Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/57

FASTING 47 had attained unanimity on the points at issue, show progress in the direction of the later practice of Catholicism. About the year 306 the synod of Illiberis in its 2Gth canon decided in favour of the observance of the Saturday fast. 1 The council of Ancyra in 314, on the other hand, found it necessary to legislate in a somewhat different direction, by its 14th canon enjoining its priests and clerks at least to taste meat at the love feasts. 2 The synod of Laodicea framed several rules with regard to the observance of " Lent," such as that " during Lent the bread shall not be offered except on Saturday and Sunday " (can. 49), that "the fast shall not be relaxed on the Thursday of the last week of Lent, thus dishonouring the whole season ; but the fast shall be kept throughout the whole period" (can. 50), that " during the fast no feasts of the martyrs shall be celebrated" (can. 51), and that "no wedding or birthday feasts shall be celebrated during Lent-" (can. 52). The synod of Hippo (393 A.D.) enacted that the sacrament of the altar should always be taken fasting, except on the Thursday before Easter. Protests in favour of freedom were occasionally raised, not always in a very wise manner, or on very wise grounds, by various individuals such as Eustathius of Sebaste (c. 350), Aerius of Pontus (c. 375), and Jovinian, a Roman monk (c. 388). Of the Eustathians, for example (whose connection with Eustathius can hardly be doubted), the complaint was made that " they fast on Sundays, but eat on the fast-days of the church." They were condemned by the synod of Gangra in Paphlagonia (dr. 860) in the following canons : Can. 19, " If any one fast on Sunday, let him be anathema." 3 Can. 20, "If any one do not keep the fasts universally commanded and observed by the whole church, let him be anathema." Jovinian was very moderate. He " did not allow himself to be hurried on by an inconsiderate zeal to condemn fasting, the life of celibacy, monachism, considered purely in themselves He merely sought to show that men were wrong in recommending so highly and indis criminately the life of celibacy and fasting, though he was ready to admit that both under certain circumstances might be good and useful" (Neander). He was nevertheless condemned (390) both by Pope Siricius at a synod in Rome, and by Ambrose at another in Milan. The views of Aerius, according to the representations of his bitter opponent Epiphanius (Hcer. 75, "Adv. Aerium"), seem on this head at least, though unpopular, to have been charac terized by great wisdom and sobriety. He did not condemn fasting altogether, but thought that it ought to be resorted to in the spirit of gospel freedom according as each occasion should arise. He found fault with the church for having substituted for Christian liberty a yoke of Jewish bondage. 4 Towards the beginning of the 5th century we find Socrates (439) enumerating (//. JE., v. 22) a long catalogue of the different fasting practices of the church. The Romans fasted three weeks continuously before Easter 1 The language of the canon is ambiguous ; but this interpretation seems to be preferable, especially in view of canon 23, which enacts that jejimii superpositiones are to be observed in all months except July and August. See Hefele, Councils, i. 148 (Engl. trs.). 2 Compare the 52d [51st] of the Apostolical canons. " If any bishop or presbyter or deacon, or indeed any one of the sacerdotal catalogue, abstains from flesh and wine, not for his own exercise but out of hatred of the things, forgetting that all things were very good . . . either let him reform, or let him be deprived and be cast out of the chnrch. So also a layman." To this particular canon Hefele is disposed to assign a very early date. 3 Compare canon 64 of the (supposed) fourth synod of Carthage : " Hewho fasts onSunday is not accounted a Catholic " (Hefele, ii. 415). 4 Priscillian, whose widespread heresy evoked from the synod of Saragossa (418) the canon, "No one shall fast on Sunday, nor may any one absent himself from church during Lent and hold a fes tival of his own," appears, on the question of fasting, not to have dif fered from the Encratites and various other sects of Manichean tendency (c. 406). (Saturdays and Sundays excepted). In Ulyria, Achaia, and Alexandria the quadragesimal fast lasted six weeks. Others (the Constantinopolitans) began their fasts seven weeks before Easter, but fasted only on alternate weeks, five days at a time. Corresponding differences as to the manner of abstinence occurred. Some abstained from all living creatures ; others ate fish ; others fish and fowl. Some abstained from eggs and fruit ; some confined them selves to bread ; some would not take even that. Some fasted till three in the afternoon, and then took whatever they pleased. " Other nations," adds the historian, " observe other customs in their fasts, and that for various reasons. And since no one can show any written rule about this, it is plain the apostles left this matter free to every one s liberty and choice, that no one should be com pelled to do a good thing out of necessity and fear." When Leo the Great became pope in 440, a period of more rigid uniformity began. The imperial authority of Valentinian helped to bring the whole West at least into submission to the see of Rome ; and ecclesiastical enact ments had, more than formerly, the support of the civil power. Though the introduction of the four Ember seasons was not entirely due to him, as has sometimes been asserted, it is certain that their widespread observance was due to his influence, and to that of his successors, especially of Gregory the Great. The tendency to increased rigour may be discerned in the 2d canon of the synod of Orleans (541), which declares that every Christian is bound to observe the fast of Lent, and, in case of failure to do so, is to be punished according to the laws of the church by his spiritual superior : in the 9th canon of the synod of Toledo (653), which declares the eating of flesh during Lent to bo a mortal sin ; in Charlemagne s law for the newly con quered Saxony, which attaches the penalty of death to wanton disregard of the holy season. 5 Barouius mentions that in the llth century those who ate flesh during Lent were liable to have their teeth knocked out. But it ought to be remembered that this severity of the law early began to be tempered by the power to grant dispensations. The so- called Butter Towers (Tours de beurre) of Rouen, 1485- 1507, Bourges, and other cities, are said to have been built with money raised by sale of dispensations to eat lacticinia on fast days. It is probable that the apparent severity of the mediaeval Latin Church on this subject was largely due to the real strictness of the Greek Church, which, under the patriarch Photius in 864, had taken what was virtually a new departure in its fasting praxis. The rigour of the fasts of the modern Greek Church is well known ; and it can on the whole be traced back to that comparatively early date. Of the nine fundamental laws of that church (ewe a Trapayye X/xara TTJS e/c/cA-^crtas) two are concerned with fast ing. Besides fasts of an occasional and extraordinary nature, the following are recognized as of stated and universal obligation : (1) The Wednesday and Friday fasts throughout the"year (with the exception of the period between Christmas and Epiphany, the Easter week, the week after Whitsunday, the third week after Epiphany) ; (2) The great yearly fasts, viz., that of Lent, lasting 48 days, from the Monday of Sexagesima to Easter eve ; that of Advent, 39 days, from November 15th to Christmas eve ; that of the Theotokos (i^o-ma 1-175 OforoKov), from August 1st to August 15th ; that of the Holy Apostles, lasting a variable number of days from the Monday after Trinity; (3) The minor yearly fasts before Epiphany, before Whitsunday, before 8 Cap. iii. pro partib. Saxoniae : " Si quis sanctum quadragesimale jejunium pro despectu Christianitatis contempserit et carnem comederit, morte moriatur. Sed tamen consideretur a sacerdote lie forte causa necessitatis hoc cuilibet proveniat, ut carnem comedat." See Augusti, Christliche A rchiwlogic, x. p. 374.