LENT, in Latin Quadragesima, so called by Reason of the forty Days fast, observed first by Moses on Mount Sinai, when he received Exod. xxiv. 18. 1 Kings xix. 7, 8. Matth. iv. 2.the Law of God there; and afterwards by the Prophet Elijah in his Way to Mount Horeb, while he was flying from the Persecution of Jezabel; and lastly by our Saviour, who after his Baptism retired into the Wilderness, and there continued forty Days and forty Nights without eating or drinking. The Apostles in Imitation of them instituted the Fast of Lent, with a Design of honouring principally our Saviour’s Fast1. We do not see the particular Institution of it in the Scripture, but herein we follow Saint Austin’s Rule2, who declares, that whatever we see generally established in the Church, without perceiving the Institution of it in any Council, should be received as a Matter established by the Apostles.
Now we believe Lent to have been settled in the Church ever since the first Ages of it. Saint Ignatius in his Epistle to the Philippians, Tertullian in his Book of Fasting, the Constitutions attributed to the Apostles, Saint Irenæus cited in Eusebius, l. v. c. 24. of his Ecclesiastical History, the Councils of Nice, Laodicæa, Agde, &c. The Fathers Leo, Saint Basil, Ambrose, and others, speak of Lent as an ancient Establishment in the Church. It is true the Way of observing it has not been always uniform, nor of strict Obligation; People have varied as to the Number of Days they fasted, and the Time of beginning it; but these very Differences prove the Antiquity and Universality of the Thing. In such Observances as relate purely to Discipline, there has been always great Liberty used in the Church, and the Manner of keeping them has been various. The Feast of the Passover, or the Resurrection of our Saviour, has always been the Term or End of Lent; but the Beginning of it has been sometimes sooner, and sometimes later. There has been a Diversity even as to the Quality of the Food People eat, and the Hour of eating. We do not enlarge upon this Matter, which does not properly relate to our Subject; it comes within the Design of this Dictionary, so far only as concerns the Institution of it.
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