταί; in Latin, _feriæ_. On Wednesday in Lent, the Psalmody was performed as on Sunday, and the bishop read the appointed Gospel, but the Mass (_oblatio_) was offered only on Saturday and Sunday. On certain days processions were also made to different churches which lasted until eleven o’clock.

The fare on fast days consisted of water and broth made with flour; fruit and oil and bread were also eaten. The catechumens also fasted on Wednesdays and Fridays. Among the faithful, there were some who ate nothing from their repast on Sunday until the following Saturday, _i.e._ for five days, and who all the year round took only one meal a day. Others abstained in Lent from all food for two consecutive days, but others fasted by taking nothing to eat all day until the evening.[198] This last recalls the practice described by Irenæus. Here one may observe that the custom of not fasting on the Saturdays in Lent existed also in Milan in the time of St Ambrose.[199] The fast must have commenced on the Monday after Sexagesima Sunday, since it had to extend over forty days.

With this agrees the directions given in the so-called Apostolic Constitutions (5, 13-20). In these, the fast of Holy Week is called distinctively the fast of Easter (νηστεία τοῦ πάσχα), and is distinguished from the fast of Lent.[200] From Monday to Friday in Holy Week, the fast is to be kept on bread, salt, vegetables and water, flesh meat and wine being forbidden. On Good Friday and Holy Saturday, the days when the Bridegroom was taken away, those who are able are to eat nothing whatever until early on Easter Sunday, while the usual fast lasted until 3 P.M., or sunset.[201] On Saturday, people are not to fast, because it is the day on which the Creation was complete, with the exception of the Saturday on which the Lord lay in the earth.[202]

Leo the Great in his sermons teaches us the objects and significance of the fast before Easter. According to him, Lent was appointed in order to prepare souls for a fruitful commemoration of the mystery of Easter. It was to be a time for inner purification and sanctification; a time, first of all, of penance for past sins, and of breaking off sinful habits, a time also for the exercise of all virtues, especially almsgiving, reconciliation, and the laying aside of enmities. It was in correspondence with the spirit of Lent that the Christian emperors pardoned criminals.[203] Fasting was to form only a part of this penance and preparation, though the most essential part, and Leo declares it to be incumbent upon all, not only the clergy, but all the faithful as well.[204] Leo regarded this fast of forty days before Easter as an apostolic institution.[205]

When the duration of the fast became generally fixed at forty days, a reason for this was not far to seek—the length of the fast of Jesus. From the beginning, however, a difference became apparent, according as Holy Week was either included in Lent or regarded as something distinct in itself. The ante-Nicene practice afforded a precedent for this. The latter practice is adopted in particular in the Apostolic Constitutions, and prevailed in a great part of the East. But in the East, Saturday was exempt from fasting, and so the number of fast days was, as a matter of fact, not greater than in the West, where the other practice obtained. Later, it was expressly set forth that Lent should be a _quadragesima_, not a _quinquagesima_, as by the first and fourth councils of Orleans in the sixth century.[206] In some quarters, our informant unfortunately does not say where, Thursday was also exempted from fasting.[207]

Originally, it appears, the fast of forty days, _quadragesima_, was taken to mean the days before Easter as a whole, Sundays included. This gave for a period of six weeks only thirty-six fasting days, and, where Saturday was not kept as a fast day, only thirty. To rectify this, the number of fast days was increased actually to forty, with the result that in the West, the beginning of Lent (_caput jejunii_) was put back four days; but in the East, where only five days in each week were fasted, it was put back further still. In the West, especially in Rome, this alteration, by which the fast began on the Wednesday before the sixth Sunday before Easter, had not yet been accomplished by the time of Gregory the Great.

In the East, too, the tendency to make up the full number of fast days to forty was apparent also at an early date. There, owing to Saturday not being a fast day, the beginning of Lent had to be thrown further back than in the West, and Lent began eight weeks before Easter, and since the Saturdays, Holy Saturday excepted, were not fast days, extended actually over forty-one days instead of forty. Abstinence from flesh meat began on the Monday after the eighth Sunday before Easter, corresponding to the Latin _dominica sexagesima_, which is called the Sunday of Abstinence from Flesh Meat (κυριακὴ ἀπόκρεως). From the following Sunday, called the Sunday for Eating Cheese (κυριακὴ τοῦ τυροφάγου), _lacticinia_ are forbidden. The following Sundays are reckoned as merely the first to the fifth Sundays in Lent, and only the first of them has the additional designation of Orthodox Sunday, in commemoration of the settlement of the Iconoclastic controversy. Later on, the Easterns attached great importance to the question whether Saturday ought or ought not to be kept as a fast day. As early, indeed, as the Apostolic Canons, it is expressly forbidden to fast on Saturday under threat of ecclesiastical penalties.[208] At a later date this difference became one of the points of dispute between the Greeks and Latins.

The assertion of Socrates[209] that in Rome the fast lasted only three weeks is now regarded on all hands as erroneous, all the more so as Socrates adds—also incorrectly—“Saturdays and Sundays excepted.” In Rome, Saturday was always kept as a fast. His statement cannot be accepted against the clear evidence of Leo I. concerning Lent, even although Valesius and Baillet wish to defend it.

That the fast of forty days was not originally observed in all parts of the Church, and only gradually came into force, can probably be explained by the fact that there were already fast days enough. There are, for instance, many indications that the custom of fasting on Wednesdays and Fridays all the year through—the period between Easter and Pentecost excepted—was fairly generally observed. Wednesday was kept as a fast, because on that day our Lord had been betrayed to the Jews; Friday, because it was the day of His Passion. At Carthage, where we find reliable evidence for the practice, they were called the fasts of the stations.[210] Even in the East, the custom was apparently general.[211] The Apostolic Constitutions are acquainted with it; the so-called Apostolic Canons prescribe it;[212] the Canons of Hippolytus[213] refer to the fast of the fourth and sixth _feria_ as well as the fast of Lent. As these fasts are never mentioned in the literature of a later date, and altogether disappeared from practice, one is driven to the conclusion that, as the Lenten fast became more widely observed, these others fell out of use. However, the weekly fast-days continued to be observed for a long time together with the Lenten fast, and, among the Greeks, are observed even to the present day.[214] Not only Augustine mentions that, at the end of the fourth century, in Rome, Wednesdays, Fridays, and also Saturdays were fasted, but Innocent I. regarded it as a duty to fast on Saturday all the year round, and Prudentius also alludes to it.[215] In the Syrian Church the three weekly fasts appear to have been obligatory on Bishops and Priests alone.[216]

After the adoption of the fast of forty days, attempts were made, in the West, to further regulate fasting, but these were confined to certain districts and in course of time ceased. For example, Bishop Perpetuus of Tours introduced a special practice into his diocese, which lasted until on in the sixth century, _i.e._ from Whitsunday to St John, and also from 1st September to St Martin, two fast-days were observed in each week; from then until Christmas, three; from St Hilary’s Day (14th January) until the middle of February two again. The second canon of the fourth council of Orleans (A.D. 541) opposed the attempts of some bishops to extend the fast over fifty, or even sixty days. Amalarius mentions other divergences from the Roman custom, such as keeping three Lents in the year, one before Christmas, the second before Easter, and the third before Whitsunday, and, again, fasting on the days before the Ascension.[217] In Germany, too, there were peculiarities in the discipline observed with regard to fasting during the eighth and ninth centuries.[218]

The essence of fasting consists in abstinence from meat and drink during a specified time. This in itself is not sufficient, for fasting entails moreover that the food taken after the lapse of this time be of a plainer kind, _i.e._ abstinence from the better sorts of food and drink, which is now called abstinence in the strict sense. The prohibition of certain meats in the Old Testament must be regarded as of a disciplinary nature, and not as a merely dietary regulation.

In ecclesiastical antiquity, along with abstinence from the usual daily meals, we find certain viands also forbidden—flesh and wine. To this period belong the _xerophagiæ_ spoken of by Tertullian,[219] at which people abstained not only from flesh and wine but from liquid food and fruit as well. These, however, seem to have gone beyond the abstinence then usual throughout the Church. The Montanists held these _xerophagiæ_ twice a year for fourteen days.[220]

Among Catholics also abstinence was pushed to great lengths. The canons of Hippolytus[221] prescribe for Holy Week only bread and salt. The Apostolic Constitutions will only permit bread, vegetables, salt and water, in Lent, flesh and wine being forbidden; and, on the last two days of Holy Week, nothing whatsoever is to be eaten.[222] The ascetics, whose acquaintance the Gallic pilgrim made in Jerusalem, never touched bread in Lent, but lived on flour and water.[223] Only a few could keep so strict a fast, and generally speaking people were satisfied with abstaining from flesh and wine. But this lasted throughout the entire Lent, and Chrysostom[224] tells us that in Antioch no flesh was eaten during the whole of Lent. Abstinence from milk and eggs (the so-called _lacticinia_) was also the general rule.

Thus abstinence from flesh meat (_i.e._ abstinence in the strict sense) was combined with the diminution of the quantity of food taken. It was also voluntarily practised by itself, without being accompanied by fasting (_jejunium a carne et sanguine_), by pious persons and ascetics, and was prescribed as a duty on certain days in monasteries and other religious communities, as, for instance, among the Canons of Chrodegang.

Throughout the early ages, abstinence was merely a pious custom. It was not until a later date that it was enjoined by law, as, for instance, by the fifty-sixth Trullan Canon, the Decree of Nicholas I. for the Bulgarians, the fourth and eighth councils of Toledo, the seventh canon of the council of Quedlinburg (1085), and the decretal of Gratian.[225] The custom of abstinence was then recognised and prescribed by ecclesiastical law for the whole of Lent, for all Fridays and Saturdays throughout the year, for the Ember Day, and a number of vigils.[226] No authentic document of antiquity is forthcoming to show that abstinence by itself, without an accompanying fast, had been prescribed by the Church.[227]

7. _The Season of Preparation as an Integral Part of the Church’s Year_

The division of this season of preparation into two parts, with special names for the Sundays, does not appear in the sermons of Augustine or Leo the Great. But in the ancient Gallic sacramentary—the _missale Gothico-Gallicanum_—five Masses, entitled simply _missa jejunii_ or _in quadragesima_, are found assigned to the five Sundays before Palm Sunday. The names _sexagesima_ and _quinquagesima_ appear already in the canons of the fourth council of Orleans (541), but, as generally recognised titles for the Sundays before Easter, they begin to appear in service-books dating from the eighth century and onwards. The Gregorian Sacramentary is familiar with the names for the Sundays from Septuagesima to Quinquagesima, and then numbers five Sundays in Quadragesima until Palm Sunday.

In the ancient Spanish Mozarabic Sacramentary, the names Septuagesima, etc., do not yet appear, but the Sundays after Epiphany are numbered from one to eight, although the entire number was not always required, according as Easter fell early or late. After them follows the _Dominica ante diem Cineris_, then the five Sundays in Lent, and, finally, the _Dominica in Ramis Palmarum_.

The recently published Lectionary of Silos, belonging to the ancient rite of Toledo and compiled about 650, represents a much simpler form of the Church’s year. It enumerates neither the Sundays after Epiphany nor those after Pentecost, but merely those in Lent, and then is satisfied with twenty-four Masses for the remaining Sundays of the year.

A trace of the original length of Lent—six weeks, or forty-two days—exists still in the present missal, inasmuch as the _secreta_ for the First Sunday in Lent runs: _Sacrificium quadragesimalis initii solemniter immolamus_.[228] Sundays, as we know, were never kept as fasts, and so the Western Church in reality kept only thirty-six fast days, a proof that the word _quadragesima_ originally merely denoted the number of days over which the period of preparation extended. Since, however, our Lord had fasted forty days, the Church felt moved to keep to this number exactly, and so added the four missing days to the beginning of Lent. This alternation was first accomplished at the end of the seventh or beginning of the eighth century, and appears for the first time in the so-called Gelasian sacramentary,[229] while Gregory I.[230] himself still counted the days actually fasted as thirty-six. The three preceding Sundays were now included in the season of preparation and received the names of Quinquagesima, Sexagesima, and Septuagesima. The actual commencement of the fast fell on the Wednesday before Quadragesima, which appears in the Gregorian Sacramentary with a Mass of its own, but without its present name of Ash Wednesday (_Feria IV. Cinerum_).

This name comes from the sprinkling of ashes. Sprinkling ashes upon the heads of penitents, in token of sorrow, formed part of the ancient ceremonies connected with ecclesiastical penance. Since public penance usually began and ended with Lent, this custom was associated with this particular day. It soon became a general custom no longer restricted to penitents, although the Council of Benevento (1091) prescribes it principally for clerics. The ashes were prepared from the palms of the previous Palm Sunday. At the present time they are blessed in addition.

It is to be observed further that Lent is not devoted to consideration of Christ’s sufferings. This occupies the mind during Holy Week. The aim of Lent is not to move the faithful to dwell upon the passion of Christ, but only to prepare them for keeping Easter worthily through fasting, penance, and abstinence. The liturgical prayers in Lent contain no reference to the Redeemer’s sufferings, but speak of fasting and mortification alone. It is the same with the Epistles and Gospels. On Palm Sunday for the first time, our thoughts are directed to the Passion in the collect for the day, while in the prayers for the so-called Passion Sunday it is not mentioned.

Those weeks of Lent had an exceptional character in which, in the sixth and following centuries, the scrutinies took place, _i.e._ the services designed for the examination of candidates in preparation for baptism. These began on the Wednesday of the third week in Lent, and lasted until Holy Saturday. Originally seven, they were reduced in course of time to three, owing to the adoption of the Gelasian sacramentary. Accordingly, the Masses for the third, fourth, and fifth Sunday and for the Saturday before Passion Sunday speak of baptism and not of the Passion.[231] In the present Roman Missal scarcely a trace of this is to be found.[232]

The prayers of the Masses both for Sundays and week-days, for by far the greater part, are still identical with those of the Gregorian Sacramentary, while the lections from Scripture are in some instances much older. The Gospel for the First Sunday in Lent, which narrates the fast of Jesus and His temptation by the devil, was read on this day already in the time of Leo the Great. The Gospel for the second Sunday treats of the Transfiguration on Mount Tabor, the Gospels for the two following Sundays, the healing of the dumb man, and the casting out of the devil, and the miracle of the loaves. The Gospel for Passion Sunday contains the account of our Lord’s encounter with the Jews and their attempt to stone Him.