the old vigil was formally abolished is uncertain: (Card. Bona de Divina Psalmod. c 4. §. 3, contends that vigils were regulated only, and not abolished, except in a provincial Spanish synod; they were prohibited also in the Council of Cognac, A. D. 1260.) Yet it fell into desuetude, and then the name was transferred to the fast of the preceding day; which fast probably existed before the vigil was disused. "Since the saints," says Alcuin[1], "arrived at their present happiness through temporal affliction, we, as we rejoice together with them in their eternal joy, so must we needs suffer with them, that following their steps throughout, we may … arrive at the same joys. To mark this, on the days preceding those of their birth (into the other life), which days we call their vigils, eating more sparingly than usual, we devoutly preface those solemnities with the due observance of fasts, and with affliction of the flesh; that, purified by the abstinence of the preceding day, we may the more worthily celebrate the joy of the following festival." Fasting, then, seems to have been a primary part of the solemnity,—to remind Christians, namely, in their days of ease, how "through much tribulation we must
- ↑ De Divinis Officiis, §. 18. de Feria Sexta, quoted by Du Cange, Glossar. v. Vigilia. In like manner, the "dies jejunii," are said by Honorius Augustod. (de Antique Ritu Missæ, l. 3. c. 6. quoted ibid.) to have been consecrated instead of the vigils, and to have retained the name of vigils: Belethus (Divin. Offic. Explic. c. 137, referred to l.c.) says "the fast of St. John has a vigil, i. e. the day preceding this festival is called a vigil, or in place thereof, a fast," where he gives the usual account of the abolition of the vigils, as does Durand (Rationale, l. 6. c. 7. n. 8. ibid.) but without specifying the time of the fast substituted for it. The preceding day appears to have been a total fast, until after afternoon service, or three o'clock, when a moderate and dry meal was permitted (see some original authorities ap. Coteler. ad Patres Apostol. t. 1. pp. 326, 328.) In a canon of the Council of Salegunstadt, A.D. 1022, provision is made that the fast of the vigil of our Lord's nativity should not interfere with the ember fast, (lest so persons might lose the benefit of a fast.) Harduin Concil. t. vi. p. 828. Hence it appears that the fast of the vigil extended over the day; for if the fast of the vigil had belonged to the evening, it would not have interfered with that of the ember fast, the more rigid part of which terminated at three o'clock. See also the Capitula of Theodore, Archbishop of Canterbury, ib. t. iii. p. 1774, and the Council of Mechlin, A. D. 1570, ib. t. x. p. 1188.
