Moses and Elias and our blessed Saviour in the wilderness. Only, by the way, let me observe, that, at first, they had no appointed fasts, but of those hours in which the Bridegroom was taken from them, that is, none but the Paschal fast; as Tertullian P expressly affirms; "Illos dies jejuniis determinatos putasse in quibus ablatus est sponsus, et hos esse jam solos legitimos jejuniorum Christianorum;" "The Catholics had no other days appointed for fastings, no other were the legitimate fasting-days for Christians (as they thought), but only those in which the Bridegroom was taken from them."

16. But St. Irenæus said that some fast one day, some two, and others more. Some kept the whole six days of the Passion week; we find mention made of it in Dionysius Alexandrinus, about the two hundred and fifty-fifth year of Christ, τὰς ἓξ τῶν νηστειῶν ἡμέρας, " the six days of fasting;" but he affirms that all do not equally observe them. For some fast all the six days, some two, some three, some four, some none. But by Epiphanius's time the fast had possessed the whole six days almost every where, τὰς ἓξ ἡμέρας τοῦ πάσχα ἐν ξηροφαγίᾳ διατελοῦσι πάντες οἱ λαοὶ, “all the people spend the six days of the Pasch, or before Easter, in dry diet:" but by this time the word τεσσαρακοστή or 'quadragesima' had prevailed, and was used to signify the Paschal fast. The word was used in the council of Nice, which commanded two synods every year to be held in the provinces, and the first of them to be ἐν Τεσσαρακοστῇ "in the Quadragesima fast." But this did not signify the fast of forty days, for that was not yet brought into the church.

17. But first the matter is clear that the word 'quadragesima' is often used in antiquity and by other good authors to signify a set time of fast, but plainly less than forty days. St. Jerome says, that the Montanists do make "tres in anno quadragesimas," "three Lents;" and yet two of them were but of five days apiece, and whether the third was more or less we cannot tell: and this Tertulliant plainly affirms, who was himself a Montanist. And this thing also came into the practice of some Catholics; for they did so too in the time of Amalarius", they kept 'tres quadragesimas,' 'three quadragesimal fasts;' and yet that before Midsummer and that before Christmas were much shorter than forty days. The same word is several times used by Rabanus Maurus and Durandus. But that the use of the word may be no prejudice to the right understanding of the thing, we find the thing noted by Socrates", and wondered at exceedingly, that since there was so great difference in the number of days, yet all alike called it Τεσσαρακοστὴν, or 'the Quadragesimal fast.' The same also we find in Sozomena, noting that some did only observe three weeks of five days to the week, out of the number of the seven antepaschal weeks, and yet nevertheless called it 'Quadragesima:' and the same also we find in Nicephorus, who, I suppose, transcribed it from them: and in Cassian's time, when the Lent fast came up to the number of thirty-six days, yet he still calls it the 'Quadragesima' or 'the forty days' fast:' and it is no wonder, if Rigaltius say true, that all the set and stationary fasts of the primitive Christians were called 'Quadragesimals.' But the first use of the word is in the Nicene council; unless the words of Origen be allowed to be good record: but yet both in Origen and in the Nicene council, though the word be used, yet without any remark of the number of the days, or intimation of it, until the council of Laodicea, which mentions more weeks than one in Lent, commanding to fast also upon 'the Thursday of the last week in Lent.' For by this time it was come to three weeks, in some places more, and in some less, as appears in Socrates, Sozomen, Cassian, and Nicephorus, above quoted.

18. But for the reason of the word 'quadragesima' there are various conjectures. Cassiand says it is an imitation of Christ's fast of forty days, and so had the name from thence. But he adds some little cabalistical things of the number of forty in the Scripture, which are to no great purpose. But his first conjecture is not altogether unreasonable; and Rigaltius makes use of it, saying, that the apostles having obliterated the Jewish fasts, to which Christ's forty days' fast put an end, and asserted us into liberty, they would, upon that day on which Christ wrought our liberty for us, "nail

ing the hand-writing of ordinances to his cross," consecrate a fast to the memorial of this great work of redemption for us; "ut obliteratis Judæorum sabbatis jejunia sua Christiani, quæ Domino suo tantula pro tantis offerrent, de jejunii Dominici spatio vocitarent;" "that the Christians might call their fast by a name taken from the duration of the Lord's fast, that since they could not attain to that great fast, they might at least have it in venerable memory." -But this although it be ingenious and pretty, yet it is something violent, and hath no warrant from antiquity; and the question is better answered from the words of Irenæus in Eusebius, who says that they who kept the Paschal fast would, some of them, produce the fast to forty hours: now the whole fast being in memory of the Bridegroom's being taken away, and he having been absent, as they computed it, forty hours, this proportion did better carry the analogy, and therefore easily carried away the name, and a quadragesimal of hours is as proper as a quadragesimal of days, and hath a better warranty than any other conjecture. But this I remarked before.

19. But afterward the number of weeks increased: it came in some places to six and seven weeks; so Cassianf. But it was ' diverso more,' for some would fast Saturdays, and some would not; but they made it but to be thirty-six days however: so we find it in St. Gregory, that forty-two days were the appointment of Lent, but taking away the Sundays, six-and-thirty days remain for fasting. But, in all this whole affair, there was nothing yet universally determined by any law of the universal church. "For in Rome, about the year 437, they fasted but three weeks before Easter, and out of them they excepted Saturdays and Sundays. But in Illyricum, in Greece, and Alexandria, they begin their Lenten fast above six weeks before Easter. Others begin seven weeks before Easter, but fast by intervals, and observe but fifteen days in all: and yet all call this the Quadragesimal fast:" so Socrates. And St. Chrysostom says it was the custom against Easter to ask every one, how many weeks he had fasted; and you should hear some answering two, some three, some all. For at Constantinople the Lent was longest: it was of seven weeks there and all up unto Phœnicia, as Sozomen and Nicephorus report: but all this while with liberty, by custom, and without a law. St. Austin1 tells, that, in some places, they would not fast the Thursdays in Lent: indeed the council of Laodicea had commanded they should, but that was but provincial, and did not oblige, and was not received every where; and that saying which is reported out of the Constitutions of St. Clement, might prevail as far, 'jejunium quintæ hypocritarum est. But at Rome this was then observed, they did not fast on Thursdays, nor yet on Tuesdays, or they might choose: so we find in St. Leom exhorting them to the Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday fast, and on Saturday to watch beside. And because of the defalcation of these days in every week, some that were very zealous, made up their Lent to be eight weeks, and began it on Sexagesima Sunday; but at last it settled upon Ash-Wednesday, and hath endured so to this day in many of the western churches.

20. Now if all this be not sufficient to prove, that the forty days' fast of Lent, was not a canon or institution apostolical, I cannot tell by what measures the question can be filled: and if the apostles were the authors of it, yet because the churches kept themselves in great liberty and variety, it is certain, that, if they did so still, there would be no diminution to religion. For the use of its being wholly for preparation to the Easter communion, and the setting apart some portion of our time for God's service, -it can then only be of use, when it ministers to such ends with an advantage so great as to recompense the trouble, and so material as to quit it from a vain observance. But how it can be enjoined and how it ought to be practised, I shall consider in the inquiries concerning the condition of ecclesiastical laws. Here I was only to quit the conscience of this snare, which is laid for her by some unskilful fowlers, and to represent that the apostles did not, by any rule or canon, oblige the Christian churches.

21. That which remains is this, that we consider that it is, and ought to be, no prejudice to this liberty, that St. Je

rome calls Lent' an apostolical tradition.' For it was very easy for them who loved the institution, and knew it very ancient, and that the custom of it did descend from apostolical persons, to call it a tradition apostolical.' It is no wrong to St. Jerome, if we think he did so here: for he did as much as this comes to, in the question of the Saturday's fast; for in his epistle to Lucinus he says, "Unaquæque provincia abundet in sensu suo, et præcepta majorum leges apostolicas arbitretur;" "Let every province abound in their own sense, and suppose the precepts of their ancestors to be apostolical laws." But that the churches had no such law upon them, but were at liberty, appears from all the premises; which I sum up with the words of St. Austin ": "The Christians, not that the meats are unclean, but for mortification, do abstain from flesh and fruits; some few always, or else at certain times: 'sicut per quadragesimam fere omnes, quanto magis quisque vel minus voluerit, seu potuerit;' as in Lent almost all men, more or less, according as every man is able, or as every man is willing."

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22. He that desires to see more particulars concerning the history, the original, the variety, and increase, of Lent, may, if he please, read them in Cassian, in Amalarius, Alcuinus, and Rabanus, of old,-and of late, in Durandus, in Hugo Menardus' (a benedictine) notes in Gregor. Sacramentarium, in Petavius's notes upon Epiphanius, Rigaltius upon Tertullian, Scaliger's admirable animadversions upon Eusebius, in that excellent epistle of Erasmus to the Bishop of Basil de Interdicto Esu Carnium,' in Delaunoy, Filesac, and Daille o. Out of these any man may satisfy his curiosity; I have endeavoured only to satisfy the conscience.

23. Concerning the weekly fasts of Friday and Saturday, the former of them is of great antiquity in the church, as being in use in Tertullian's time, and without variety always observed after it once began. We find the Wednesday and Friday fast mentioned by Clemens Alexandrinus P, and the Wednesday station is equally in Tertullian. But the Saturday fast was, for some ages, counted abominable in the whole church; but it came into the Latin church in time, but with so much scandal to the Greeks, that, in the year of our Lord 707 they

■Contr. Faustum Manich, lib. 30. cap. 5.

• De Jejuniis et Quadragesima.

P Stromat. 7.