1892 * In the year 1892, the Bishop of Ely put forth the Licenses to following letter to his clergy in the time of the influenza eat Flesh in epidemic. 'Dear brother in the Lord, 'When the Church reformed her offices and her calendar, and directed what days were to be observed as days of fasting or abstinence, she did not lay down any precise rules as to the manner in which such fasting or abstinence should be carried out. Hence has arisen great variety in this respect: some persons following, as far as they could ascertain them, the rules prevailing in the unreformed Church: others such rules as seemed to themselves most reasonable or most edifying others not observing these days in any way. Of these last I have no occasion to speak; but I know there are many who feel it binding on their conscience to abstain from all meat and to take but little food throughout Lent, and on Fridays, and other appointed days, unless they are by authority dispensed from this duty. Such dispensation appears to me necessary at this time; for if we are bound to obey the rules of the Church, we are no less bound to preserve, so far as we can, our life and strength for the service of God; and we are assured by those qualified to advise us that the best defence against the sickness with which He has visited us is to be found in the maintenance to the utmost of the bodily vigour of all who are liable to be attacked by it. I therefore do hereby dispense from the observance of all days of fasting or abstinence, during the prevalence of the influenza, those persons within the diocese of Ely who have been in the habit of such observance, provided that upon every such day they shall recite with their private prayers one of the penitential psalms. And I request you to make this known to your parishioners by reading this letter from Lent. Licenses to eat Flesh in Lent. the pulpit upon at least one Sunday before the beginning of Lent. "Your brother in Christ, Alwyne, Ely. 'February 15th, 1892.' Seasons of Marriage. The Church's Seasons for Marriage A.D. 1562 *That it shall be lawful to marry at any time of the year without dispensation, except it be upon Christmasday, Easter-day, and six days going before, and upon Pentecost-Sunday.' (General Notes of matters to be moved by the Clergy, etc.)-Strype's Annals, I. i. 475. Oxford, 1824. * 1570 Among other articles 'propounded and divulged' by Cartwright at Cambridge in the year 1570 is the following-'xx. Matrimonium certis quibusdam anni temporibus interdicere, papisticum est.'-Ibid. I. ii. 382. 1584 *In the year 1584, Archbishop Whitgift wrote to Queen Elizabeth complaining in the following terms of the proceedings of the House of Commons: They have passed a bill, giving liberty to marry at all times of the year without restraint, contrary to the old canons continually observed among us; and containing matter which tendeth to the slaunder of this Church, as having hitherto maintained an error.'-Strype's Life of Whitgift, I. 391. Oxford, 1822. 1597 'Wherefore to begin with the times wherein the liberty of marriage is restrained. "There is," saith Solomon, "a time for all things; a time to laugh, and a time to Seasons of That duties belonging unto marriage and offices Marriage. appertaining to penance are things unsuitable and unfit to be matched together, the prophets and apostles themselves do witness. Upon which ground as we might right well think it marvellous absurd to see in a church a wedding on the day of a public fast, so likewise in the selfsame consideration our predecessors thought it not amiss to take away the common liberty of marriages during the time which was appointed for the preparation unto and for exercise of general humiliation by fasting and praying, weeping for sins.'-Hooker, Eccles. Pol., v. 73. 4. 1612-1679 * The following Visitation Articles recognize a law restraining marriage without dispensation at seasons when it was anciently prohibited : -Second Report, Ritual Commission, Lond. 1868. 1621 'Inter impedimenta matrimonium contrahendum impedientia, sed non dirimentia contractum, numerant Pontificii Tempus feriatum; sic etiam Angli. Solemnizatio, inquit Lindvodius, non potest fieri à Dom. prima Adventus Seasons of usque ad octavam Epiphania exclusivè, et à Septuagesima usque ad primam Dominicam post Pascha inclusivè, et à prima die Rogationum usque ad septimum diem festi Pentecostes inclusivè. . . . Hæc tempora feriata adhuc observant Angli.'-Calderwood's Altare Damascenum, etc., p. 641, ed. 1078. * c. 1627 'The Minister and Churchwardens are to take notice y no psons be married wth out A Dispensacion from ye Bipp of the ye Diocesse from Advent Sunday until 8 days after the Epiphany and from Septuagessima vntill 8 Days after Easter and from Rogation Sunday vntill Trinity Sunday.'-Churchwardens' Accts. of the church of Staplegrove, Somerset, in the Brit. Mus. 1627 and 1663 'Extracted from the Register-book of the parish of South Benfleet, in the county of Essex : TO KNOW THE SEASON WHEN MARRIAGE IS OUT OF SEASON. 'Memento. It goeth out on February 7th, or on Shrove Tuesday, and comes not in again till Low Sunday: then it goeth out again on Rogation Sunday, and continueth out till TRINITY Sunday, from which time it is in season, until Advent Sunday: then it goeth out till January 13th, and continueth in from thence till February 7, etc. JEFFREY PHILMEAD, Vicar.' 'It appears from the same Register-book, that Jeffrey Philmead was inducted into the vicarage of South Benfleet, April 6, 1663. The above extract shows that the practice of solemnizing marriages at certain times only, was in use in the English Church at a recent period. The same practice is set forth at the beginning of Bishop Cosin's "Collection of Private Devotions in the practice of the Ancient Seasons of Church, called the Hours of Prayer," which was pub- Marriage. lished in 1627. 'Some of these being times of solemn fasting and abstinence, some of holy festivity and joy, both fit to be spent in such sacred exercises without other avocations.'English Churchman, clv. 800. 1638 'Have any been married in the times wherein marriage is by law restrained, without lawful license, viz. from the Saturday next before Advent Sunday, until the fourteenth of January; and from the Saturday next before Septuagesima Sunday, until the Monday next after Low Sunday; and from the Sunday before the Rogation week, until Trinity Sunday?'-Bp. Montague's Visitation Articles. 1640 'The first is, your forbidding of marriage to all sorts of persons for certain times in the year, in all amounting to upon twenty weeks, wanting not half a quarter of half the year.'-A Reply to a Relation of the Conference, etc., p. 50. 1661 * The following clause was proposed to the Convocation of 1661, to be inserted in the newly revised Book of Common Prayer, after the Table of Fasts in the Kalendar1 1 The proposed clause was, however, rejected.-ED. 1904. |