Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 9.djvu/181

 LENTULUS

154

LEO

"collation''. This seems to have begun in the ninth century, when the Council of Aix ut Chapelle sanc- tioned the concession, even in monastic houses, of a draught of water or other beverage in the evening to quench the thirst of those who were exhausted by the manual labour of the day. From this small beginning a much larger indulgence was gradually evolved. The principle o? parvitaa vmteriaiy i. e., that a small quan- tity 01 nourishment which was not taken directly as a meal did not break the fast, was adopted by St. Thomas Aquinas and other theologians, and in the course of centuries a recognized Quantity of solid food, which according to received authorities must not ex- ceed eight ounces, has come to be permitted after the midday repast. As tliis evening drink, when first tolerated in the ninth-century monasteries, was taken at the hour at which the "Collationes" (Conferences) of Abbot Cassian were being read aloud to the breth- ren, this slight indulgence came to be known as a "collation", and the name has continued since. Other mitigations of an even more 8ul)stantial char- acter have been introduced into lenten observance in the course of the last few centuries. To begin with, the custom has been tolerated of taking a cup of liquid (e. g., tea or coffee, or even chocolate) with a fragment of bread or toast in the early morning. But, what more particularly regards I^nt, successive indults have been granted by the Iloly See allowing meat at the principal meal, first on Sundays, and then on two, three, four, and five weekdays, throughout nearly the whole of Lent. Quite recently Maundy Thursday, upon which meat was hitherto always forbidden, has come to share in the same indulgence. In the United States the Holy See grants faculties whereby work- ing men and tlieir families may use fiesh meat once a day throughout the year, except Fridays, Ash Wednesday, Holy Saturday, and the vigil of Christ- mas. The only comi>ensation impased for all these mitigations is the prohibition during Lent against partaking of both fish and flesh at the same repast. [See Abstinence; Fast; Impediments, Canonical (III); LiETARE Sunday; Septuagesima; Sexages- ima; Quinquagesima; Quadragesima; Vestments.]

Vacanoard in Vacant, Did. de Thiol. Cath.^ s. v. Cartnu, An admirable summary of the question may also be found in Ermoni, Lc Car&me in Science et Religion series (Paris, 1907). See also Thurston, Lent and Holy Week (London, 1904); Funk lu /KtrcfienaeAch. AhhandL, I (Paderborn. 189'/), 241-78; Ltvekn- u.vYii, Eniwickltmo des kircfdichen Fastendlaciplina (Munich, 1S77); LiEMKE, Die Quadragesimalfasten der Kirche (Munich, 1853); Sinker in Diet. Christ. Antiq., s. v. Ixvit; Hedser in KiriJumlex.t s. v. Fastemeiten; Maci^an, Recent Discoveriet UluatnUing early Christian Life and Worship (London, 1904).

Herbert Thurston.

Lentulus, Publius, is a fictitious person, said to have been Governor of Juclea before tontius Pilate, and to have written the following letter to the Roman Senate: " Lentulus, the Governor of the Jemsalemites to the Roman Senate and People, greetings. There has appeared in our times, and there still lives, a man of great power (virtue), called Jesus Christ. The people call him prophet of truth; his disciples, son of God. He raises the dead, and heals infirmities. He is a man of medium size (statura procerus ^ mediocris et specta^ bilu); he has a venerable aspect, and his beholders can both fear and love him. His hair is of the colour of the ripe hazel-nut, straight down to the ears, but be- low the ears wa\y and curled, with a bluish and bright reflection, flowing over his shoulders. It is parted in two on the top of the head, after the pattern of the Nazarenes. His brow is smooth and very cheerful, with a face without wrinkle or spot, embellished by a slightly reddish complexion. His nose and mouth are faultless. His beard is abundant, of the colour of his hair, not long, but divided at the chin. His aspect is simple and mature, his eyes are changeable and bright. He IS terrible in his reprimands, sweet and amiable in his admonitions, cheerful without loss of gravity. He was never known to laugh, but often to weep. His

stature is straight, his hands and arms beautiful to be- hold. His conversation is grave, infreauent, and modest. He is the most beautiful among the children of men."

Different manuscripts vary from the foregoing text in several details: Dobschiitz ("Christusbilder", Leip- zig, 1899) enumerates the manuscripts and gives an " apparatus criticus ". The letter was first printed in the "Life of Christ" by Ludolph the Carthusian (Cologne, 1474), and in the "Introduction to the works of St. Anselm" (Nuremberg, 1491). But it is neither the work of St. Anselm nor of Ludolph. Ac- cording to the manuscript of Jena, a certain Giacomo Colonna found the letter in 1421 in an ancient Roman document sent t^Rome from Constantinople. It must be of Greek origin, and translated into Latin dur- ing the thirteenth or fourteenth century, though it re- ceived its present form at the hands of a humanist of the fifteenth or sixteenth century. The description agrees with the so-called Abgar picture of our Lord; it also agrees with the portrait of Jesus Christ drawn by Nicephorus, St. John Damascene, and the Book of Painters (of Mt. Athos). Muntcr ("Die Sinnbilder und Kunstvorst^llungen der alten(^hrist«n", Altona, 1825, p. 9) l>elieves he can trace the letter down to the time of Diocletian; but this is not generally admitted. The letter of Lentulus is certainly apocryphal: there never was a Governor of Jerusalem; no Procurator of Judea is known to have been called Lentulus; a Ro- man governor would not have addressed the senate, but the emperor; a Roman writer would not have em- ployed the expressions, "prophet of truth", "sons of men ", "Jesus Christ". The former two are Hebrew idioms, the third is taken from the New Testament. The letter, therefore, shows us a description ol our Lord such as Christian piety conceived him.

Von DobschOtz, Chrinttufbilder in Texle und Untersitchungent XVIII (Leipcif, 1899), supplement, 308-29; Kbaus, Real- EncyklopQdxe aer chrisUichen AUerthumer, s. v.; Harnack in Hebzoq, ReaUncyklop&die,yiIl (1881), 548; Via., Did.dela Bible.

A. J. Maas.

Leo I (the Great), SAifrr, Pope (440-61), place and date of birth unknown; d. 10 November, 461. Leo*s pontificate, next to that of St. Gregory I, is the most si^ficant and important in Christian anti<juity. At a time when the Church was experiencing the greatest obstacles to her progress in consequence of the hastening disintegration of the Western Empire, while the Orient was profoimdly agitated over dogmatic controversies, this great pope, with far-seeing sagacity and powerful hand, euiaed the destiny of the Roman and Universal Chureh. According to the *' Liber Pon- tificalis" (ed. Mommsen, I, 101 sqq., ed. Duchesne, I, 238 sqq.), Leo was a native of Tuscany and his fath- er's name was Quintianus. Our earliest certain his- torical information about Leo reveals liim a deacon of the Roman Chureh under Pope Olestine I (422-32). Even during this period he was known outside of Rome, and had some relations with Gaul, since Cas- sianus in 430 or 431 wrote at Leo's suggestion his work "De Incamatione Domini contra Nestorium" fMi^e, P. L., L, 9 sqq.), prefacing it with a letter of dedication to Leo. Aoout this time C^ril of Alexandria appealed to Rome against the pretensions of Bishop Juvenal of Jerusalem. From an assertion of Leo's in a letter of later date (ep. cxvi, ed. Ballerini, 1, 1212; II, 1528), it is not very clear whether Cyril wrote to him in the capacity of Roman deacon, or to Pope Celes- tine. During the pontificate of Sixtus III (432-40), Leo was sent to Gaul by Emperor Valentinian III to settle a dispute and bring alx)ut a reconciliation be- tween Aetius. the chief military commander of the province, ana the chief magistrate, Albinus. This commission is a proof of the great confidence placed in the clever and able deacon by the Imperial 0>urt. Sixtus III died on 19 August; 440, while I^eo was in