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We are therefor the rather to make it manifest in all men’s eyes, that set times of fasting appointed in spiritual considerations to be kept by all sorts of men took not their beginning either from Montanus or any other whose heresies may prejudice the credit and due estimation thereof, but have their ground in the law of nature, are allowable in God’s sight, were in all ages heretofore, and may till the world’s end be observed not without singular use and benefit. Hooker, Laws, Book V, LXII.i
The spiritual disciplines of fasting, prayer and giving to the poor have been part of the Church’s demands upon the lives of the faithful since the time of Christ and his apostles. This is not an argument based upon tradition, but upon the testimony of the Scripture in both Old and New Testaments. A casual reading of the of them reveals the universal practice of the Hebrews and the Lord himself along with his apostles was to fast. Even Darius the Persian king and the Ninevites sought the God of Israel in prayer and fasting. Yet, fasting and the other disciplines have fallen out of practice among the Christian faithful as a result of the Reformation’s suspicion of the value of good works, the gradual elimination of established churches and the modern emphasis on the individuality and interiority of the Christian experience. There appears to be little reason to restrict one’s diet if it doesn’t increase one’s standing with God, is not enforced by civil law and has little relation to the state of one’s ‘spirituality’ which is seen as the main point of religion.
All this being the case, people are surprised to find that the classical Book of Common Prayer stipulates that fasting is expected. Any iteration of Cranmer’s book includes in the ‘Tables and Rules for the Moveable and Immoveable Feasts Together with the Days of Fasting and Abstinence, through the Whole Year” immediately after the Daily Office lectionary. The Church determines that Ash Wednesday and Good Friday are singular in the rigor of avoidance of food. Other days in the year, including the 40 days of Lent (excepting Sundays), the Ember Days of every quarter, and every Friday of the year (outside of Christmastide) should be kept ‘with extraordinary acts and exercises of devotion’. In the 16c these were commonly referred to as ‘fish days’ in England because of the legal stipulation that fish was the only meat that could be consumed. Penalties for breaking the law ranged from monetary fines to time in the jail. That is to say, that the spiritual world that gave birth to the Book of Common Prayer was convinced of two things. That fasting was a godly and spiritual practice (expected by the ultimate authority of Scripture) and that the practice of religion was public, not simply a matter of private devotion.
The 16c English Puritans objected to the continuation of these public feasts and fasts, preferring to emphasize the primacy of the weekly Sabbath on Sunday as the principal public devotion. This ‘Sabbatarianism’ had the 4 th Commandment ‘Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy…’ in its favor. But Richard Hooker, in his Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, rejects that reducing of the Church’s calendar and claim upon the subjects of the realm. Contrarily, Hooker declares that fasting is natural virtue, is not the product of the errors of Jews, heretics or Roman Catholics, is allowed by God and will surely endure to the end of the age with great benefit to the faithful. Such prejudicial remarks may strike the 21c reader as unbearably biased, but it is not Hooker’s intent to slander those with whom he disagrees. Instead, he seeks to show that natural law affirming the practice of fasting is agreed upon by all, even those with whom the reformed Church of England found itself at odds. That is to say, the Puritan objection to the declaration of public fasts is the singularity, the uniquely contrary voice among all human history.
But, there is more. In his introduction to the fifth book Hooker writes, ‘For if the course of politic affairs cannot in any good sort go forward without fit instruments, and that which fitteth them be their virtues, let Polity acknowledge itself indebted to Religion; godliness being the chiefest top and wellspring of all true virtues, even as God is of all good things’. Politics is the science of the ‘polis’ or civic order of human beings living together. Laws are the rules that guide and guard that order. But the effectiveness of the law is limited by the subjects of that law, the citizens of the commonwealth. As the motto of the University of Pennsylvania states, leges sine moribus vanae, ‘laws without morals are useless’. Hooker wants to know how humans acquire their moral compass. Of course, humans have a natural understanding of universal virtue, what we might call the 2 nd table of the law, ‘don’t kill’, ‘don’t commit adultery’, ‘don’t steal’, ‘don’t slander your neighbor’s reputation’, ‘don’t desire to possess your neighbor’s property’. It wouldn’t be inappropriate to add the Cardinal Virtues of Prudence, Justice, Fortitude and Temperance. The great classical pagan cultures had formulated these without divine revelation. But Hooker says that the political world must acknowledge itself as being indebted to the religious world, that is, the established Church, because it is the Church’s role to publicize, cultivate and maintain civic morals. Days devoted to public fasting each Friday and the during the 40 days of Lent, according to Hooker’s thinking, are not publicized primarily for the private consumption and execution of the citizen, but for the purpose of creating a godly commonwealth that seeks to abide in wisdom and favor with God and our neighbor.
