THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
The conception of fasting was the one generally
customary in antiquity. It was considered an
exercise of piety, not directly required by God but
pleasing to him, like almsgiving and
2. The Con- prayer. Mechanical formalism was ception of occasionally opposed by the remark
Fasting, that a devout life is more important than frequent fasting (Shepherd of Hernias, Similitude), v.). How accurately the performance was balanced may be seen from the linguistic distinction between statio,"& half-fast," jejunium, "a complete fast," and superpositio , "an additional fast " (till the next day). And how strictly the rule was adhered to may be seen from the fact that it was even thought necessary to abstain from the Lord's Supper on fast-days (Tertullian, De oratione, xix.). Every personal misfortune induced pious Christians to abstain from food and drink, and in a general calamity, such as a persecution, the bishops usually appointed a fast-day for the Church; in both cases the regular days were usually chosen. The length to which some went is seen from the prohibition of fasting on holy days, on Sunday, and in the time between Easter and Pentecost, on the ground that fasting is a sign of sorrow and consequently incompatible with festal seasons. The connection between alms and fasting was early emphasized by the custom of giving to the poor provisions saved on fast-days.
Abstinence from eating and drinking before religious rites and sacred festivals springs from another conception. It is a very old and widespread belief that with food demons enter into the body of man. Hence he who wishes to have intercourse with God, must be abstemious in order to become a pure vessel of the Spirit.
3. The Fast For this reason the prophet prepares before himself by fasting for the revelation Easter. (Shepherd of Hermas, Visio, ii. 2,
hi. 1, 10); and concerning exorcism it is written (Matt. xvii. 20) " This kind goeth not out save by prayer and fasting." [This verse is omitted in the critical text, and the word " fasting " is omitted in the parallel, Mark ix. 29]. Absolution and ordination were preceded by a fast. In the Didache (vii. 4) both the baptizer and the candidate fast before baptism; and the Lord's Supper was to be received fasting. Out of such ideas the fast before Easter developed. Easter is the only very ancient annual festival of the Church, and to appoint a general fast before it was only to observe a custom which was everywhere considered a matter of course. The first clear evidence of the custom occurs in the second century. Here only the day before was observed as a fast-day, there two or more days; others again fasted for forty hours (Eusebius, Hist, eccl., V., xxiv. 12-13). Appeal was made to Matt. ix. 15 and this fast was regarded as a sacred obligation of every Christian. On the basis of the passage cited, the duration of the fast seems to have been made coextensive with the time of Christ's resting in the grave. On the night before Easter the faithful assembled in the church. With the moment at which Christ rose the fasting ceased, and the Paschal Eucharist was celebrated
(Syriac Didascalia, xxi.). In the course of the third century the fast was extended to the six days of Holy Week, but the innovation was combined with the ancient custom by making the fasting on the last two days stricter. At the beginning of the fourth century, in the time of the great persecution, the forty days' fast was introduced, on the analogy of the forty days' fast of Jesus (Matt. iv. 2), of Moses (Ex. xxxiv. 28) and of Elijah (I Kings xix. 8). The oldest testimony for the Quadragesima is the fifth canon of the Council of Nicaea (32.5); in the West it is found first in the time of Ambrose. Again a combination of the new with the old was attempted by making Holy Week a special time of fasting. But it was done in different ways. Athanasius includes the " six holy and great days " in the Quadragesima, and makes Lent begin with the Monday after the first Sunday in Lent, all days, even Saturday and Sunday (except Palm Sunday), being fast-days, so that he gets precisely forty days. Epiphanius, on the other hand, makes the forty days' fast precede the six days' fast, and, as with him Sundays are not fast-days, Lent begins on Sexagesima-Sunday, eight weeks before Easter (Hwr., lxxv. 6; De fide, xxii.). In the Apostolic Constitutions also (v. 13), the forty days precede the Passover fast; but the Saturdays too are excepted, so that only five days in the week remain. The distinction between the two seasons of fasting seems to have disappeared by the end of the fourth century, so that the forty days of Lent are the regular fast days before Easter. Though the custom of different churches varied in the fourth century, in the fifth a certain amount of harmony was reached by fixing the fast either at six or at seven weeks according as Saturday was treated as a fastday or a holy day (Sozomen, Hist, eccl., vii. 19). Rome observed six weeks, beginning with the Monday after the first Sunday in Lent. In the seventh century the fast was made to begin with the Wednesday after Quinquagesima, or Ash Wednesday. This is the present custom of the Latin Church. In the East the fast-season was also extended in the seventh century from seven to eight weeks, which, with five fast-days in each, makes up the total of forty. But a trace of the older custom is still visible in the treatment of the first or " Butter Week " [so called because in it butter, milk, and eggs are allowed] as a sort of preparatory fast. See Ash Wednesday; Holy Week; and Lent).
From the middle of the fourth century the birth of Jesus was celebrated on Dec. 25, first in Rome, and before the end of the century in the East also. It was but natural that, like Easter, the new high festival should also be preceded by a forty days'
fast. The reckoning of the forty days
4. The differed in the East and the West, ac-
Advent cording as Saturday was considered
Fast. a holy day or a fast-day. Milan and
the entire territory of the Gallican liturgy followed the East. The fast commenced there with St. Martin's day, Nov. 11, and Advent was therefore called Quadragesima Martini; nowadays Advent commences in the East on Nov. 15. The Roman custom appointed a shorter time and