The Sun.
London, England, 1825-02-24 00:00:00

LENT.

MR. EDITOR—III the primitive church it Will
the custom that, on Ash Wednesday, penitents
should appear before their respective Bishops
with bare feet,and their bodies covered with coarse
sackcloth. Such among them as had deserved

exemplary punishment, after being sprinkled
with the ashes of the palms burnt on the Palm
Sunday of the preceding year, were afterwards
thrust out of the church door. In this ceremony
they were followed by the clergy, who repeated
the curse denounced against our first parents:
" In the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat thy
bread." A repetition of this ceremony took
place on the following Sunday. Those who
had been guilty of less heinous offences were
simply marked upon the forehead with the sign
of the cross, and admonished to persevere in their
penitent course.
Among the primitive Christians the fast of
Lent did not begin until the Sunday ,after
quive .qua jesima, or until the day now called
the First Sunday in Lent, and terminated at Easter
Sunday. 1 t therefore continued in all 42 days
and as the Sundays were not days of fast, the.
number of fasting days was thirtyfsix, the tenth .
part of the 360 days, composing the most ancient
year, and thus forming a tythe of the year conse.
crated to God. In the year 487, Pope Felik
the Third added to the above 36 days the four-.
days that,precede old Lent Sunday thus mak-.
ing the number of days in Lent 40, and making
it equal to the length Of time our Saviour fasted,-
as recorded in the Evangelists. Since this pe-
riod Lent has ever began on Ash Wednesday.
The practice which still prevails in the Roman
Catholic Church, of sprinkling ashes on that day
upon the congregation, was introduced by Pope
Gregory the Great, whence it received the name
of Dies Cinerani, or Ash Wednesday, which it
.
still retains. In the year 1091 the observance
of this pious ceremony was strictly cornman&d
by the Council of Beneventum.

This practice continued to prevail in this coun-
try until the Reformation, when a service called
the Comminution was appointed in its stead. This.
service contains a public reading of all the crimes
that are found denounced in Scripture.
On Ash \Wednesday the celebrated Miserere
is sung in the Sistine Chapel at Rome. The
effect produced on this occasion is thus well de-.
scribed by the author of Rome in the nineteenth
century

" The shadows of evening had now closed U 1
and we should have been left almost in total
darkness, but for the dull red glare which pro-
ceeded from the hidden lights of the unseen cho-.
risters, and which, mingling with the deepening
twilight, produced a most melancholy
After 'a deep and most impressive pause- of
knee, the solemn Miserere commenced ; and
never by mortal ear was heard a strain of such
powerful, such heart moving pathos. The ac'
cordant tones of a hundred human-voices, and one'
which seemed more than human, ascended toge-.
ther to Heaven for mercy to mankind—for par-
don to a guilty and sinning world. It had nothing
in it of this earth—nothing that breathed the or-'
dinary feelings of our nature. It seemed. as if
every sense and power had been concentered.
into that plaintive expression of lamentation, 'of
deep suffering, and supplication, which possessed
the soul. I t was the strain that disembodied spi-.
rits might have used who had just passed the
boundaries of death, and sought relief from the
mysterious weight of woe and the tremblings armor-
tat agony-that they had suffered in the passage of
the grave. It was the music of another state of,
being. It lasted till the shadows of evenin'
fell deeper and the red dusky- glare, as it issued
stronger from the concealed recess whence the
singing proceeded, shed a partial, but strong
light upon the figures near it. It ceased—a priest
with a light moved across the chapel, and carried
-
a book to the officiating Cardinal, who read a fetv
words in en awful and impressive tone. Thal
again the light disappeared., and the last, the
most entrancing harmony arose, in a deeper, more
pathetic sound .of lamentation, than mortal voices
ever breathed. The effect upon the minds of
those who heard it was almost too powerful tt)
be borne, and never, never can be forgotten.
One gentleman fainted and was carried out ; and
many of. the ladies.were in. an agitation even more
distressing, which they vainly struggled to sup'
press. lt was the music of Allegri; but the
composition, however fine, is nothing without the
voices.who perform it here. It is only the singers
of the Papal Chapel who.can execute the Mise-
rere ; it has been tried by the best singers in
Germany, and totally failed of effect. There
is never any accompaniment, though, at times,
the solemn swell of the softened organ seemed
to blend with the voices. This music is more
wonderful,and its effect more powerful, than ail
thing than can be conceived." -A. P.

BIRTH.
On the 22d inst., in Powis.place, Mrs. Daniel Feraid, of s'
daughter.

MARRIED.

..... .
On Monday, the 14th February, at Limerick Cathedral, bt.
the Lord Bishop of Limerick, David, eldest• son of DOW'
Roche, Esq., of Carrass, county of Limerick, to. Francet
daughter of the late .Colonel John- Ormsby Vandeleur, (s"`,
Dragoon Guards), of Ballilamona.
On the sth inst., at Oporto, Robert Woodhouse, Esq., t°
Donna Maria Ertnelinda Gomez d'Oliveira, of that city.

•
DIED.
On Friday, the 11th inst., in the Rue Richepansei Paris, the
infant daughter of James Arthur Wilson, M.D.
On Saturday, Mrs. Mary Ladyman, Church-row, NewitlP
ton-butts, at the advanced age of 82.
On the 21st inst., Mrs. diary Ann Smith, relict of the Lyle
Wm. Smith, Esq., of Dulwich, Surrey.
On the 22d inst., at his house, Union-court, Broad-street,
Mr. Samuel Arnott, citizen and fletcher, twenty years keeper
of the Monument, at the advanced age of 82. On the same
day, Mrs. Susannah Arnott, wife of the above, at the age of 76-
On the 22d inst., Sarah, only daughter of? William
more, Esq., and grand-daughter of the late John Tialing, Esq.'
aged 22.
_ _

At Edinburgh, on the 16th inst., John Menzies, Esq., soli-
citor of Customs for Scotland.

Printed and Published for the PnoPaivrons, at the Svi.r"
OFFICE, No. 112, Strand, by J. 13. CARSTAIII!.

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