According to what has been said the Ember fasts were distinctively Roman in origin, and indeed belonged to the city of Rome, and the Roman bishops by repeated injunctions ordered their colleagues in Italy to adopt them in the first instance. In Gaul and in the Christian districts of Germany, their adoption was due to the patronage given to Roman usages by the Carolingians: in Spain the Ember Days were unknown until the Roman ritual was introduced in the eleventh century, and in Milan they were introduced much later, in fact by St Charles Borromeo.[411] It does not appear from history that the original object of the Ember Days was to petition God to raise up worthy priests in His Church. They are first mentioned in this connection after the popes had appointed them as the fixed times for ordinations. They owe their origin to the agricultural festivals of ancient Rome, as appears plainly from the references of Leo the Great,[412] to the December fast. In a later age, they lost entirely their early significance and came to be regarded solely as days of penitence and prayer. In the prayers of the actual Roman missal, no trace of their original character is to be found. The Ember masses of Advent refer to the coming of Christ, those of Lent to the suffering caused by sin, and its Atonement, those of Whitsun week to the descent of the Holy Ghost. Where the prayers do not relate to these subjects they contain no special references, or deal only with fasting in general and its necessity. The masses for the September Ember Days alone preserve some traces of their historical origin, in as much as they are principally of a festive character (_Exultate_, etc.), such as might refer to a harvest safely gathered in. But such a connection cannot be proved beyond doubt.