LENG
545
LENT
Among the most important of his other productions are Pogijiana, or the Life, Chai-acter, and Maxims of the celtbi-aied Floi-entine Wfiter Poggio (Amsterdam, 1720) : — A Preventive against Reunion with the *SVe of Rome, and Reasons for Sejiaration from that See (Am- sterdam, 1723), a work which continues to enjoy great popularity among Protestants : — IJistoire du Concile de Pise, et de ce qui s'est passe de jjIus memo-able depuis ce Concile jusqu'a celui de Constance, a learned and ac- curate work, written with sufficient impartiality (Am- stcrd. 172-1, 2 vols. 4to) : — a volume containing sixteen Sermons on different Texts of Scripture (1728) : — a small volume of Remarks on Gisherfs Treatise on Pulpit Elo- quence, a M'ork which has greatly added to his already high reputation : — IJistoire de la Guerre des Hussites et du Concile de Bale (Amsterd. 1731, 2 vols. 4to), for which he liad been manj' years collecting materials, and in the prejiaration of which, through the influence of the king of Prussia, he had access to the arcliivos of the corpora- tion of Basle. See English Cuclopcedia, s. v. ; Hoefer, Nouv, Biog. Generale, xxx, G57 ; Bihlioth. Germanique, xvi, 115 sq.
Leng, John, an Englisli prelate, was bom in 1C65, and, after having completed his studies at Cambridge, became chaplain to king George I. In 1723 his royal master made Leng bishop of Norwich, He died in 1727. He published editions of the Plutus and Nubes of Aris- tophanes (1G95) : — an excellent edition of Terence (Cam- bridge, 1701): — Sernwns at Boyle's Lectures (1717-18), and twelve separate Sei-mons (1699-1727). See Nich- ols's Lit. A nee. Lgson's Environs. — Allibone, Dictionary of British and American Authors, ii, 1084.
Lengerke, Casar, a noted German theologian, was born at Hamburg March 30, 1803. He was educated at the University of Kcinigsberg, and became a professor of theology and Oriental languages at that high school in 1829. He died Feb. 3, 1855. His most important works are, De Epihrcemi Sijri arte hermeneutica liber (1831) : — Das Buch Daniel (1835) : — Kenaan, Voiles und Religionsgcsch. Israels, vol. i (1814).
Lenoir, John, a French Jansenist priest, was born at Alencon in 1622. He became theological canon of Seez in 1052, and acquired great reputation as a preach- er both in Normandy and at Paris. He was accused of Jansenism, and by his quarrelsome disposition was made the subject of many annoyances. Eouxel de Me- davy, bishop of Seez, who had issued a charge for the publication of the Formularj', accused him of various errors, namely, of having permitted the publication of a work entitled Le Chretien Champi'tre by a layman, who said expressly that " there are four divine persons who are to be worshipped by the faitliful, namely, Jesus Christ, St. Joseph, St. Anna, and St. Joachim ; and that our Lord is present in the sacrament of the altar like a chicken in an egg-shell." Lenoir presented then a pe- tition to Louis XIV, together with an attack on some propositions which he considered as heretical. His writings on these subjects were exceedingly violent : he attacked Rouxel de INIedavy, wlio was then archbishop of Kouen, and even De Harlay, the archbishop of Paris. A commission was appointed to judge him, and he was condemned, April 24, 1684, to make a public apology in front of tlie cathedral at Paris, and to work for life on tlie galleys. Tiie sentence was not fully carried out ; but he remained a prisoner successively in the prisons of St.Malo, Brest, and Nantes until his'death, April 22, 1692. He wrote, A vantages incontestables de VEglise siir les Calvinistes (Paris and Sens, 1673, 12mo) -.—Xouvelles Lumieres jiolitiques, ou I'Evangile nouveau (1676 and 1687, 12mo: this work arrested the publication of a French translation of the History of the Council of Trent by Pallavicini, and went through a tliird edition under the title of Politique et Intrigues de la cour de Rome [1696, 12mo]) : — Eeveqne de cour oppose a Veveque apostolique (Cologne, 1682, 2 vols, 12mo) -.—Lettre a M"" la duchesse de Guise sur la domination episcopale, etc.
(1679, 12mo). See Svpplem. au Necrolog. de Port Royal, 1735; Diet. hist, des auteurs eccles.; Feller, Diet, hist.; Hoefer, JVouv. Biog. Gen. xxxviii, 203. (J. N. P.)
Lent, the forty days' fast, is the preparation for Eas- ter in the Western, Eastern, and Lutheran churches, and in the Church of England, and was instituted at a very early age of Christianity. In most languages the name given to this fast signifies the number of the days —Forty ; but our word Lent signifies the Spring Fast, for "Lenten -Tide" in the Anglo -Saxon language was the season of spring, in German Lenz. (For another etymology, see Lentile.) It is observed in commem- oration of our Lord's fast in the wilderness (IMatt. iv) ; and although he did not impose it on the world by an express commandment, yet he showed plainly enough by his example that fasting, whicli God had sofrequent- ly ordered in the old covenant, -^vas also to be practised by the cliildrcn of the neiv. The observance of Lent was doubtless strongly confirmed by those words of the Redeemer in answer to the disciples of John the Bap- tist : " Can the cliildren of the Bridegroom mourn as long as the Bridegroom is with them V But the days will come when the Bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then shall they fast" (Luke v, 34, 35). Hence we find, in the Acts of the Aposflcs, that the dis- ciples, after the foundation of the Church, applied them- selves to fasting. In their epistles, also, they recom- mended it to the faithful. The primitive Christians seem to have considered Christ, in the above-mentioned .passage, as alluding to the institution of a particular season of fasting and prayer in his future Church, and it was therefore only natural that they should have made this period of penitence to consist of forty days, see- ing that our divine Master had consecrated that num- ber by his own fast, and before him Moses and Elijah had done the same-, it was even deduced from the forty years' staying of the Israelites in the desert (Augustine, Se7-m. cclxiv, § 5). See Fasting, vol. iii, p. 489 (II).