SEASONS OF PREPARATION AND PENITENCE
ADVENT
Advent, as the term is now employed, signifies a season, regarded as
preparatory to the Festival of the Nativity of the Lord, including four
Sundays and a variable number of days, as affected by the day of the week
upon which December 25 falls.
As no evidence has been adduced for an established celebration of the
Feast of the Nativity before the fourth century, so it is obvious that
we cannot expect to find the appointment of a season of preparation
before that date. As a matter of fact, it would seem that the earliest
distinct notice of such a season, prescribed for general use, belongs to
the latter part of the sixth century; and that the practice originated in
Gaul. In a small council held at Tours about A.D. 567 there is vaguely
indicated a fast _for monks_ in December, to be kept every day ‘usque
ad natale domini’ (can. 17). A few years later, in the south of Gaul,
we find what seems a canon of general application, but less exacting in
regard to the number of days on which the fast was to be observed. In
the ninth canon of the Council of Mâcon (A.D. 581) it is enjoined that
from the festival of St Martin (Nov. 11) the second, fourth and sixth
days of the week should be fasting days, that the sacrifices should be
celebrated in the quadragesimal order, and that on these days the canons
(probably meaning the canons of this synod) should be read, so that no
one could plead that he erred through ignorance. We have here something
that at once reminds us of the pre-paschal season, as observed in some
Churches. The season came to be known as _Quadragesima S. Martini_. But
the length of this season (as was also true of Lent) seems to have varied
much. The six Sundays which it covered, as we may infer from the canon of
Mâcon referred to above, we find indicated probably by the six _missae_
of Sundays of Advent in the Ambrosian and Mozarabic rites. Yet the oldest
Gallican Sacramentary records only three Sundays, and the Gothic-Gallican
only two[110].
In England, as we learn from Bede, forty days of fasting ‘ante natale
domini’ were observed by Cuthbert († 687) and by Ecbert († 729). In both
cases, however, it should be remarked, the observance seems mentioned as
an indication of exceptional piety[111].
At the close of the sixth century Rome, under Gregory the Great, adopted
the rule of the four Sundays in Advent; and in the following century
this rule became prevalent (though not universal) in the West.
In the Greek Church the general observance of forty days’ penitential
preparation for Christmas does not appear to have been established before
the thirteenth century. In the Greek Church of to-day the forty days’
preparation begins on Nov. 15. It is sometimes called the Fast of St
Philip, doubtless because the festival of St Philip was celebrated on
Nov. 14. On Wednesdays and Fridays the fast is rigorous; but on other
days, wine, oil, and fish are allowed.
The practice of the Armenians is peculiar: they observe a fast for the
week preceding the Nativity, and for one week commencing fifty days
before the Nativity. The conjecture has been offered that these two weeks
are a survival of a fast that had originally lasted for the whole of
fifty days.
In Churches of the Roman Communion at the present day, the practice as
to fasting varies. In Great Britain and Ireland Wednesdays and Fridays
are expected to be observed; but in many parts of the continent of Europe
there is no distinction between weeks in Advent and ordinary weeks.
On December 16 in the West it was the practice to sing as an antiphon to
the Magnificat the first of a series of seven antiphons, each beginning
with ‘O’; thus, ‘O Sapientia’ (Dec. 16), ‘O Adonai’ (17), ‘O Radix
Jesse’ (18), etc. In the Kalendar of the Book of Common Prayer the
words ‘O Sapientia’ appear at Dec. 16. This is not, strictly speaking,
a _survival_ of mediaeval times; for it was first introduced into the
English Prayer Book Kalendar in A.D. 1604.
The rule of the English Book of Common Prayer (1662) for determining
Advent runs thus: ‘Advent Sunday is always the nearest Sunday to the
Feast of St Andrew, whether before or after.’ As thus expressed, the
rule does not seem to contemplate the case of Advent Sunday falling on
St Andrew’s Day. It was a mistake not to add the additional words which
were in the Scottish Prayer Book of 1637, namely, ‘or that Sunday which
falleth upon any day from the twenty-seventh of November to the third of
December inclusively.’ The word ‘or’ does not imply that the second part
of the rule is an equivalent of the first; but it gives a rule to meet a
case not contemplated in the first part.
THE FAST PRECEDING EASTER (LENT)
That a fast preliminary to the Pascha was observed in the early Church is
beyond question. Irenaeus, in his letter to Victor, bishop of Rome[112],
states that at the time there were several differences as to the length
of the fast; but in no case was a prolonged series of days prescribed.
‘Some,’ he says, ‘think they ought to fast one day; others, two; others
more than two; others reckon together forty hours both of the day and
the night as the day [of fasting][113].’ And Irenaeus adds that these
differences existed long before (πολὺ πρότερον) the time when he wrote.
The words about the forty hours may perhaps be illustrated by passages
of Tertullian[114], where he speaks of persons fasting in the days ‘when
the bridegroom was taken away,’ or, in other words, the time during which
the Lord was under the power of death, _i.e._ certain hours of the day of
the Crucifixion, the twenty-four hours of Saturday, and certain hours of
the early part of Easter Day. We shall not delay to discuss the questions
connected with the exact time of commencing and of closing the forty
hours.
About the middle of the third century at Alexandria the whole week before
Easter was observed as a time of fasting by some; but there were those
who fasted only on four days; others contented themselves with three or
even two; while there were some (evidently exceptional persons) who did
not fast even one day[115]. It is plain that as yet no fixed rule was
enforced.
In the fourth century we meet with the term τεσσαρακοστή, or
Quadragesima. In the fifth canon of the Council of Nicaea it is ordered
that one of the two annual provincial Synods should be held before
‘the tessarakoste.’ The sense of the term is assumed to be known, and
is not explained. But it must not be inferred that the word necessarily
signifies here forty _days_, or that forty _days_ were assigned to
fasting.
The classical authority for the variations of later usages is the passage
of Socrates[116], where he describes many differences of practice in
his own day (_c._ A.D. 440) and the varieties in the length of the fast
in different countries. At Rome, he says, there was a fast of three
weeks, excepting Saturdays and Sundays; at Alexandria and in Achaia and
Illyricum a fast of six weeks; in other places the fast began seven
weeks before Easter, but was limited to fifteen days, with an interval
between each five days[117]. Not long after his time there were two
prevailing usages—that of the Churches which deducted from the fasting
days Sundays and Saturdays (always excepting the Saturday in Holy Week),
and that of the Churches which deducted only the Sundays. The former was
the prevailing usage in the East; the latter, in the West. The seven
weeks in the East, with thirteen days deducted (seven Sundays and six
Saturdays), and the six weeks of the West, with only six days deducted,
agree precisely in each having only thirty-six fasting days.
At the time of the _Peregrinatio Silviae_ (about the end of the fourth
century), if we may trust the writer, at Jerusalem eight weeks of fasting
preceded Easter, which, deducting eight Sundays and seven Saturdays,
gave, as she expressly says, forty-one days of fasting. This is highly
exceptional, if not unique. At any rate, the practice did not long
continue.
The number 36 is nearly the tenth of 365—the number of the days of the
year; and this thought struck the fancy of more than one writer. We
were bound, they urged, to offer to God the holy tithe, not only of our
increase, but of our time. And in the fifth century John Cassian presses
this point, and attempts to bring the length of the fast to correspond
more closely with the tithe of the year by observing that the fast
was prolonged for some hours, ‘usque in gallorum cantum,’ on Easter
morning[118].
At a later period the thought of the fasts of Moses and Elijah, and
more particularly of the Lord’s fast of forty days in the wilderness,
seems to have suggested that the fast of the faithful should correspond
in length. The addition of four days—the Wednesday and three following
days immediately preceding the first Sunday in Lent—has been frequently
attributed to Gregory the Great. But the writings of Gregory testify
to his knowing only thirty-six fasting days. And it is now generally
acknowledged that no support for the supposition can be based on the
language of the collects for Feria IV and Feria VI in the week begun on
Quinquagesima, which speak of the beginning of the fast, and are to be
found in the Gregorian Sacramentary[119]. The Sacramentary, as we now
possess it, abounds in additions later than the time of Gregory.
It is impossible to say precisely when, or by whom, the additional four
days were introduced. Approximately we may assign this change to about
the beginning of the eighth century, and to Rome. It did not obtain
everywhere. It was not till near the close of the eleventh century that
the Scottish Church, at the persuasion of the Saxon princess, Queen
Margaret of Scotland, fell into line with most of the other Western
Churches, by accepting the four fasting days in the week before the
first Sunday in Lent[120]. The Mozarabic Liturgy adopted it only at
the instance of Cardinal Ximenes about the beginning of the sixteenth
century. The Church of Milan still preserves, among its interesting
survivals, the commencement of the rigorous Lenten Fast on the Monday
after the first Sunday. But in 1563 St Charles Borromeo, then archbishop
of Milan, succeeded, against vigorous local protests, in making the first
Sunday in Lent a day of abstinence.
The term _caput jejunii_ was applied sometimes to the Wednesday, known as
Ash Wednesday, and frequently in service-books to the period of the four
days preceding the first Sunday in Lent. Thus, these days are designated
‘Feria IV, Feria V, Feria VI, et Sabbatum, in capite jejunii.’ The
distribution of ashes on the Wednesday in the Western Church is a much
modified survival and relic of the ancient penitential discipline.
In the Orthodox Church of the East at the present day ‘the great and
holy Tessarakoste’ contains, as in the West, six Sundays. But the
Lenten offices commence at Vespers on the Sunday (known as Tyrinis, or
Tyrophagus) preceding the first Sunday in Lent. In the week preceding
this Sunday (corresponding to the Western Quinquagesima) the faithful
give up the use of flesh meat, and confine themselves to cheese (τυρός)
and other _lacticinia_. And it may be observed, in passing, that in
the Greek Church there are other examples of the week being named from
the Sunday which _follows_ it. Thus, ‘the week of Palms’ is the week
_followed_ by Palm Sunday[121]. The Sunday (our Sexagesima) preceding
_Tyrinis_ is called _Apocreos_ (_Dominica carnisprivii_). It is the
last day upon which flesh may be eaten. After the Sunday ‘Tyrinis’ a
more rigorous fast is prescribed; but Sundays and Saturdays (except the
Saturday in Holy week) are exempted, so that there are only thirty-six
days of rigid fasting; five days in each of the first six weeks, and six
days in the last week[122].
The word _quadragesima_ is the source of the Italian _quaresima_, and
the French _carême_ (in old French, _quaresme_); while our English word,
_Lent_, is simply indicative of the season of the year when the fast
occurs, being derived from the Anglo-Saxon _Lencten_, the spring-time.
OTHER SPECIAL TIMES OF FASTING
I. _Western Church—The three fasts called ‘Quadragesima’; Rogation Days;
the Four Seasons._
In addition to Advent, which, as we have seen, is sometimes spoken
of as the _quadragesima of St Martin_, and Lent (_quadragesima ante
Pascha_)[123], we find in the eighth, ninth and tenth centuries in
writers of Germany, France, Britain, and Ireland references to a third
_quadragesima_ which is styled sometimes the _quadragesima_ after
Pentecost, and sometimes the _quadragesima_ before St John the Baptist.
In the _Paenitentiale_ of Theodore, Archbishop of Canterbury († A.D.
690), it is declared that ‘there are three fasts established by law
(_jejunia legitima_) for the people generally (_per populum_)[124], forty
days and nights before Pascha, when we pay the tithes of the year, and
forty before the Nativity of the Lord, and forty after Pentecost[125].’
The remarkable collection of canons of the ancient Irish Church, which
is known as the _Hibernensis_, is of uncertain date, but is attributed
by such eminent authorities as Wasserschleben, Henry Bradshaw, Whitley
Stokes, and J. B. Bury, to the end of the seventh or early part of the
eighth century. The three penitential seasons called _quadragesima_ are
distinctly referred to[126]. In the _Capitula_ of Charlemagne, priests
are directed to announce to the people that these three seasons are
_legitima jejunia_. In the canons collected by Burchard, Bishop of Worms
(A.D. 1006), the three seasons called _quadragesima_ are referred to, and
the third is defined as the forty days before the festival of St John
the Baptist. Many interesting questions are suggested by these passages
with which we are unable to deal here. It must suffice to say that the
_quadragesima_ after Pentecost did not long survive. It disappeared, and
has left no mark upon the Church’s year.
=Rogation Days.= There is a general agreement that the observance of the
Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday before the Ascension as days of special
prayer and fasting, owes its origin to Mamertus, bishop of Vienne
(about A.D. 470), who appointed litanies or rogations to be said, at a
time when the people of his city were in great terror by reason of a
severe earthquake and a conflagration consequent thereupon. The shaken
walls and the destruction of public buildings, as vividly described
by Sidonius Apollinaris, may have suggested practical reasons for the
litanies being chanted out of doors. The practice of Rogations soon
spread through the whole of Gaul, and in the Council of Orleans (A.D.
511), where thirty-two bishops were present, the three days’ fast, with
Rogations, was enjoined upon all their churches. In England, the practice
of observing the Rogations had evidently been long established when the
Council of Cloveshoe (A.D. 747) enjoined it ‘according to the custom of
our predecessors.’ At Rome, in the opinion of Baillet, and recently of
Duchesne, the Rogation days were not introduced till about A.D. 800[127].
In the East there is nothing corresponding to the Rogation Days; and
the ordinary fast of Wednesday is on the Wednesday before Ascension Day
relaxed by a dispensation for oil, wine, and fish; for in the East the
_dies profestus_ commonly possesses something of a festal character,
anticipatory of the morrow.
In the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle the term ‘gang-days’ is used more than once
for the Rogation days; and in the Laws of Athelstan we find ‘gang-days’
and ‘gang-week.’ The name originated in the walking in procession on
these days.
=The Fasts of the Four Seasons= (_jejunia quatuor temporum_). The
earliest distinct reference to these fasts is to be found in the Sermons
of Pope Leo I (A.D. 440-461), who speaks of the spring fast being in
Lent, the summer fast ‘in Pentecost,’ the autumn fast in the seventh,
and the winter fast in the tenth month. From St Leo we also learn that
the fast was on Wednesday and Friday, and that on the Saturday a vigil
was observed at St Peter’s[128]. The observance is characteristically
Roman, and is found at first only at Rome, and in Churches in immediate
dependence on Rome. Duchesne holds that the weeks in which these fasts
occurred differed from other weeks mainly in the rigour of the fast,
_i.e._ ‘the substitution of a real fast for the half-fast of the ordinary
stations.’ And he adds the suggestion that on the Wednesday of the
Four Seasons, if not on the Friday, the Eucharist was from the outset
celebrated[129].
In England the Council of Cloveshoe (A.D. 747) enjoins that no one should
neglect ‘the fasts of the fourth, seventh, and tenth month.’ The omission
of any notice of the Ember days in Lent will be noticed later on.
In the Churches of Gaul we do not find the Ember days established long
before the time of Charlemagne.
At first we find no trace of a connexion between the Ember seasons and
the holding of ordinations; and, as is observed by Dr Sinker, ‘everything
points to the conclusion that the solemnity attaching to the seasons led
to their being chosen as fitting times for the rite[130].’
The Sacramentary that is known as St Leo’s exhibits ‘propers’ for
masses of the fasts in the fourth, seventh, and tenth months, _i.e._
June, September and December[131]; and from these we can gather that on
‘the festival of the fasts’ assemblies and processions had been made on
the Wednesdays and Fridays, and a vigil (with the Eucharist) held on
the Saturdays. In these there is not only no reference to ordinations
of the clergy, but also no reference that would suggest the special
intention and significance of these days of fasting. The conjecture is
not unreasonable that there was the desire to dedicate in penitence the
year in its four several parts to the service of God; but neither the
history nor the literature of the early Church is decisive in confirming
the conjecture.
The practice of the Church at Rome spread gradually, with some varieties
as to the particular weeks in which the three days of fasting were
observed. For England the notices of the Ember days are earlier than
they are for France. At first, at Rome, the spring fast seems to have
been in the first week in March, but afterwards always in Lent. And as
soon as it came to be observed in Lent it would (as regards the fast)
require no special injunction. This may perhaps account for the omission
of any mention of the fast of the first month in the canon of the Council
of Cloveshoe referred to above. The fixing of the particular days now
observed in the West is generally assigned to about the close of the
eleventh century; but in England, as late as A.D. 1222, the Council of
Oxford still speaks of the fast in the first week in March[132].
In the Eastern Church there is nothing corresponding to the fasts of the
Four Seasons.
There is some uncertainty as to the etymology of our English
phrase ‘Ember Days.’ The weight of authority is in favour of
the derivation from the Old English words _ymb_, ‘about,’
‘round,’ and _ryne_, ‘course,’ ‘running’; but the _New English
Dictionary_ (Oxford) adds that it is not wholly impossible
that the word may have been due to popular etymology working
upon some vulgar Latin corruption of _quatuor tempora_, as the
German _quatember_, ‘ember tide.’
II. _Eastern Churches._
The fasts before the Nativity and Easter have been treated of under
Advent and Lent. In the Greek Church the season before Easter is called
‘the great Tessarakoste,’ for the word Tessarakoste is also applied
to three other penitential seasons, (1) to the fast before the Lord’s
Nativity, (2) the fast of the Apostles (Peter and Paul), and (3) the fast
of the Assumption of the Theotokos. But, though the word Tessarakoste
is applied to each of these, there is no apparent connexion between the
number _forty_ and the number of days observed as fasting-days; and this
is notably the case in regard to the third and fourth. The fast of the
Apostles extends for a variable number of days from the Monday after the
Sunday of All Saints (_i.e._ the first Sunday after Pentecost) to June
28, both inclusive.
Examination will show that the interval between these two limits can very
rarely amount to forty days; and when Easter falls at its latest possible
date (April 25) the first Sunday after Pentecost is June 20, so that the
Tessarakoste of the Apostles would in that case be only eight days in
length.
The length of the Tessarakoste of the Assumption is fixed, and extends
only from Aug. 1 to Aug. 14.
It would appear then that the term Tessarakoste has come in practice to
signify simply a fast of a number of days, and has lost all reference to
the number 40.
The Exaltation of the Cross (Sept. 14), although regarded as a festival
(ἑορτή) of the highest dignity, is observed as a strict fast.
The same is true of the Decollation of the Forerunner (Aug. 29), because
of ‘the murder of him who is greater than all the prophets.’ When it is
remembered that all Wednesdays as well as Fridays are fasting days, it
will not be a surprise to be told that the fasting days of the Greek
Church amount in each year to some 190 in number.
The Armenians on fast-days abstain from flesh, milk, butter, eggs, and
oil. Every day in Lent except Sundays is kept as a fast. Among peculiar
observances is (1) the Fast of Nineveh, for two weeks commencing
in the week before our Septuagesima. It is called by the Armenians
_Aratschavor-atz_, meaning, it is said, ‘preceding abstinence,’ and this
term has taken shape among the Greeks as ‘Artziburion.’ In the frequent
controversies between the Greeks and Armenians the former denounce this
fast as execrable and satanic. (2) The Armenians also observe as a fast
the week after Pentecost. It has been maintained that in early times this
fast was observed in the week before Pentecost, and that afterwards,
in compliance with the general rule that the days between Easter and
Pentecost should not be observed as fasts, a change was made.
[Illustration: Kalendar of Worcester Book (October)
(_Portiforium S. Oswaldi._) Corpus Christi College, Cambridge (MS. 391).
_Circa_ A.D. 1064.]