[238] Cyrill. Hieros., Catech., 14, c. 23.
[239] Peregr. Silviæ, 70 cod., ed. Geyer, c. 42.
[240] Adamnan., De Locis Sanctis., 1, 22; Migne, Patr. Lat., lxxxviii. 803.
[241] Chrysost., Sermo in Ascens., ed. Montfaucon, ii. 2, 420.
[242] St Luke xxiv. 60, where εἰς βηθανίαν means, in the direction of Bethania. Acts i. 12; Heb. vi. 14; ix. 24; Eph. iv. 9; Col. iii. 1.
[243] Cf. the commentary of Schanz, in loc.
[244] When Chrysostom (Hom. in Acta Apost., 3, 1) places our Lord’s Ascension on Saturday, it may be that he reckoned the interval after the Resurrection as consisting of forty full days. One is not justified in concluding, as some do, that in Antioch the Ascension was kept on Saturday.
[245] Tert., De Orat., c. 23; De Cor., 3.
[246] Peregr. Silviæ, ed. Geyer, b. 41 (69 cod.).
[247] The aim of the forty-third canon of Elvira seems to be the abolition of this custom. A later addition to the canon adds: “post pascha quinquagesima teneatur, non quadragesima.” The date of this addition is unknown. Hefele-Knöpfter, Konziliengesch. ii., 2nd ed., 174. Dr Herbst (ibid.) thought the reference was to the Montanists, but even if there were any Montanists in Spain at that period, their heresy could scarcely be called “Nova.”