c. 3. 5 & 6 Edw. 6, celebrate solemnly the feast of their order, commonly called St. George's Feast, yearly on the 22nd, 23rd and 24th days of April, and at such other times as yearly shall Knights of the be thought convenient by the king and the said knights of Proviso for Garter. Repeal and reenactment of this act. Rubric. the said honourable order." This act was repealed in the first year of Queen Mary; and in the first of Queen Elizabeth a bill to revive the same was brought into parliament, but passed not; so that the repeal of Queen Mary remained upon this act till the first year of King James the First, when this repeal was taken off. In the mean while the kalendar before the Book of Common Prayer had directed what holidays should be observed; and in the articles published by Queen Elizabeth in the seventh year of her reign, one was, that there be none other holidays observed besides the Sundays, but only such as be set out for holidays as in the said statute of the 5 & 6 Edw. 6, and in the new kalendar authorized by the Queen's majesty; who appears in other instances (as she did probably in this), to have greatly disliked the parliament's intermeddling in matters of religion, the ordering of which she reckoned one great branch of the royal supremacy (k) Rubric before the Common Prayer. "A Table of all the feasts that are to be observed in the Church of England throughout the year:-All Sundays in the year, the Circumcision of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Epiphany, the Conversion of St. Paul, the Purification of the Blessed Virgin, St. Matthias the Apostle, the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin, St. Mark the Evangelist, St. Philip and St. James the Apostles, the Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ, St. Barnabas, the Nativity of St. John the Baptist, St. Peter the Apostle, St. James the Apostle, St. Bartholomew the Apostle, St. Matthew the Apostle, St. Michael and all Angels, St. Luke the Evangelist, St. Simon and St. Jude the Apostles, All Saints, St. Andrew the Apostle, St. Thomas the Apostle, the Nativity of our Lord, St. Stephen the Martyr, St. John the Evangelist, the Holy Innocents, Monday and Tuesday in Easter Week, Monday and Tuesday in Whitsun week. In this table it is observable, that all the same days are repeated as feasts which were enacted to be holidays by the aforesaid statute; and also these two were added, viz. the Conversion of St. Paul, and St. Barnabas, which perhaps were omitted out of the statute because St. Paul and St. Barnabas were not accounted of the number of the (k) Gibs. 245. twelve. But in the rubric which prescribes the lessons proper for holidays, those two festivals are specified under the denomination also of holidays. But their eves are not appointed by the kalendar, as the eves of the others are, to be fasting days. By Can. 72 of 1603, "No minister shall, without the Fasting days. licence and direction of the bishop under hand and seal, Canon 72. appoint or keep any solemn fasts, either publicly or in any private houses, other than such as by law are or by public authority shall be appointed, nor shall be wittingly present at any of them; under pain of suspension for the first fault, of excommunication for the second, and of deposition from the ministry for the third." 2 & 3 Edw. 6, c. 19, with respect to fasting days, is repealed by 19 & 20 Vict. c. 64. Eves of saints' days. By 5 & 6 Edw. 6, c. 3, s. 2, “Every even or day next 5 & 6 Edw. 6, going before any of the aforesaid days of the feasts of the c. 3. Nativity of our Lord, of Easter, of the Ascension of our Lord, Pentecost, and the Purification and the Annunciation of the aforesaid Blessed Virgin, of All Saints, and of all the said feasts of the Apostles (other than of St. John the Evangelist, and Philip and Jacob), shall be fasted, and commanded to be kept and observed; and none other even or day shall be commanded to be fasted." Sect. 4. " Provided, that this act shall not extend to abrogate or take away the abstinence from flesh in Lent, or on Fridays and Saturdays, or any other day which is already appointed so to be kept, by virtue of the aforesaid act of the 2 & 3 Edw. 6, c. 19 (v), saving only of those evens or days whereof the holiday next following is abrogated by this statute." As to Lent, Fridays and Sect. 5. "And provided, that when any of the said When feasts feasts (the evens whereof be by this statute commanded to fall on Monbe observed and kept fasting days) do fall upon the Monday, day. then the Saturday next before, and not the Sunday, shall be commanded to be fasted for the even of any such feast or holiday." Other than of St. John the Evangelist, and of Philip and Jacob.]-The one of which falls within the Christmas holidays, and the other within the paschal solemnity, betwixt Easter and Whitsuntide (w). 5 Eliz. c. 5, as to fasting, was repealed by 31 & 32 Vict. c. 45. See also 27 Eliz. c. 11, and 35 Eliz. c. 7, also now repealed. Lord Coke said, that both before these acts and Rubric. As to Eves. As to days of fasting and abstinence. since, the eating of flesh on Fridays was punishable in the ecclesiastical courts (x). By the rubric, the tables of vigils and fasts and days of abstinence to be observed in the year, is as follows (which although not in words, yet in substance is the same with what is above expressed in the aforesaid statute); viz. the evens or vigils before the Nativity of our Lord, the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin, Easter day, Ascension day, Pentecost, St. Matthias, St. John Baptist, St. Peter, St. James, St. Bartholomew, St. Matthew, St. Simon and St. Jude, St. Andrew, St. Thomas, All Saints. And if any of these feasts fall upon a Monday, then the vigil or fast day shall be kept upon the Saturday, and not upon the Sunday, next before it." Vigils.]-Vigil was so called a vigiliis, because thereupon people were not only to fast, but to watch or wake by night, and pray (y). And by the rubric aforesaid, the days of fasting or abstinence are as follows:--"1. The forty days of Lent. 2. The Ember days, at the four seasons; being the Wednesday, Friday and Saturday after the first Sunday in Lent, the Feast of Pentecost, September the 14th and December the 13th. 3. The three Rogation days; being the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday before Holy Thursday or the Ascension of our Lord. 4. All the Fridays in the year, except Christmas-day." ἡμερα, The Ember Days.]—Ember days were fasts observed in the church very early, and particularly by the Church of England in the Saxon times, who called them ymbryne dagas, from whence (and not from embers, or from the Greek huepal, as some have conjectured) our name of ember days is to be derived. The Saxon embryne (says Dr. Marshal) signifies a circle, a circuit, or course; and therefore they may be not improperly called the circular fasts, or fasts in course, being observed in the four seasons on which the circle of the year turns, and accordingly called by the canonists jejunia quatuor temporum, or fasts of the four quarters of the year (z). Rogations." The three days before the Feast of our "Lord's Ascension are called by this name, as being days "of special supplication for God's mercy in preserving "to our use the kindly fruits of the earth,' and in deliver "ing us from the scourges of war, famine and pestilence. "The week is called in the Anglo-Saxon gangwuca, and "the days gang dægas; the old form of the name, gang days," still lingering in the north of England. 66 66 66 66 * "The principal ceremony connected with the Rogation days was that of 'perambulations' or 'beating the bounds' "of parishes, a practice which dates from very ancient "times. It was usual to sing the Litany, or a portion of "it, with the 103rd and 104th Psalms, in procession. Archbishop Winchelsea's Constitutions, which are enforced by 25 Hen. 8, c. 19, order the parish to provide, "at its own charges, ' vexilla pro rogationibus.' The In"junctions of Queen Elizabeth (A.D. 1559) bid the curate "and the substantial men of the parish walk about the parishes as they are accustomed." The curate is to ad"monish the people at different stations, to give thanks to "God, and the 103rd Psalm is to be said. There is a "homily in three parts for the days of Rogation week, and "it appears from various bishops' articles of visitation that "it was usual to have the Litany, with one portion of this homily, on each day. There is also, as a sequel to this homily, an Exhortation to be spoken to such parishes "where they use their perambulations in Rogation week, "for the oversight of the bounds and limits of their "town" " (a). 66 66 Rubric after the Nicene Creed: "The curate shall then Declaration declare to the people what holidays or fasting days are in of days to be the week following to be observed” (b). By Can. 64 of 1603, "Every parson, vicar or curate shall in his several charge declare to the people every Sunday, at the time appointed in the Communion Book, whether there be any holidays or fasting-days the week following. And if any do hereafter wittingly offend herein, and being once admonished thereof by his ordinary, shall again omit that duty, let him be censured according to law, until he submit himself to the due performance of it." observed. Can. 13. "All manner of persons within the Church of Observance of England shall from henceforth celebrate and keep the holidays. Lord's day, commonly called Sunday, and other holidays, according to God's will and pleasure, and the orders of the Church of England prescribed on that behalf, that is, in hearing the word of God read and taught, in private and public prayers, in acknowledging their offences to God and (a) Blunt, Dictionary of Doc- pp. 661, 662. trinal and Historical Theology, P. VOL. II. (b) Vide supra, p. 1029. Observance of amendment of the same, in reconciling themselves charitholidays. ably to their neighbours where displeasure hath been, in oftentimes receiving the communion of the body and blood of Christ, in visiting of the poor and sick, using all godly and sober conversation." Bank holi days. Days of special services. Queen's inauguration. Can. 14. "The common prayer shall be said or sung, distinctly and reverently, upon such days as are appointed to be kept holy by the Book of Common Prayer, and their eves." By 3 & 4 Will. 4, c. 103, s. 9, and 7 & 8 Vict. c. 15, s. 37, young persons and children employed in factories coming under the provisions of these acts, are to have Christmas-day and Good Friday as holidays. For the statutes, 27 Hen. 6, c. 5, as to fairs on certain feast days, and 1 & 2 Will. 4, c. 32, as to killing game on Christmas-day, 6 & 7 Will. 4, c. 58, as to bills of exchange, and 2 & 3 Vict. c. 47, as to the metropolis, see above (c). By The Bank Holidays Act, 1871," 34 & 35 Vict. c. 17, Easter Monday, the Monday in Whitsun week, the first Monday in August and the 26th of December, if a week day, are to be kept as close holidays; and no person shall be compellable to make any payment or do any act on these days, which he would not be compellable to make or do on Christmas-day or Good Friday. Besides the occasional fast days in time of war or other calamity, and days of thanksgiving for peace, or victory, or other blessing, there were four solemn days annually, for which special services were appointed: to wit, the fifth day of November, being the day of the papists' conspiracy (d) and of the arrival of King William; the thirtieth day of January, being the day of the martyrdom of King Charles the First (e); the twenty-ninth day of May, being the day of the Restoration of King Charles the Second (f); and the day on which the sovereign accedes to the throne. This last is the only one now observed. The inauguration day, or the day when the king or queen for the time being began their respective reigns, is not enjoined by act of parliament, as were the other solemn days, for which particular services were appointed. The observation of this day, in the time of King Charles I., was inforced by a particular canon in the year 1640, after the example (as it is said in the preface to that canon) as (c) Pp. 1037, 1041, 1043. (f) 12 Car. 2, c. 14. All these three acts are now repealed by 22 Vict. c. 2. |