OF THE HOLIDAYS OR FESTIVALS OF THE CHURCH. OF THE SEASON OF ADVENT, ITS ORIGIN AND INSTITUTION. ADVENT, a term equivalent to coming, is the name given to the season immediately preceding Christmas-Day, which ecclesiastical usage has prescribed as a time of solemn preparation, by exercises of piety, for the Advent, or coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Offices of the Church direct our meditation to a double or twofold Advent, our Lord's coming in the flesh, and his coming to judgment. "The end proposed by the Church, in 66 setting these two appearances of Christ together "before us, at this time, is, to beget in our minds proper dispositions to celebrate the one, and expect the other; that so, with joy and thankful66 ness, 65 "ness, we may now go to Bethlehem, and see this "thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath "made known unto us; even the Son of God come "to visit us in great humility; and thence, with "faith unfeigned, and hope immoveable, ascend in "heart and mind to meet the same Son of God in "the air, coming in glorious majesty, to judge the quick and dead *.” My more immediate business at present is to enquire into the original appointment of this holy season; and I conceive no apology will be necessary for passing by without examination the opinion of such Roman Ritualists, as pretend that St. Peter himself was the institutor of Advent. It seems reasonable to believe, however, that the observance of it is nearly coeval with the feast of the Nativity itself; if we limit the meaning of such observance to prayer, fasting, almsgiving, and such devotional exercises, as were calculated to prepare the faithful for the worthy celebration of this great festival. Still it is not easy to shew what were the regulations of the Church respecting Advent for the first four or five centuries of the Christian era; nor do we indeed know that any regulations had then been made, concerning either the particular rites, or the length of time for which they were to be observed: And it is not unworthy of remark, that the term Advent itself does not appear to have been employed to denote this season, before the seventh or eighth century. VOL II. *Horne's Sermons. EGBERT EGBERT, Bishop of York, who lived in the eighth century, attributes the institution of Advent to the Church of Rome; and he thinks that a fast was appointed to be kept three days in the week preceding the festival of the Nativity, in order to afford the people an opportunity of preparing themselves for the Communion on that day. But this will not convince those, who consider how easy it was for EGBERT to mistake for the Advent-fast the three Ember days in December. The Ember days for the four seasons were instituted at Rome, about the end of the fourth, or the beginning of the fifth century; and LEO who wrote about A.D. 450, when they were fully established, assigns several reasons for the observance of them in the Church. Of the institution of Advent itself at Rome, no vestige whatever was discoverable, till after its entire establishment in France; and one of the earliest attempts, that we find recorded, towards the introduction of a regulated observance of Advent in that country, was made after the middle of the fifth century by the Bishop of Tours, for the use of his own Church, or at the utmost, of his own particular diocese; when he ordained, that a fast of three days should be kept in every week, between the festival of St. Martin †, and that of the Nativity. * This regulation afterwards became géneral in the Gallican Church. It was enjoined by the council of * A.D. 462. 4 November 11th. Mascon Mascon*, which prescribed, that the ordinary laity should fast on the Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, in every week, between Martinmas and Christmas; and on these days, the Eucharist should be celebrated as was done in Lent, But the religious were required to fast every day in December till Christmas Day, in conformity with the decree of the Council that had been held at Tours in 567. The acts of the Council of Tours exhibit an institution of Advent, which in its infancy bears a striking resemblance to what it became, when advanced to its maturity. The Fathers assembled in this Council required the Monks to fast three days a week, during the months of September, October, and November, and in December every day. From the decree of the Council of Mascon, which ordains the Eucharist to be celebrated on the fasting days between Martinmas and Christmas, we may conclude, that Advent then began to be considered as the Lent before Christmas that as the lenten, or spring fast, had been appointed by the more ancient Church, as a season of preparation for the festival of the Resurrection, so in process of time was established the fast, which we now call Advent, to dispose us for the due -celebration of the festival of the Nativity. As it was at so late a period that the number of days and weeks of Advent was eventually fixed, we shall not be surprised to find, that the season was * Matisconense ad flumen Ararim in Burgundia. The first Council was held in A.D. 581 (according to some 583,) and the second in 585. 1 not every where of equal duration, and that the ob servance of it was in some places more rigid, and in others more relaxed. If a judgment may be formed from the disposition of the Offices appointed to precede the feast of the Nativity, and affixed to the Sundays before it, we may conclude that Advent consisted sometimes of two weeks of public prayer and fasting, sometimes of three, and sometimes of even five or six. Of these four different practices, evident traces are discoverable, in the ancient Sacramentaries of Rome, France, and Spain. In these Books the Sundays are distinguished, not by the ordinal numbers from the beginning as at present, but by an inverted calculation from Christmas backwards to Martinmas, and sometimes to the beginning of November. What they call the first Sunday, is the Sunday immediately preceding Christmas Day: and the second Sunday is that which goes before the first, so that the sixth Sunday before Christmas (which was the mode of calculation employed before the introduction of the word Advent) was generally the Sunday that immediately followed the feast of St. MARTIN *. Thus Advent commenced on the sixth Sunday before Christmas in France, and probably in England, which had a great conformity to the Gallican Church. It commenced at the same time in Spain as the Mozarabic Missal still proves, and even in Italy, and especially at Milan, as is evident from It was so in all cases except one. When Christmas Day fell on a Monday, there were seven Sundays between it and the festival of St. Martin all |