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HOWBEIT you should know that as long as the primitive church retained
its perfection unbroken, this observance of Lent did not exist. For they
were not bound by the requirements of this order, or by any legal
enactments, nor confined in the very narrow limits of the fast, as the fast
embraced equally the whole year round. But when the multitude of believers
began day by day to decline from that apostolic fervour, and to look after
their own wealth, and not to portion it out for the good of all the
faithful in accordance with the arrangement of the apostles, but having an
eye to their own private expenses, tried not only to keep it but actually
to increase it, not content with following the example of Ananias and
Sapphira, then it seemed good to all the priests that men who were hampered
by worldly cares, and almost ignorant, if I may say so, of abstinence and
contrition, should be recalled to the pious duty by a fast canonically
enjoined, and be constrained by the necessity of paying the legal tithes,
as this certainly would be good for the weak brethren and could not do any
harm to the perfect who were living under the grace of the gospel and by
their voluntary devotion going beyond the law, so as to succeed in
attaining to the blessedness which the Apostle speaks of: "For sin shall
not have dominion over you; for ye are not under the law but under
grace." For of a truth sin cannot exercise dominion over one who lives
faithfully under the liberty of grace.
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