Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VII.djvu/101

 FASTI 93 Ramadan, abstaining from all food daily from sunrise until sunset. On the Hebrews the law of Moses enjoined one annual fast on the day of atonement ; others were observed by the nation in course of time in memory of great calamities. The modern Hebrews observe six fasts of obligation ; the most fervent keep many more. The fast consists in abstaining from all food and drink from sunrise till nightfall, ' the fast of atonement alone from sunset until nightfall the next day. Both the eastern and western churches from the earliest times ob- served the Lenten fast of 40 days in memory of Christ's fasting. The Greek church enjoins fasts on all Wednesdays and Fridays, on the 40 days before Christmas, and the 40 days before Easter, the period extending from the week after Pentecost until June 29, and from Aug. 1 to Aug. 14, besides numerous other fasts as a preparation to ecclesiastical festivals; in all 130 fast days in the year. There is a legal dis- tinction made by both the Latin and eastern churches betw,een "fasting," which implies the refraining from all food, and "abstinence," which is the refraining from flesh meat, eggs, milk, butter, and cheese. Thus, Roman Cath- olics abstain from flesh meat on all Fridays ex- cept Christmas day, and on the rogation days, or three days before Ascension Thursday. The fasts universally observed in the Catholic church are those of Lent, of the ember days, and of the vigils of Christmas, Pentecost, the Assumption (Aug. 15), and All Saints (Nov. 1). Protestants generally admit the utility of fasting, while denying its necessity. They do not admit the legal distinction between fasting and abstinence. The English church and the Protestant Episcopal church of America main- tain on their ecclesiastical calendar, under the name of fasts, both the "days of abstinence" and the "fast days" of the Catholic church. The Presbyterian church in the United States follows the doctrine of the Westminster Con- fession, that "solemn fastings" are "in their times and seasons" to be used in a holy and religious manner. The Methodist Episcopal church enjoins fasting or abstinence on the people, and advises weekly fasts to be kept by her clergy. The New England Puritans, while rejecting ecclesiastical fasts, observed them- selves "seasons of fasting and prayer," and ad- mitted both the right and duty of the civil ruler to set apart days for such purpose. In New England it is still customary for the governors <>t' states to appoint in the spring "a day of tasting, humiliation, and prayer," which is gen- erally observed in the churches. During the civil war the president of the United States recommended by proclamation such days to be observed by the nation. FASTI, in Roman antiquity, registers of the days, months, and other divisions of the year, corresponding to modern calendars. The term is variously derived from fas, divine law, and /r?', to speak, as it properly designated those days of the year on which legal business could without impiety be transacted, or legal judg- ment be given by the magistrates. The fasti calendares or sacri, the chief division of these registers, contained the enumeration of all the days, divided into months and weeks of eight days according to the nundince (the days of each of the latter being designated by the first eight letters of the alphabet), the calends, nones, and ides. Days on which legal business could be transacted were marked by F. &s fasti; those from which judicial transactions were ex j eluded by N. as nefasti ; the days on which justice could only be administered at certain hours were called ex parte fasti, also intercisi, and were marked in the calendar, when justice could be demanded during the early part of the day, by F. P.,fasto primo; and days on which the assemblies of the comitia were held by C. Primarily these registers are said to have been intrusted by Numa as sacred books to the care of the pontifex maximus, and for nearly four centuries the knowledge of the calendar continued to be in exclusive posses- sion of the priests, one of whom regularly an- nounced the new moon, and the period inter- tervening between the calends and the nones. On the nones the rex sacrorum proclaimed the various festivals to be observed in the course of the month, and the days on which they would fall. This knowledge, previously jeal- ously kept to themselves by the priests and pa- tricians, was first made public in 304 B. 0. by Cneius Flavius, by some believed to have been a scribe to Claudius Caecus. Besides the above mentioned divisions of time, with their nota- tion, they generally contained the enumeration of festivals and games, which were fixed on certain days, astronomical observations on the rising and setting of the stars and on the sea- sons, and sometimes brief notices about reli- gious rites, as well as of remarkable events. In later times flattery inserted the exploits and honors of the rulers of Rome and their families. The rural fasti (rustici, distinguished from the urbani) also contained several directions for rustic labors to be performed each month. A different kind of fasti were those called an- nales or Mstorici, also magistrates or consu- lares, a sort of chronicles, containing the names of the chief magistrates for each year, and short accounts of remarkable events noted opposite to the days on which they occurred. Hence the meaning of historical records in general attached to the term fasti in poets, while it is used in prose writers of the registers of consuls, dictators, censors, and other magistrates, be- longing to the public archives. Several speci- mens of fasti of different kinds have been dis- covered in the last three centuries, none of which, however, are older than the age of Au- gustus. The fasti Maffeani, the complete mar- ble original of which was long preserved in the Maffei palace at Rome, but finally disappeared, are now known by a copy prepared by Pighius ; the Verriani, known as the Prasnestine calen- dar, comprising only five months, are histor-