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| Chapter XXVIII. Why it is called Quadragesima, when the fast is only kept for thirty-six days.
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Chapter XXVIII.
Why it is called Quadragesima, when the fast is only
kept for thirty-six days.
But further, as
man’s carelessness dropped out of sight the reason of this, this
season when, as was said, the tithes of the year are offered by fasts
for thirty-six days and a half, was called Quadragesima,2209
| 2209 Cassian here gives
three suggestions why the fast of thirty-six days’ duration was
called Quadragesima. (1) As roughly corresponding to the forty days
fast of Moses, Elijah, and the Lord Himself, (2) because
“forty” is the number associated with a time of probation
in Scripture, and (3) because of the analogy of a legal tribute of
“Quadragesima” paid to the Sovereign. It is certainly a
curious and difficult question why the name Quadragesima should
have been so universally applied to the fast, when there is no evidence
of its having been kept for forty days till sometime after the date of
Gregory the Great, when Ash Wednesday and the three following days were
prefixed to the six weeks expressly for the purpose of making the
number forty. The name however, had as we see from Socrates,
Sozomen, Cassian himself, and many other writers, existed long before
this; and on the whole it appears probable that it originated in none
of the reasons given above by Cassian but that in the first instance it
was connected “with the period during which our Lord yielded to
the power of death, which was estimated at forty hours; viz.,
from noon on Friday till 4 A.M. on
Sunday.” See Dictionary of Christian Antiquities, Vol. ii. p.
973; and cf. Irenæus Ep. ad Victor. in Euseb. V. xxiv.; and
Tertullian De Orat. c. 18; and De Jejuniis c. ii. and xiii. |
a name which perhaps
they thought ought to be given to it
for this reason; viz., that it is said that Moses and Elijah and our
Lord Jesus Christ Himself fasted for forty days. To the mystery of
which number are not unsuitably applied those forty years in which
Israel dwelt in the wilderness, and in like manner the forty stations
which they are said to have passed through with a mystic meaning. Or
perhaps the tithe was properly given the name of Quadragesima from the
use of the custom-house. For so that state tax is commonly called, from
which the same proportion of the increment is assigned for the
king’s use, as the legal tribute of Quadragesima, which is
required of us by the King of all the ages for the use of our life. At
any rate, although this has nothing to do with the question raised, yet
I think that I ought not to omit the fact that very often our elders
used to testify that especially on these days the whole body of monks
was attacked according to the ancient custom of the people opposed to
them, and was more vehemently urged to forsake their homes, for this
reason, because in accordance with this figure, whereby the Egyptians
formerly oppressed the children of Israel with grievous afflictions, so
now also the spiritual Egyptians try to bow down the true Israel, i.e.,
the monastic folk, with hard and vile tasks, lest by means of that
peace which is dear to God, we should forsake the land of Egypt, and
for our good cross to the desert of virtues, so that Pharaoh rages
against us and says: “They are idle and therefore they cry
saying: Let us go and sacrifice to the Lord our God. Let them be
oppressed with labours, and be harassed in their works, and they shall
not be harassed by vain words.”2210
For certainly their folly imagines that the holy sacrifice of the Lord,
which is only offered in the desert of a pure heart, is the height of
folly, for “religion is an abomination to a
sinner.”2211
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