The oldest document in which we find the length and exercises of Advent
mentioned with anything like clearness, is a passage in the second book of
the History of the Franks by St. Gregory of Tours, where he says that St.
Perpetuus, one of his predecessors, who held that see about the year 480,
had decreed a fast three times a week, from the feast of St. Martin until
Christmas. It would be impossible to decide whether St. Perpetuus, by his
regulations, established a new custom, or merely enforced an already
existing law. Let us, however, note this interval of forty, or rather of
forty-three days, so expressly mentioned, and consecrated to penance, as
though it were a second Lent, though less strict and severe than that
which precedes Easter.
Later on, we find the ninth canon of the first Council of Macon, held in
582, ordaining that during the same interval between St. Martin's day and
Christmas, the Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, should be fasting days,
and that the Sacrifice should be celebrated according to the lenten rite.
Not many years before that, namely in 567, the second Council of Tours had
enjoined the monks to fast from the beginning of December till Christmas.
This practice of penance soon extended to the whole forty days, even for
the laity: and it was commonly called St. Martin's Lent. The capitularia
of Charlemagne, in the sixth book, leave us no doubt on the matter; and
Rabanus Maurus, in the second book of his Institution of clerics, bears
testimony to this observance. There were even special rejoicings made on
St. Martin's feast, just as we see them practised now at the approach of
Lent and Easter.
The obligation of observing this Lent, which, though introduced so
imperceptibly, had by degrees acquired the force of a sacred law, began to
be relaxed, and the forty days from St. Martin's day to Christmas were
reduced to four weeks. We have seen that this fast began to be observed
first in France; but thence it spread into England, as we find from
Venerable Bede's history; into Italy, as appears from a diploma of
Astolphus, king of the Lombards, dated 753; into Germany, Spain, &c., of
which the proofs may be seen in the learned work of Dom Martene, On the
ancient rites of the Church. The first allusion to Advent's being reduced
to four weeks is to be found in the ninth century, in a letter of Pope St.
Nicholas I to the Bulgarians. The testimony of Ratherius of Verona, and of
Abbo of Fleury, both writers of the tenth century, goes also to prove
that, even then, the question of reducing the duration of the Advent fast
by one-third was seriously entertained. It is true that St. Peter Damian,
in the eleventh century, speaks of the Advent fast as still being for
forty days; and that St. Louis, two centuries later, kept it for that
length of time; but as far as this holy king is concerned, it is probable
that it was only his own devotion which prompted him to this practice.
The discipline of the Churches of the west, after having reduced the time
of the Advent fast, so far relented, in a few years, as to change the fast
into a simple abstinence; and we even find Councils of the twelfth
century, for instance Selingstadt in 1122, and Avranches in 1172, which
seem to require only the clergy to observe this abstinence. The Council of
Salisbury, held in 1281, would seem to expect none but monks to keep it.
On the other hand (for the whole subject is very confused, owing, no
doubt, to there never having been any uniformity of discipline regarding
it in the western Church), we find Pope Innocent III, in his letter to the
bishop of Braga, mentioning the custom of fasting during the whole of
Advent, as being at that time observed in Rome; and Durandus, in the same
thirteenth century, in his Rational on the Divine Offices, tells us that,
in France, fasting was uninterruptedly observed during the whole of that
holy time.
This much is certain, that, by degrees, the custom of fasting so far fell
into disuse, that when, in 1362, Pope Urban V endeavoured to prevent the
total decay of the Advent penance, all he insisted upon was that all the
clerics of his court should keep abstinence during Advent, without in any
way including others, either clergy or laity, in this law. St. Charles
Borromeo also strove to bring back his people of Milan to the spirit, if
not to the letter, of ancient times. In his fourth Council, he enjoins the
parish priests to exhort the faithful to go to Communion on the Sundays,
at least, of Lent and Advent; and afterwards addressed to the faithful
themselves a pastoral letter, in which, after having reminded them of the
dispositions wherewith they ought to spend this holy time, he strongly
urges them to fast on the Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, at least, of
each week in Advent. Finally, Pope Benedict XIV, when archbishop of
Bologna, following these illustrious examples) wrote his eleventh
Ecclesiastical Institution for the purpose of exciting in the minds of his
diocesans the exalted idea which the Christians of former times had of the
holy season of Advent, and of removing an erroneous opinion which
prevailed in those parts, namely, that Advent concerned religious only and
not the laity. He shows them that such an opinion, unless it be limited to
the two practices of fasting and abstinence, is, strictly speaking, rash
and scandalous, since it cannot be denied that, in the laws and usages of
the universal Church, there exist special practices, having for their end
to prepare the faithful for the great feast of the birth of Jesus Christ.
The Greek Church still continues to observe the fast of Advent, though
with much less rigour than that of Lent. It consists of forty days,
beginning with November 14, the day on which this Church keeps the feast
of the apostle St. Philip. During this entire period, the people abstain
from flesh-meat, butter, milk, and eggs; but they are allowed, which they
are not during Lent, fish, oil, and wine. Fasting, in its strict sense, is
binding only on seven out of the forty days; and the whole period goes
under the name of St. Philip's Lent. The Greeks justify these relaxations
by this distinction: that the Lent before Christmas is, so they say, only
an institution of the monks, whereas the Lent before Easter is of
apostolic institution.
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