Feasting,Fasting,andDoingPenance 281
and Saturday was sometimes not observed. Medieval piety knew two other
fasts. In the spring came Saint John’s Fast, lasting from Pentecost Octave to
the birth of John the Baptist ( 24 June) or for six weeks, whichever was
shorter. Some considered this fast optional, but many observed it as obliga-
tory. Commentators considered Saint John’s Fast a twin of Advent. It pre-
pared for the birth of John, the herald of Christ, as Advent prepared for
Christ’s birth.^56 Saint Martin’s Fast came in the fall and was well known,
although its observance was always optional. At Siena, it lasted from the
feast of the Holy Cross ( 14 September) to Saint Martin’s day ( 11 November).
During the fasts of Saint John and Saint Martin, the pious, like Benvenuta
Bojani, ate only one meal a day.^57 That same regimen ruled canonically
during Lent, when the faithful also abstained from dairy products, eggs, and
meat, even on Sundays. At Siena, which was probably typical, the vigil fasts
before major feasts, each with a Lenten-style fast, numbered eleven.^58 During
both Advent and Lent, the traditional discipline also prescribed abstinence
from sexual relations; marriages were not celebrated in those seasons.^59
The Ember Days of the Four Seasons occurred, as the name suggests,
four times a year, once in each season. They imposed a full Lenten fast on
the Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday of the third week of Advent, the first
full week of Lent, the octave of Pentecost, and the week after the Holy
Cross.^60 In communal Italy, priestly and deaconal ordinations were held
almost exclusively on the Ember Days.^61 Bishop Guercio of Lucca, for one,
held ordinations only during the ‘‘four seasons.’’ He also required the priests
of the city chapels to present their clerics at the cathedral for reception of
the tonsure and the ‘‘minor orders’’ of acolyte, lector, exorcist, and door-
keeper on these days.^62 Some bishops were more casual about minor orders,
bestowing them on an ad hoc basis, sometimes in the privacy of the episcopal
palace chapel.^63 Major orders were always linked to Ember Days. At Pisa,
examination of ordination candidates took place on the Ember Saturday of
Lent. In the late 1100 s, the archdeacon examined candidates on the quality
of their lives, literacy, orthodoxy, knowledge of liturgical books, canon law,
- Sicardo,Mitrale, 5. 1 , col. 265 D; 7. 11 , col. 383.
- Corrado of Cividale,Vita Devotissimae Benevenutae, 1. 7 ,p. 153.
58 .Ordo Senensis, 2. 74 ,p. 478. - Sicardo,Mitrale, 9. 1 , col. 405 ; on sexual fasts, see Chiovaro, ‘‘Mariage,’’ 240 – 44.
60 .Carpsum, L’orazionale dell’archidiacono Pacifico e il Carpsum del cantore Stefano: Studi e testi sulla liturgia del
duomo di Verona,ed. G. G. Meersseman, E. Adda, and J. Deshusses (Fribourg: Edizioni Universitarie,
1974 ), 216 ; Verona, Biblioteca Capitolare,ms xciv(latexicent.), fols. 7 v– 8 r, describes these days in Ve-
rona.
61 .Ordo Senensis, 1. 29 ,p. 25 ; 1. 113 ,p. 100 ; 1. 255 ,p. 243 ; 1. 286 ,p. 268. - Lucca Synod ( 1253 ), 11 ,p. 56 ; Piacenza Stat. Cler. ( 1297 ), p. 532 ;Ordo Officiorum della cattedrale
[volterrana], 84 – 86 (San Gimignanoms 3, fols. 29 v– 30 v; Volterrams 273, fols. 28 r–v). - As did, e.g., the bishop of Como: see Lottieri della Tosa,Il codice di Lottieri della Tosa,ed. Giovanni
Lucchesi (Faenza: Banca Popolare di Faenza, 1979 ), doc. 43 ,p. 54 (tonsure on 13 April 1289 ); doc. 63 ,p.
68 (minor orders on 27 May 1290 ); doc. 76 ,p. 78 (tonsure on 17 July 1290 ); doc. 78 ,p. 80 (tonsure on 20
July 1290 ); docs. 140 – 41 , pp. 122 – 23 (minor orders on 18 May 1291 ); doc. 175 , pp. 144 – 45 (minor orders
on 15 July 1291 ).