In England, as we learn from Bede, forty days of fasting ‘ante natale domini’ were observed by Cuthbert († 687) and by Ecbert († 729). In both cases, however, it should be remarked, the observance seems mentioned as an indication of exceptional piety[111].
At the close of the sixth century Rome, under Gregory the Great, adopted the rule of the four Sundays in Advent; and in the following century this rule became prevalent (though not universal) in the West.
In the Greek Church the general observance of forty days’ penitential preparation for Christmas does not appear to have been established before the thirteenth century. In the Greek Church of to-day the forty days’ preparation begins on Nov. 15. It is sometimes called the Fast of St Philip, doubtless because the festival of St Philip was celebrated on Nov. 14. On Wednesdays and Fridays the fast is rigorous; but on other days, wine, oil, and fish are allowed.
The practice of the Armenians is peculiar: they observe a fast for the week preceding the Nativity, and for one week commencing fifty days before the Nativity. The conjecture has been offered that these two weeks are a survival of a fast that had originally lasted for the whole of fifty days.
In Churches of the Roman Communion at the present day, the practice as to fasting varies. In Great Britain and Ireland Wednesdays and Fridays are expected to be observed; but in many parts of the continent of Europe there is no distinction between weeks in Advent and ordinary weeks.
On December 16 in the West it was the practice to sing as an antiphon to the Magnificat the first of a series of seven antiphons, each beginning with ‘O’; thus, ‘O Sapientia’ (Dec. 16), ‘O Adonai’ (17), ‘O Radix Jesse’ (18), etc. In the Kalendar of the Book of Common Prayer the words ‘O Sapientia’ appear at Dec. 16. This is not, strictly speaking, a survival of mediaeval times; for it was first introduced into the English Prayer Book Kalendar in A.D. 1604.
The rule of the English Book of Common Prayer (1662) for determining Advent runs thus: ‘Advent Sunday is always the nearest Sunday to the Feast of St Andrew, whether before or after.’ As thus expressed, the rule does not seem to contemplate the case of Advent Sunday falling on St Andrew’s Day. It was a mistake not to add the additional words which were in the Scottish Prayer Book of 1637, namely, ‘or that Sunday which falleth upon any day from the twenty-seventh of November to the third of December inclusively.’ The word ‘or’ does not imply that the second part of the rule is an equivalent of the first; but it gives a rule to meet a case not contemplated in the first part.
The Fast preceding Easter (Lent)
That a fast preliminary to the Pascha was observed in the early Church is beyond question. Irenaeus, in his letter to Victor, bishop of Rome[112], states that at the time there were several differences as to the length of the fast; but in no case was a prolonged series of days prescribed. ‘Some,’ he says, ‘think they ought to fast one day; others, two; others more than two; others reckon together forty hours both of the day and the night as the day [of fasting][113].’ And Irenaeus adds that these differences existed long before (πολὺ πρότερον) the time when he wrote. The words about the forty hours may perhaps be illustrated by passages of Tertullian[114], where he speaks of persons fasting in the days ‘when the bridegroom was taken away,’ or, in other words, the time during which the Lord was under the power of death, i.e. certain hours of the day of the Crucifixion, the twenty-four hours of Saturday, and certain hours of the early part of Easter Day. We shall not delay to discuss the questions connected with the exact time of commencing and of closing the forty hours.
About the middle of the third century at Alexandria the whole week before Easter was observed as a time of fasting by some; but there were those who fasted only on four days; others contented themselves with three or even two; while there were some (evidently exceptional persons) who did not fast even one day[115]. It is plain that as yet no fixed rule was enforced.