That a fast preliminary to the Pascha was observed in the early Church is beyond question. Irenaeus, in his letter to Victor, bishop of Rome[112], states that at the time there were several differences as to the length of the fast; but in no case was a prolonged series of days prescribed. ‘Some,’ he says, ‘think they ought to fast one day; others, two; others more than two; others reckon together forty hours both of the day and the night as the day [of fasting][113].’ And Irenaeus adds that these differences existed long before (πολὺ πρότερον) the time when he wrote. The words about the forty hours may perhaps be illustrated by passages of Tertullian[114], where he speaks of persons fasting in the days ‘when the bridegroom was taken away,’ or, in other words, the time during which the Lord was under the power of death, _i.e._ certain hours of the day of the Crucifixion, the twenty-four hours of Saturday, and certain hours of the early part of Easter Day. We shall not delay to discuss the questions connected with the exact time of commencing and of closing the forty hours. About the middle of the third century at Alexandria the whole week before Easter was observed as a time of fasting by some; but there were those who fasted only on four days; others contented themselves with three or even two; while there were some (evidently exceptional persons) who did not fast even one day[115]. It is plain that as yet no fixed rule was enforced. In the fourth century we meet with the term τεσσαρακοστή, or Quadragesima. In the fifth canon of the Council of Nicaea it is ordered that one of the two annual provincial Synods should be held before ‘the tessarakoste.’ The sense of the term is assumed to be known, and is not explained. But it must not be inferred that the word necessarily signifies here forty _days_, or that forty _days_ were assigned to fasting. The classical authority for the variations of later usages is the passage of Socrates[116], where he describes many differences of practice in his own day (_c._ A.D. 440) and the varieties in the length of the fast in different countries. At Rome, he says, there was a fast of three weeks, excepting Saturdays and Sundays; at Alexandria and in Achaia and Illyricum a fast of six weeks; in other places the fast began seven weeks before Easter, but was limited to fifteen days, with an interval between each five days[117]. Not long after his time there were two prevailing usages—that of the Churches which deducted from the fasting days Sundays and Saturdays (always excepting the Saturday in Holy Week), and that of the Churches which deducted only the Sundays. The former was the prevailing usage in the East; the latter, in the West. The seven weeks in the East, with thirteen days deducted (seven Sundays and six Saturdays), and the six weeks of the West, with only six days deducted, agree precisely in each having only thirty-six fasting days.