who cites the Gospel, and apostolic practice; 69 selves to willing fastings." This I here allege, because Bede makes this practice of the Apostles the exemplification of some of the Churches' following set annual fasts. In his Homily upon the Tuesday after Palm Sunday, he thus speaks of the Parasceue, which we call Good Fridays: Cum accepisset acetum [Dominus], dixit; Consummatum est: hoc est, sexta diei quod pro mundi refectione suscepi jam totum est opus expletum. Sabbato autem in sepulchro requiescens resurrectionis, quæ octava die ventura erat, expectabat adventum. "When the Lord had received" on this sixth day of the week before Easter "the vinegar, He said, 'It is finished:' that is, the whole work of the sixth day, which I have undertaken for the new creation of the world, is now consummated;" even as it appears in Genesis i., that on the same sixth day of the week wherein God made man at the first, He finished all His works. "And on the Sabbath He rested in the grave, waiting for the coming of His resurrection which was to be the eighth day." An evidenter præceptum in the New Testament we do not find for the sixth or for the eighth day's observation; but the Church hath so interpreted for the one these words of my text, "When the Bridegroom shall be taken from them, then shall they fastt;" and for the other, the eighth or Lord's day, that of Psalm cxviii., "This is the day which the Lord hath made";" and that of Rev. i. 10.— 92 I may conclude the witness of Bede with what he concluded this fast. Ecce jejunium quadragesimale Domino auxiliante jam plurima ex parte complevimus; testis est unicuique conscientia sua, quia quanto districtius se sanctis his diebus Domino mancipásse meminit, tanto amplius gaudens sanctum Dominicæ resurrectionis tempus expectat.-Quicunque ergo, fratres dilectissimi, continentiæ armis accincti ab initio jam Quadragesima cum tentatore superbo certare cœperunt, videant caute ne cœpta deserant, priusquam hoste prostrato ministeriis donentur Angelicis. "Behold we have now through the help of God finished for the most part this fast of Lent; every [Col. 286.] The Church, in Tertullian, lib. de Jejuniis; see above, p. 21. and Epiphanius, Hæres. 75; see above, p. 37. S. Athanasius, lib. de Sabbat. et Circumcisione, [vol. ii. p. 57.] dià 7OÛTO τὴν ἐν ἓξ ἡμέραις κτίσιν ἀνακαινίσας, ἡμέραν τίθησι τῇ ἀνακαινίσει, ἣν διὰ τοῦ ψαλμοῦ προαναφωνεῖ λέγον τὸ πνεῦμα· Αὕτη ἡμέρα ἣν ἐποίησεν ὁ Κύριος. x Hom. in Dominica Palmarum, [col. 264.] man's conscience bears him witness, that by how much more strictly he remembers that he hath humbled himself before the Lord on these holy days, with so much the more joy he expects the holy time of the Lord's resurrection.-Whosoever therefore of you, my most beloved brethren, have now from the beginning of Lent, being fortified with the armour of abstinence, encountered the proud tempter, let them now take good heed that they forsake not what they have enterprized, till having vanquished the enemy, angels come and Mat. 4. 11. minister unto them;" alluding to that ministry unto Christ. Our second author in this age is Theodulphus bishop of Orleans, (part afterwards of the Council of Frankfort,) in his Epistle to the Priests. Ipsa autem Quadragesima cum summa observatione custodiri debet, ut jejunium in ea, præter dies Dominicos, qui abstinentiæ substracti sunt, nullatenus resolvatur.-Nulla in his occasio sit resolvendi jejunii: quia alio tempore solet jejunium caritatis causa dissolvi, isto vero nullatenus debet. Quia in alio jejunare in voluntate et arbitrio cujuslibet positum est, in hoc vero non jejunare, præceptum Dei trans-93 cendere est. Et in alio tempore jejunare, præmium abstinenti acquirere est in hoc vero, præter infirmos ac parvulos, quisquis non jejunaverit, pœnam sibi acquirit, quia eosdem dies Dominus et per Moysem, et per Eliam, et per semetipsum, sacro jejunio consecravit. "The Lent fast itself ought to be kept with all observance, that therein except the Lord's days, which are subtracted from fastings, the fast be in nowise. broken.-Let no occasion be taken of violating this fast; for that at other times our fast is wont to be dissolved upon occasion of charity, but in Lent it ought not so to be wont. Because at other times to fast, is committed to every one's will and choice; but in this time not to fast, is to transgress the precept of God. At other times to fast acquires a reward to him who so abstains; but at this time, whoso fasts not, except little ones, or those which are infirm, doth procure unto himself punishment; because the Lord both by Moses, and by Elias, and by Himself, hath consecrated those same days to fasting." Qui nullatenus jejunare credendi sunt, si ante manducaverint, quam respertinum celebretur officium.Ibid., n. 39. [col. 941.] N. 37. [col. 940] John Damascene, against the Aërians; 71 b Abstinentia vero in his diebus omnium deliciarum esse debet. "Whoso eateth before the evening office be celebrated, is not to be deemed to have fasted.-In these days we ought to abstain from all delights." The third witness of this century shall be Joannes Damascenus, concerning the Aërians or Eustachians. Aëriani ab Aerio Pontico.-Fuit autem sacerdos Eustachii episcopi ejus 94 cui Arianæ hæreseos crimen objectum est, filius.—Jejunium feriá quarta et sexta et quadraginta diebus servari, et Pascha celebrari prohibet. Stata hæc damnat omnia.-Quod siquis jejunium servare velit, id ab eo certis statisque diebus servari negat oportere, sed quando volet. Negat enim se lege teneri; negat etiam quicquam inter presbyterum et episcopum interesse. "The Aërians are so called from Aërius Ponticus; he was a priest, the son of Eustachius, a bishop, the same that was charged with Arianism. He forbids the observation of the fasts of the fourth and sixth days of the week, and that of the forty days, and the celebration of Easter. All these set fasts or feasts he condemns.-If so be any one will keep a fast, he denies that that ought to be done by him on any certain or set days, but when he will. For he denies that he is bound by a law" in that matter; "he denieth also that there is any difference betwixt a presbyter and a bishop." Here he is enrolled in the black catalogue of heretics, (and heresy is always against somewhat apostolical,) who pertinaciously denied set fasts, and particularly this fast of Lent. If any shall think this severity peculiar to this age, and author of the Greek school beginning, let him consider, beside what I have produced above from Epiphanius and St. Augustine, the catalogue of heretics made also by Philastrius bishop of Brixia', about the year of Christ 380. Asserentes quartá decimá luna celebrandum esse Pascha, non sicut Ecclesia Catholica celebrat.-Et cum hoc faciunt, diem non dominicam semper custodiunt Paschæ, non computantes horas et dies, [dies viz. præcedentes.]—Et ex hoc errore non cognoscunt diem Pascha Domini nostri veram et salubrem, unam orbi terrarum 95 statutam, et confirmatam a Domino. He reckons certain 72 the Great Canon of Andrew of Crete, heretics, "who affirmed that Easter was to be celebrated, not as the Catholic Church celebrates it.-Not always observing the Easter on the Lord's day, not computing the hours and days," viz. preceding Easter, which are the days we speak of. -"And from this error they are ignorant of the true and salutary, only day of Easter, appointed for the whole world, and confirmed of the Lord." The fourth record of this age is the Magnus Canon Andreæ Archiepiscopi Cretensis; for which, as the Triodium of the Greek Church doth witness, there was appointed a peculiar solemnity on the fifth day of the fifth week in Lent, the history whereof is this: Andreas Hierosolymitanus, who in the end of the foregoing century was sent by Theodore patriarch of Jerusalem to assist in the sixth General Council, became afterwards in this century the renowned metropolitan of Crete, and composed a holy office, which in this century he brought into the Greek Church, and it hath continued therein all ages sithence, and had a peculiar day appointed for it, which they called the solemnity of the great canon, ἑορτὴ τοῦ μεγάλου κανόνος• which they placed on the Thursday seven night before Easter, τῇ πέμπτῃ τῆς πέμπτης ἑβδομάδος τῆς τεσσαρακοστῆς. A composure he had made, as the Triodium of the Greek Church to this day witnesseth, out of the histories of the whole Old and New Testaments, which consisted of the grounds, patterns, and encouragements of this Paschal fast of Lent, partly to be read publicly, and partly to be sung in their service, when now the fast of Lent 96 had continued almost five weeks, and drew toward the end, and yet the chief part of it remaining to be performed, viz. the Parasceue and Sabbatum of the fifth week, which they called Lazari præparatoria, et Sabbatum Lazari, and the following ἁγία καὶ μεγάλη ἑβδομάς, the great and holy week, called anciently by Epiphanius® ἑβδομὰς τῶν πασχῶν, and more anciently by Dionysius the patriarch of Alexandria, who sate there bishop in the year 248, ἓξ τῶν νηστειῶν ἡμέραι (ἐξόxws,) the six principal days of the fasts. To encourage them therefore after so much performed to what remained behind, he composed, and they have retained, and do read and sing, composed expressly to be read and sung 73 μέγαν κανόνα—κατάνυξιν ἄπειρον ἔχοντα —ἀεὶ πρὸς Θεὸν ἀνατρέχειν διὰ μετανοίας, διὰ δακρύων, καὶ ἐξομολογήσεως, καὶ τῆς ἄλλης δηλονότι εὐαρεστήσεως.—Ετάχθησαν δὲ καὶ κατὰ τὴν παροῦσαν ἡμέραν ψάλλεσθαι καὶ ἀναγινώσκεσθαι δι' αἰτίαν τοιαύτην· ἐπειδὴ γὰρ πρὸς τὸ τέλος ἐγγίζει ἡ ἁγία τεσσαρακοστὴ, ἵνα μὴ οἱ ἄνθρωποι ῥάθυμοι γεγονότες, πρὸς τοὺς πνευματικοὺς ἀγῶνας ἀμελέστερον διατεθῶσι, —ὁ μὲν μέγιστος Ανδρέας, οἷά τις ἀλείπτης, διὰ τῶν ἱστοριῶν τοῦ μεγάλου κανόνος,—γενναιοτέρους τοὺς κάμνοντας παρασκευάζει, καὶ ἀνδρικῶς τοῖς ἔμπροσθεν ἐπεκτείνεσθαι —άρμοδίως οὖν ἄρα καὶ προσηκόντως ὁ μέγας οὗτος κανὼν, καὶ μεγάλην κεκτημένος κατάνυξιν, κἂν τῇ μεγάλῃ τῶν τεσσαρα κοστῶν κατατέτακται. Τοῦτον τὸν ἄριστον κανόνα καὶ μέγιστον, καὶ τὸν τῆς ὁσίας Μαρίας λόγον, ὁ αὐτὸς πατὴρ ἡμῶν ̓Ανδρέας πρῶτος εἰς τὴν Κωνσταντίνου κεκόμικε. Παράγω σοι—ὑποδείγματα, ἐνάγοντά σε, ψυχὴ, πρὸς κατάνυξιν· δικαίους οὖν ζήλωσον—ἐξιλέωσαι Χριστὸν, προσευ χαῖς τε καὶ νηστείαις, καὶ ἁγνείᾳ, καὶ σεμνότητι.—Χριστός 97 σαρκὶ προσομιλήσας —ὑπογραμμόν σοι, ὦ ψυχὴ, καὶ εἰκόνα προδεικνύων.-Νηστεύσας ὁ Κύριος ἡμέρας τεσσαράκοντα— ψυχὴ μὴ ἀθυμήσῃς, ἅν σοι προσβάλλῃ ὁ ἐχθρὸς προσευχαῖς τε καὶ νηστείαις ἐκ ποδὼν ἀποκρουσθήτω σοι —καρδίαν μοι δώρησαι ἀεὶ συντετριμμένην, πτωχείαν δὲ πνευματικὴν, ἵνα ταῦτά σοι προσοίσω, ὡς δεκτὴν θυσίαν, μόνε Σῶτερ. “They read and sing this great canon, containing infinite contrition," -and excitation "to flee unto God, by repentance, by tears, and confession," &c.—" And they were appointed on this" fifth "day" of the fifth week of Lent "to sing and to read this for these ends; for inasmuch as the holy Lent then draws towards end, that men should not become weary or negligent in the finishing of these spiritual combats, this very great" bishop of Crete "Andrew, as one that anoints or strengthens the combatants, stirs up their generosity by the histories of this great canon, that they may courageously run forward to the race before them.-Agreeably therefore and fitly is this called the great canon, as containing great compunction, and ap 1 [Sign. r. iiii.] 1 [Sign. v. vii. The following sentence, παράγω . . . ζήλωσον, is given as it stands in the Triodium, and translated accordingly. The author had slightly mistaken the construction, misled, apparently, by the marks which are introduced in the ancient service books. ] |