nally instituted, in commemoration of the period our Saviour remained in the sepulchre.

Forty has been a memorable number in sacred history: Besides the yearly feast of EXPIATION of the Jews, and the number of hours Christ was under the dominion of death-MOSES, ELIAS, and our Saviour himself, each fasted forty days; the NINEVITES were allowed forty days for their repentance; the CHILDREN OF ISRAEL did penance in the wilderness forty years; forty was the limited number of STRIPES by which MALEFACTORS were to be corrected; the ALMIGHTY caused it to rain forty days, when the world was overwhelmed by the general DELUGE; and it was forty days after the Resurrection, that CHRIST ASCENDED into heaven.

Pope TELESPHORUS, in the second century, instituted days of abstinence before Easter, though they were not enforced as a religious obligation, until the third century. ERCOMBERT king of KENT, first appointed the fast of Lent in this country, in the year 641. HENRY the Eighth published a proclamation in 1543, allowing the use of white meats; which continued until by proclamations of JAMES the FIRST in 1619, and 1625, and by CHARLES the FIRST in 1627 and 1631, flesh was again wholly forbidden.

By the 9th canon of the 8th Council of ToLEDO, it was ordained, that if any person ate flesh in Lent-unless compelled by unavoidable necessity-they should be deprived of the use of it all the rest of the year. Even milk, butter, cheese, eggs, and any composition of which they formed an ingredient, were included in that

canon.

Butchers, without a dispensation, could

not kill any animal, nor did any person dare tò dress flesh, or even boil an egg, without clerical permission. The EARL of SHAFTESBURY being indisposed during a tour in Italy, fancied he could eat some veal. The landlady of the inn not daring to procure it without authority, applied to the priest. "Is his Lordship a Catholic

or a heretic ?" asked the reverend father. "Not a Catholic, I believe," said the hostess. "Then let him have the meat," said he. "Here "is the dispensation, and he may eat if he pleases, and be d-d!" If credit might be given to the tales told of the benefits of fasting, his Lordship surely would not have desired to eat flesh. JOHN RAWLIN of the order of Cluny, in his Sermones Quadragesimales, among other impertinences, says, "that as a coach goes faster "when it is empty-by fasting a man can be "better united to God: for it is a principle with geometers, that a round body can never touch

a plane but in one point; but God is this sur"face, according to these words, justus et rec"tus Dominus-a belly too well fed becomes "round, it therefore cannot touch God except "in one point; but fasting flattens the belly, "and it is then united with the surface of God "in all points!"

The celebrated HANDEL was the first who introduced ORATORIOS, or sacred performances at our theatres, two nights in each week during Lent. These were, originally, confined to sacred pieces; but other performances are now occasionally introduced.

Ember Week.

(19TH FEBRUARY 1812.)

an

In the third century, Pope CALIXTUS ordered EMBER DAYS to be observed in the Christian Church, to implore the blessings of the Almighty on the produce of the earth, by prayer and fasting. He appointed FOUR TIMES in each year swering to the four seasons-for exercising these acts of devotion. The two first happen on the Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays following Quadragesima Sunday and Whitsunday, and are variable like those festivals. The two latter, which depend on the fixed festivals of HOLY CROSS and ST. LUCIA, may also vary a week, as they take place on the Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, after those feasts.

By the 31st Canon of the Church of England, it is strictly enjoined "that deacons and minis"ters be ordained, or made, only on the Sun"days immediately following these Ember "Feasts, or days of preparation." But notwithstanding this injunction, bishops do occasionally ordain on other Sundays, and even on Holidays not Sundays.

The title of these days is by some derived from Huspai, i. e. Days. Dr. MARECHALL, and SIR H. SPELMAN, conjectured that they are so called from the Saxon EMBRYNE, or IMBRYNE, signifying a circuit. But the Saxon word Imbre signifies ashes, which were sprinkled on the heads of the people at these seasons; and as on these days, nothing was permitted to be eaten till

-

night and then, only cakes baked under the embers, or ashes-called Panem subcinerinium, or Ember bread- the opinions of other autiquaries, that they were thence called Ember Days, appear most consonant with probability.

In the laws of both king ALFRED, and CANUTE, these days are called YMBREN, and from them the four weeks in which they severally occur, are denominated Ember Weeks.

was

Saint Matthias the Apostle.

(24TH FEBRUARY.)

St. MATTHIAS, one of the seventy Disciples, together with JOSEPH, surnamed BARSABAS and JUSTUS-proposed to the Apostles, as a candidate to fill the vacancy occasioned by the death of JUDAS ISCARIOT. The lot fell upon Matthias, to whose ministry CAPPADOCIA and COLCHIS were assigned.

About the year 62, travelling towards Jerusa lem, he was seized in Galilee, and carried before ANANIAS, the High Priest, by whose order he was first stoned, and then beheaded with a battle

axe

the concomitant emblem of this disciple in all graphic representations.

The festival of St. Matthias, has been differently observed by the Church on Leap Years; but it will be seen by reference to the article under the title Calendar, in the CLAVIS CALENDARIA,:

that it is now to be invariably celebrated on the 24th of February—as well in Leap, as in other years.

nun

Saint David.

(1ST MARCH.)

St. DAVID the son of XANTUS, Prince of Cereticu, now Cardiganshire, by MALEARIA, a was uncle to king ARTHUR. Educated in the famous monastery of Bangor, for the service of the Church, he became one of the most able ministers who ever preached the Gospel to the Britons. After having been ordained priest, he retired to the Isle of Wight, and embraced the ascetic life. From thence he removed to Menevia, a city of Pembrokeshire, where he founded twelve convents the members of which, were compelled to maintain themselves by agricultural labour.

The profits of their exertions were distributed to the neighbouring poor, conformably with the primitive regulations of the greater number of monastic institutions. About the year 577, the Archbishop of CAERLEON resigned his see to St. DAVID, who removed the seat of it to MENEVIA, afterwards called St. DAVID's, which became the metropolis of Wales: that dignity it held until the year 1100, when St. DAVID'S was again reduced to a Bishopric.

During the pastoral ministry of St. DAVID, he combated, and finally overcame the Pelagians ——--