Distinction LXXVI

GRATIAN. Part I. At what times fasts are to be celebrated Pope Callistus determines, writing to Bishop Benedict, [epistle I]:

We now decree that the fast which you learned was celebrated among us three times in the year is more fittingly to be held at four seasons, so that, just as the year revolves through four seasons, so we too may perform the solemn fourfold fast through the four seasons of the year.

Likewise from the Council of Mainz, [I, c. 34]. We enact that the four seasons of the year be observed by all persons with fasting, that is, in March, the first week; in June, the second; in September, the third; and in December, the fourth.

Likewise from the Council held at Seligenstadt, [c. 2]. Concerning the fast of the four seasons, we establish this certainty: if the Kalends of March occur on Wednesday or earlier, let the fast be celebrated in that same week. § 1. But if the Kalends of March extend to Thursday, Friday, or Saturday, let the fast be deferred to the following week. In like manner also, if the Kalends of June occur on Wednesday or earlier, let the fast be celebrated in the following week; and if they occur on Thursday, Friday, or Saturday, let the fast be reserved for the third week. § 2. And this is to be known: if at any time, according to the aforesaid rule, the fast of the month of June occurs on the vigil of Pentecost, it is not to be celebrated there, but in the solemn week of Pentecost itself, because a vigil and a fast ought not to be celebrated together. Even then, because of the solemnity of the Holy Spirit, let the deacons be clothed in dalmatics, let “Alleluia” be sung, and let “Let us bend the knees” not be said. § 3. It has been enacted in the same manner concerning the fast of the seventh month that, if the Kalends of September occur on Wednesday or earlier, let the fast be celebrated in the third week; and if they occur on Thursday, Friday, or Saturday, fasting is to take place in the fourth week. § 4. In December, however, this is to be observed: that the fast be celebrated on the Saturday immediately before the vigil of the Lord’s Nativity, because if the vigil occurs on a Saturday, it is not fitting that the vigil and the fast be celebrated together. To the contrary, Urban, [II, in the Council of Piacenza, c. 14]:

We also enact that the fasts of the four seasons be celebrated in this order: let the first fast take place at the beginning of Lent, the second in the week of Pentecost, and the third and fourth in September and December in the customary manner.

Likewise from a sermon of Pope Leo, [I, sermon I on the fast of Pentecost]. Therefore, after the days of holy gladness which we have passed in honor of the Lord rising from the dead and then ascending into heaven, and after the gift of the Holy Spirit has been received, the custom of fasting was salutarily and necessarily ordained, so that, if negligent freedom and immoderate license perchance presumed anything amid the very joys of the festivity, the censure of religious abstinence may chastise it.

Likewise, [sermon VIII on the fast of the tenth month]. The usefulness of this observance, dearest brothers, has been established especially in the ecclesiastical fasts, which from the teaching of the Holy Spirit are distributed through the circuit of the whole year in such a way that the law of abstinence is assigned to all seasons. Indeed, we celebrate the spring fast in Lent, the summer fast at Pentecost, the autumn fast in the seventh month, and the winter fast in this one, which is the tenth, understanding that nothing in the divine precepts is empty and that all the elements serve the word of God for our instruction, since through the cardinal points of the world itself, as though through the four Gospels, we learn with an unceasing trumpet what we both preach and practice. Part II. GRATIAN. The first, fourth, seventh, and tenth months, however, we ought to understand not according to the reckoning of the Hebrews, but according to ours. For the first month among them is April, the fourth July, the seventh October, and the tenth January. Jerome, commenting above on Zechariah, explains what cause of fasting they had in these months and, in addition, in the fifth month, which is August, saying:

“The fast of the fourth, the fast of the fifth, the fast of the seventh, and the fast of the tenth”—understand “month”—“shall be turned for the house of Judah and Jerusalem into feast days and gladness.” In this place many of our writers have said many things discordant among themselves. § 1. We are therefore compelled to have recourse to the Hebrews and to seek the truth of knowledge from the fountain rather than from the streams. § 2. The fast of the fourth month, which among the Latins is called July, on the seventeenth day of the same month, we judge to be that occasion when Moses, descending from Mount Sinai, cast down and shattered the tablets of the law, and, according to Jeremiah, the walls of the city were first breached. In the fifth month, which among us is called August, when sedition had arisen among the people because of the spies of the Holy Land, they were commanded not to ascend the mountain but to wander far from the Holy Land for forty years with lengthy losses, so that, except for two men, Caleb and Joshua, all would fall in the wilderness. In this month the temple at Jerusalem was also burned and destroyed both by Nebuchadnezzar and, many centuries afterward, by Titus and Vespasian; the city of Bethel, to which many thousands of Jews had fled, was captured.

In the seventh month, which among us is called October, Gedaliah was killed, and the tribe of Judah and the remnants of Jerusalem were scattered. In the tenth month—which among us is called January, because it is the gateway and beginning of the year—Ezekiel, placed in captivity, and all the people of the captives heard that the temple had been overthrown in the fifth month, which we learn most fully in the same prophet. This, therefore, is the whole of what is said: know that the days of lamentation and fasts which until now you have held for mourning—because “I have purposed to do good to Jerusalem and the house of Judah”—are to be turned for you into gladness, joy, and solemnities, provided only that you love truth and peace. According to the anagogical sense, because we fast when the bridegroom is taken from us and we do not deserve to have his presence, when the Lord has returned to us and purposed to do good to us, every sadness will be turned into joy, and the former famine of the word of God will be compensated by the presence of his teachings and the fullness of heavenly bread. Part III. GRATIAN. The fasts of the fourth month, however, do not appear capable of being celebrated before the day of Pentecost. For from the day of the Lord’s resurrection until the day of Pentecost they are not induced to observe fasts. Hence Ambrose, in the sermon of the same day, [LXI], which begins thus:

Your holiness ought to know: “Throughout these fifty days there is for us a continual and uninterrupted festivity, such that throughout this whole time we neither proclaim fasts to be observed nor bend our knees to entreat God.” “And below: § 1. Therefore, after the likeness of the Lord’s resurrection, the entire courses of fifty days are celebrated, and all these days are reckoned as Lord’s days. For the resurrection is the Lord’s. Rising on the Lord’s day, the Savior returned to men, and after the resurrection he conversed with men throughout the whole fifty-day period. It is therefore necessary that the festivity of those things be equal whose holiness is also equal. Therefore we do not fast during the fifty days, because in these days the Lord dwells with us.” The same in the Apology for David: “We celebrate this number—namely, the fiftieth—with joy after the Lord’s passion, the debt of all guilt having been remitted and the bond having been canceled, free from every bond, and we receive the grace of the Holy Spirit coming upon us; on the day of Pentecost fasts cease, praise is spoken to God, and Alleluia is sung.” [GRATIAN.] Necessarily, therefore, the Church established that fasts be celebrated after the day of Pentecost. But the denial that one is to fast during those fifty days is understood with respect to the necessity of observance.

Hence in the sermon of the same day, [LX], which begins thus:

I believe you know, brothers: “We celebrate the day of Pentecost with no less gladness than we took care to celebrate the holy day of Pasch. For then, just as we have now done, we fasted on the Sabbath, celebrated vigils, and persisted through the night in prayers; hence it is necessary that a like observance follow a like gladness.” [GRATIAN.] The observance, however, is like with respect to the deed, not with respect to necessity. Likewise Isidore, [book I On Ecclesiastical Offices, c. 42]:

“From Pasch until Pentecost, although the tradition of the churches has relaxed the rigor of abstinence at meals, nevertheless, if any monks or clerics desire to fast, they are not to be prohibited, because Antony and Paul and the other ancient fathers are read to have abstained even on these days in the wilderness and not to have relaxed abstinence except only on the Lord’s day.”

Likewise Jerome to Lucinus, [epistle XXVIII]. “Would that we could fast at every time, which in the Acts of the Apostles we read the Apostle Paul and the believers with him to have done on the days of Pentecost and on the Lord’s day. Nor do I say this because I think one should fast on feast days and would take away the continuous holidays and solemnities of fifty days; rather, let each province abound in its own judgment and regard the precepts of its elders as apostolic laws.”

Likewise Pelagius to Peter, Bishop of Potenza. We have received the writings of your affection, by which you signify that Latinus, deacon of the church of Grumentum, was elected by all to the episcopate of the church of Marcelliana or Clusium, which you already reported before this time; and we commanded that he come, believing that they had received from his bishop a dimissory letter concerning his person. But if they have now done this, cause him to come quickly to the city of Rome so that, if God commands, he may be ordained on Holy Saturday after the hour of baptism. For if he does not arrive before the aforesaid day, he will be compelled to wait until the fasts of the fourth month.