of the meeting of the risen Saviour with the assem- bled disciples, of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, of the principal Divine blessings bestowed upon the world.^ But he / likewise brings it in no connection with the fourth command- ment, and with the other fathers leaves out of view the proper foundation of the day in the eternal moral law of God. Besides Sunday, the Jewish Sabbath also was distinguished in the Eastern church by the absence of fasting and by stand- ing in prayer. The "Western church, on the contrary, especially the Koman, in protest against Judaism, observed the seventh day of the ^yeek as a fast day, like Friday. This difference between the two churches was permanently fixed by the fifty-fifth canon of the Trullan council of 692 : " Li Rome fasting is prac- tised on all the Saturdays of Quadragesima [the forty days' fast before Easter]. This is contrary to the sixty-sixth apos- tolic canon, and must no longer be done. Whoever does it, if a clergyman, shall be deposed; if a layman, excommuni- cated." ' Leon. Epist. ix. ad Dioscurum Alex, episc. c. 1 (0pp. ed. Ballerini, torn. i. col. 630) : " Dies resurrectionis Dominicae . . . quae tantis divinarum dispositionum mysteriis est consecrata, ut quicquid est a Domino insignius constitutum, in huius piei dignitate sit gestum. In liac mundus sumpsit exordium. In hac per resurree- tionem Cliristi et mors intei-itum, et vita accepit initium. In hac apostoli a Domino prffidicandi omnibus gentibus evangelii tubam sumunt, et inferendum universo mun- do sacramentum regenerationis accipiunt. In liac, sicut beatus Joannes evangelista testatur (Joann. xx. 22), congregatis in unum discipulis, januis clausis, cum ad eos Dominus introisset, insufiBiavit, et dixit : ' Accipite Spiritum Sanctum ; quorum re- miseritis peccata, remitluntur eis, et quorum detinueritis, detcnta erunt.'' In hae denique promissus a Domino apostolis Spiritus Sanctus advenit : ut coelesti quadam regula insinuatum et traditum noverimus, in ilia die celebranda nobis esse mysteria sacerdotaliiun benedictionum, in qua collata sunt omnia dona gratiaruni." TOL. II. — 25 386 THIRD PERIOD. A.D. 311-590. Wednesday and Friday also continued to be observed in many countries as days commemorative of tlie passion of Christ (dies stationum), with half-fasting. The Latin church, how- ever, gradually substituted fasting on Saturday for fasting on Wednesday. Finally, as to the daily devotions : the number of the ca- nonical hours was enlarged from three to seven (according to Ps. cxix. 164 : " Seven times in a day will I praise thee "). But they were strict!}^ kept only in the cloisters, under the technical names of matina (about three o'clock), prima (about six), tertia (nine), sexta (noon), nona (three in the afternoon), vesper (six), completorium (nine), and mesonyctium or vigilia (midnight). Usually two nocturnal prayers were united. The devotions consisted of prayer, singing, Scripture reading, especially in the Psalms, and readings from the histories of the martyrs and the homilies of the fathers. In the churches ordinarily only morning and