Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/126

116 FESTIVALS r)Lov Xeyo/jitvr) r)fj.cpa) all the Christians living either in the city or the country met together." The Jewish element, in some churches at least, and especially in the East, was strong enough to secure that, along with the dies dominica, the seventh day should continue to be kept holy. Thus in the Apostolic Constitutions (ii. 59) we find the Saturday specially mentioned along with the Sunday as a day for the assembling of the church ; in v. 15 it is ordained that there shall be no fasting on Saturday, while ia viii. 33 it is added that both on Saturday and Sunday slaves are to have rest from their labours. The 16th canon of the council of Laodicea almost certainly means that solemn public service was to be held on Saturday as well as on Sunday. In other quarters, however, the tendency to re gard both days as equally sacred met with considerable re sistance. The 36th canon of the council of Illiberis, for example, deciding that Saturday should be observed as a fast-day, was doubtless intended to enforce the distinction between Saturday and Sunday. At Milan in Ambrose s time Saturday was observed as a festival ; but Pope Inno cent is found writing to the bishop of Eugubium to urge that it should be kept as a fast. Ultimately the Christian church came to recognize but one weekly festival. The numerous yearly festivals of the later Christian church, when historically investigated, can be traced to very small beginnings. Indeed, while it appears to be tolerably certain that Jewish Christians for the most part retained all the festivals which had been instituted under the old dispensation, it is not at all probable that either they or their Gentile brethren recognized any yearly feasts as of distinctively Christian origin or obligation. It can not be doubted, however, that gradually, in the course of the 2d century, the universal church came to observe the anniversaries of the death and resurrection of Christ the Trdcr^a. crravpiacrLfJiov and the irdcr^a avacrTacrifJiov, as they were respectively called (see EASTER and GOOD FRIDAY). Not long afterwards AVhitsunday also came to be fixed in the usage of Christendom as a great annual festival. Even Origen (in the 8th book Against Celsus) enumerates as Christian festivals the Sunday, the -n-apa- o-Kevij, the Passover with the feast of the Resurrection, and Pentecost; un.ler which latter term, however, he includes the whole period between Easter and Whitsuntide. About Cyprian s time we find individual Christians commemorat ing their departed friends, and whole churches commemor ating their martyrs ; in particular, there are traces of a local and partial observance of the feast of the Innocents. Christmas day and Epiphany were among the later intro ductions, the feast of the Epiphany being somewhat the earlier of the two. Both are alluded to indeed by Clemens Alexandrinus (i. 340), but only in a way which indicates that even in his time the precise date of Christ s birth was unknown, that its anniversary was not usually observed, and that the day of his baptism was kept as a festival only by the followers of Basilides (see EPIPHANY). When we come down to the 4th century we find that, among the 50 days between Easter and Pentecost, Ascen sion day has come into new prominence. Augustine, for example, enumerates as anniversaries celebrated by the whole church those of Christ s passion, resurrection, and ascension, along with that of the outpouring of the Holy Ghost, while he is silent with regard tj Christmas and Epiphany. The general tendency of this and the following centuries was largely to increase the festivals of the church, and by legislation to make them more fixed and uniform. Many passages, indeed, could be quoted from Chrysostom, Jerome, and Augustine to show that these fathers had not by any means forgotten that comparative freedom with re gard to outward observances was one of the distinctive excellencies of Christianity as contrasted with Judaism and the various heathen systems (compare Socrates, //. JE., v. 22). But there were many special circumstances which seemed to the leaders of the Church at that time to neces sitate the permission and even legislative sanction of a large number of new feasts. The innovations of heretics some times seemed to call for rectification by the institution of more orthodox observances ; in other instances the propen sity of rude and uneducated converts from paganism to cling to the festal rites of their forefathers proved to be invincible, so that it was seen to be necessary to seek to adapt the old usages to the new worship rather than to abolish them altogether; 1 moreover, although the empire had become Christian, it was manifestly expedient that the old holidays should be recognized as much as possible in the new arrangements of the calendar. Constantine soon after his conversion enacted that on the dies dominica there should be no suits or trials in law; Theodosius the Great added a prohibition of all public shows on that day, and Theodosius the younger extended the prohibition to Epi phany and the anniversaries of martyrdoms, which at that time included the festivals of St Stephen, and of St Peter and St Paul, as also that of the Maccabees. In the 21st canon of the council of Agde (506), besides Easter, Christmas, Epiphany, Ascension, and Pentecost, we find the Nativity of John the Baptist already mentioned as one of the more important festivals on which attendance at church was regarded as obligatory. To these were added, in the centuries immediately following, the feasts of the Annunciation, the Purification, and the Assumption of the Virgin; as well as those of the Circumcision, of St Michael, and of All Saints. Festivals were in practice distinguished from ordinary days in the following ways: all public and judicial business was suspended, 2 as well as every kind of game or amuse ment which might interfere with devotion ; the churches were specially decorated ; Christians were expected to attend public worship, attired in their best dress ; love feasts were celebrated, and the rich were accustomed to show special kindness to the poor ; fasting was strictly forbidden, and public prayers were said in a standing posture. Later Practice. In the present calendar of the Roman Catholic Church the number of feast days is very large. Each is celebrated by an appropriate office, which, accord ing to its character, is either duplex, semi-duplex, or simplex. A duplex again may be either of the first class or of the second, or a major or a minor. The distinctions of ritual for each of these are given with great minuteness in the general rubrics of the breviary; they turn chiefly on the number of Psalms to be sung and of lessons to be read, on the manner in which the antiphons fire to be given, and on similar details. The duplicia of the first class are the Nativity, the Epiphany, Easter with the three preceding and two following days, the Ascension, Whitsunday and the two following days, Corpus Christi, the Nativity of John Baptist, Saints Peter and Paul, the Assumption of the Virgin, All Saints, and, for each church, the feast proper to its patron or title and the feast of its dedication. The duplicia of the second class are the Circumcision, the feast of the Holy Name of Jesus, of the Holy Trinity, and of the Most Precious Blood of Christ, the feasts of the Purification, Annunciation, Visitation, Nativity, and Conception of the Virgin, the Natalitia of the Twelve Apostles, the feasts of the Evangelists, of St Stephen, of the Holy Innocents, of St Joseph and of the Patrocinium of Joseph, of St Lawrence, of the Invention of the Cross, and of the Dedication of 1 As, at a later period (601), Gregory the Great instructed 1 is Anglo-Saxon missionaries so to Christianize the temples, festivals, &c., of the heathen " nt dune mentes gradibus vel passibus, non autem saltibus, eleventur." 2 Manumission, however, was lawful on any day.