im Jahre vollstiindig auftritt, aber in alien andem Festen von irgend einer Seite wiedcr- kehrt, und eben dadurch diese zu Festen macht. Nannte man doch jeden Festtag, • ja sogar jeden Soimtag aus diesem Grimde dies paschalis. Daher musste es auch das urspriingUche Fest in dem lunfassendsten Sinne des Wortes sein. Man kann nicht sagen, in welcher christhchen Zeit es entstanden sei ; es ist mit der Kirche entstanden, und die Kkche ist mit ihm entstanden." " Vol. i. § 99 (p. 3V3 ff.). § 78. THE EASTER CYCLE, 401 as early as the j-ear 325 ; for the council of Nice presupposes the existence of this season.' This fast was an imitation of the forty days' fasting of Jesus in the wilderness, which itself was put in typical connection with the forty days' fasting of Moses,* and Elijah,' and the forty years' wandering of Israel through the desert. At first a free-will act, it gradually assumed the character of a fixed custom and ordinance of the church. Ke- specting the length of the season much difference prevailed, until Gregory I. (590-604) fixed the Wednesday of the sixth week before Easter, Ash Wednesday as it is called,^ as the be- ginning of it. On this day the priests and the people sprinkled themselves with dust and ashes, in token of their perishable- ness and their repentance, with the words : " Remember, O man, that dust thou art, and unto dust thou must return ; re- pent, that thou may est inherit eternal life." During Quadra- gesima criminal trials and criminal punishments, weddings, and sensual amusements were forbidden ; solemn, earnest silence was imposed upon public and private life ; and works of devotion, penance, and charity were multiplied. Yet much hypocrisy was practised in the fasting ; the rich compensating with exquisite dainties the absence of forbidden meats. Chry- sostom and Augustine are found already lamenting this abuse. During the days preceding the beginning of Lent, the populace gave themselves up to unrestrained merriment, and this abuse afterward became legitimized in all Catholic countries, espe- cially in Italy (flourishing most in Eome, Venice, and Co- logne), in the Carnival.' ' In its fifth canon, where it orders that provincial councils be held twice a year, before Quadragesima {irpb ttjs recT(TapaKoarrjs), and in the autumn. ^ Ex. xxxiv. 28. ' 1 Kings xix. 8. * Dies cinerum, caput jej unit, or quadragesimce. ^ From caro and vale ; flesh taking its departure for a time in a jubilee of revel- ling. According to others, it is the converse : dies quo caro valet ; i. e., the day on which it is still allowed to eat flesh and to indulge the flesh. The Carnival, or Shrove-tide, embraces the time from the feast of Epiphany to Ash Wednesday, or, commonly, only the last three or the last eight days preceding Lent. It is celebrated in every city of Italy ; in Rome, especially, with masquerades, races, dramatic play?, farces, jokes, and