Fastings, Stations, Procession. 67
Hildebertus Cenamaonensis, in an epistle to a certain Count, affirms that pilgrimage is an inexcusable sin in them that are bound unto any ministry, and likewise that to prefer things not necessary before things necessary, and things not due before duties, and to wander about the world, no doctor, no Scripture at any time or in any place mentions. And Chrysostom (Homil. 1, in Philem.) says truly that unto forgiveness of sins it is altogether needless to undertake any pilgrimage.
3. But as for set pilgrimages unto certain images, there was never father dreamed of them for 600 years after Christ at the least.
Fastings, Stations, Procession 1. Concerning the Lent-fast, the fathers are uncertain. Some say that it is a tradition of the apostles, of which rank are Jerome (ad Marc.
Epist. 54) and Leo (Sermone sexto & nono de Quadrages.). Others say that Christ Himself appointed this fast of Lent. Ambrose (Serm.
25) says it was consecrated by Christ, and in Sermon 34, "A law given by God, a fast enjoined by Christ." And Theophilus of Alexandria
(Pasc., epist. 1, ad finem) calls it an evangelical institution. Cassianus (Collat. 21, cap. 30) says that, "In the primitive church, their fast was alike throughout the whole year, and then devotion beginning to grow cold, and fasting to be neglected, the priests commanded this fast of Lent." Amalarius (lib. secundo, cap. quinto) denies that any man can truly assign the first inventor of Lent. And Irenaeus (apud
Euseb., lib. quint., cap. 26) says that it is but merely "συνήθειαν καθ´ απλότητος και ιδιωτισμός," a custom risen out of simplicity, and some private institution.
2. The fast of Lent in the first ages of the church was a fast of great religion and holiness, kept for the maintaining of more commodious
and spiritual exercises of invocation and repentance, and used for a remembrance of Christ's passion.
"What should I stand to relate the often meetings together," says Eusebius (Hist., lib. 2, cap. 16), "and the exercises of the men being placed together in one room, and the women in another apart, and the severe order of discipline, which we as yet do customably observe, and do use to celebrate, especially upon the feast of our
Lord's passion, not only in fasting and watchings, but in the diligent hearing of the Holy Scriptures?"
"If we have done no good," says Basil (Hom. 24, in Ebrietat.), "by so many admonitions, which I have never omitted to exhort you with in all the time before, and now especially in these seven weeks of fasting, wherein continually, night and day, I have instructed you in the doctrine of the Gospel without all intermission, etc."
"This fast is not appointed us," says Epiphanius (in fine Panar.), "whereby to render any favor or good turn unto Him that suffered for us, but to confess and acknowledge His passion, which He undertook for us unto our salvation." "For this end," says Chrysostom (Hom. 19, ad pop. Antioch.), "have we our fastings and our Lent. For this end have we so many holy meetings, and hearing, and hitherto tend all our prayers, and all our doctrine, namely, that being by the diligent meditation of God's precepts cleansed from all the spots of sin, whereby we have been any way stained for the whole year, trusting to our spiritual freedom, we may receive that unbloody sacrifice, like as godly and religious men ought to do." And (73 Homil., ad pop.
Antioch. de sciun. Quad.): "It is not only required of us (my dearest brethren) to meet here every day, and to hear continually of the same things, and to fast the whole Lent," etc.
3. This fasting of Lent was kept freely, without any bond of conscience or any necessity of command, even unto the year of grace
400. This is true both in respect of the limit of time, as well as of the sorts of meats.
Testimonies: Ambrose (de Elia Jeiu, c. 22), inviting us unto voluntary fasting, says, "Undergo the yoke of Christ…. He does not bind your neck with bands, but couples the mind to Him with favor and grace. He does not compel a man by necessity, but directs the willing of good works."
"Christians," says Augustine (cont. Faust. Man., libr. 30, cap. 5), "not heretics, but Catholics do abstain both from some sorts of flesh and also from some kinds of fruits, and that for the taming of the flesh, and to humble and withdraw their soul from brutish and unreasonable motions, not that they think the meats or fruits any ways unclean. And this use is observed either continually, which few do, or at certain times and days, as almost all do throughout the Lent, everyone as much or as little as he is willing, or as he is able."
But whereas he says (at least a sermon under his name, viz. 62, de temp.) that it is a sin not to fast the Lent, this is not to be understood as if there were a law hereof, but in respect of the neglecting of the public penance which was commonly renewed in this fast. So Theodoret (in Epist. divin. Decret.), speaking of the eating of flesh and drinking of wine, says that, "The church does not forbid the use of them, and therefore some do make lawful use of these goods and pleasures allowed by the law, and othersome again do abstain from them. But no man of right judgment or wisdom will condemn him that uses them, for to abstain from them, as well as to eat them, is in his choice and power." And Augustine (in lib. 1, cap. 33, De moribus
Ecclesia) says that abstinence and feasting were both allowed by reason and charity, nor is any man constrained to forbear the use of
this or that meat, but it is left free to every man, as far as every man's health permits him. And Prosper (de vita contemplat., libr. 2, cap. ult.) says that "We ought to fast and abstain, that we do not bind ourselves to the necessity of fasting, lest thereby we should be brought to do a voluntary thing, not of devotion, but of compulsion."
"Concerning fasting," says Primasius (in Roman., cap. 14), "there is no law set down, but every man as he can or will." Spiridion did eat flesh freely, as Sozomene testifies (lib. primo, cap. undecim). And it was Montanus that first prescribed laws of fasting, which Eusebius affirms of him (lib. quin., cap. 16). Telesphorus indeed commanded the clergy to Fast the Lent, about the year 130. And Ercombert, king of England, did first command the English men to keep it in the year 640
(Sigebert, in Chron.). "This man," says Florentius, a monk of Worcester (speaking of Ercombert), "was the first of the kings of England that commanded the idols to be destroyed, and the fast of forty days to be observed throughout all his kingdom."
4. This fast of Lent in divers churches was diversely observed, both in the time and also in the kinds of meats. "Those that are at Rome," says Socrates, lib. quinto, cap. 21, "do fast three weeks before the Easter, excepting Saturday and Sunday. Those that live in Illyria, and all Greece, and Alexandria, do begin their fasts six weeks before Easter, calling that time their pascha. Others (besides these customs) beginning their fast seven weeks before Easter, and yet fasting but fifteen days only, equally divided by spaces between, do yet call the whole time Lent, which breeds no small wonder in me, that all these dissenting in the number of the days, should nevertheless call all their fasts by the same name."
The fast before Easter, though it were but of few days, yet was called Lent. Perhaps because it consisted of forty hours of day and night, as it is in Eusebius, lib. quinto, cap. 24. And Leo, in his fourth sermon of Lent, says, "Let us fast on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and on Saturday let us watch at Saint Peters." Gregory says, homil. 16, that, "The Lent was a fast of six and thirty days." And it is a received opinion, that before his time, the Lent began not upon Wednesday, because that in the Decretals, in cap. quadragesim. de consecrate, dist. 5 (which were made after him), the four days before the first
Sunday in Lent are added to make up the number of forty. This Ambrose testifies in his thirty-fourth sermon, and Cassianus, Col. 21, c. 24, 27, 28, etc., teaching, that the Lent always used to begin upon the Sunday next after Quinquagesima Sunday. So likewise, Alcuine holds, de divin. offic., cap. 40; and Ordo Romanus, in capit. de
Septuages.; and Micralogus, cap. 49. I confess there is a sermon extant among Saint Augustine's De Tempore, in Feria quarta, which is entitled, "A Sermon upon the Wednesday in the beginning of the fast," but that sermon is none of Saint Augustine's, and if it be, I say the title is added by some of later time, and that for the reasons before alleged.
"The holy church," says Epiphanius, in via comp., "did accustom to keep all the Lent before the seven days of Easter, in fasting. Now after this fast of 40 days, the church was wont to keep fifty days of feast unto the Pentecost."
5. This fast of Lent was whilom very severely observed, in bread and water, without wines or fishes. For the fathers used to eat dry things, that is, bread and salt, with water. So Epiphanius testifies, in fine
Panar.: "They fasted from flesh and wine." So witnesses Gregory of Nyssa also, in his oration of loving the poor; and the fourth Council of Carthage, cap. 85. And Jerome, ad Lat., says they abstained from
oil and apples. And in another place, in Epitaph. Paula, from wine, liquors, fish, honey, and eggs. And Chrysostom, Serm. de jejun, says that the church abstained from flesh and wines. Micrologus, cap. 49, says, "We are not held to fast the Lent according to the canons, if that we eat anything before evening." And Ambrose, Serm. 34, opposes the faster in Lent unto him that has dined.
Wherefore the popish fast of Lent that forbids flesh and allows white meats and fish was not heard of among the fathers. "Let those that are to fast," says Molanus, in practic. Theolog. tractat. 3, cap. 11, num. 69, remember that the fathers abstained from wine and delicates." And again, de Canonic., lib. 1, cap. 26: "If we look into the ancient severity and discipline, scarce any one nowadays shall prove himself a true faster, for they fasted until even; we use to take our dinners."
6. The fast of Lent was observed by some oftentimes in the year, and not always before Easter. There was a fast of Lent imposed upon the penitents, to be observed after Pentecost, as Micrologus records (de observ. Eccl. cap. 23). The Montanists fasted three Lents in the year.
Jerome unto Marcella (Epist. 54) affirms it, and adds, "We according to apostolic tradition do fast one Lent in the whole year, at a time fit for us." And Methodius of Constantinople decrees of the penitents after abjuration: "Let them fast two Lents, in continued prayer."
Saint Francis and others kept three, five, six Lents.
7. The Stations among the fathers were solemn and public fasts, observed in the church on the day, from morning until night. But the stations of the Church of Rome at this present are not solemnized from morning until night, nor of the same persons, but by others, and others successively observing them. And nowadays the fast is