eggs, cheese, and wine, was allowed, and became general after the 11th century; and thereafter even the use of these was permitted, flesh being alone excepted. Indeed, judging from the writings of the early fathers, the custom had been to take but one meal a day, in the evening, consisting either of "dry food" or bread and water. As the rigor of the fast was relaxed, the hour of refection was advanced from sunset to noon; and in the 13th century a slight cold collation was allowed in the evening. In the early ages also, the fast of Lent was kept with the greatest rigor by the catechumens and public penitents; by the former as a fitting preparation for their solemn baptism on Holy Saturday, and by the latter in the hope of receiving at the same time entire absolution or a mitigation of their penance. By the laws of Theodosius the Great the infliction of all species of corporal punishment was forbidden during Lent. For the same reason the council of Clermont (1095) enjoined under pain of excommunication that the universal peace called the truce of God should be observed from Ash Wednesday till Whitsuntide. In the present discipline of the Roman Catholic church, only one meal is allowed, and at this the use of flesh meat is prohibited. Custom allows a slight refection, not exceeding two ounces in the morning, and a collation not exceeding eight ounces in the evening. This general rule is modified to suit the necessities of climate and occupation. In the United States, the use of flesh meat is allowed several times a week in accordance with the demands made by each bishop for his diocese. But fish and flesh are never allowed during Lent at the same meal. In Spain, the Spanish colonies, and Spanish America, by the payment of a trifling sum, one can purchase during Lent the privilege of the cruzada, which is the perpetuation of the privilege of using flesh meat on all days of abstinence granted in favor of those engaged in the crusades against the Moors, or who contributed money to assist the crusaders. In nearly all the Protestant churches of continental Europe, particularly in the Lutheran church, Lent is still a penitential season. In England Ercombert, who died in 664, made the observance of Lent obligatory in Kent. The church of England still keeps the Lenten fast on her calendar with appropriate services, as does the Protestant Episcopal church.-A curious old English custom followed in Lent was that of pelting a puppet called a Jack o' Lent, the origin of which is not explained. Ben Jonson alludes to it in his "Tale of a Tub":

The

And saythe, repent yow of yower syn,
For shame, syrs, leve yower swerynge:
And to Palme Sonday doethe he ryde,
With sprots and herryngs by hys syde,
And makes an end of Lenton tyde!

fourth Sunday of Lent is often termed Mid-Lent Sunday or Passion Sunday; it was formerly known as "Carl Sunday," and on that day beans or peas called "carlings" used to be given away or eaten. Thus an English translator (1607) gives the following passage from the Quadragesimale Spirituale (Paris, 1565): "After the sallad (eaten in Lent at the first service) we eat fried beanes, by which we understand confession. When we would have beanes well sooden, we lay them in steepe, for otherwise they will never seeth kindly. Therefore, if we purpose to mend our faults, it is not sufficient barely to confess them at all adventure, but we must let our confession lie in steepe in the water of meditation." In his "Colin Clout" Skelton writes:

In holy Lenton Season,

Ye will neither Beanes nor Peason, But ye look to be let loose

To a pigge or to a goose.

Lent is preceded in some countries by the dissipation of the carnival. (See CARNIVAL.) The day before Ash Wednesday is called Shrove Tuesday, because the faithful used then to confess and be shriven, in preparation for the fast. In the north of England Shrovetide is still called Fastingtide, Fastens, and Fastmass. (See HOLY WEEK, and GOOD FRIDAY.)

LENTIL (Lat. lens), an esculent seed produced by ervum lens, of the pea family, and used for food from the earliest times. The len

mass and making a pottage of a chocolate color. In Egypt and Syria the parched seeds are exposed for sale in the shops, and they are esteemed the best food to carry upon long journeys. On the continent of Europe its use is very common, especially by the Roman Catholics during Lent. The plant is slender and branching, with the leaves terminated by tendrils; it grows only 12 or 18 in. high, and bears small pea-like flowers in pairs, which are succeeded by pods containing from one to four round, flattened, doubly convex seeds. There are some half dozen varieties, of which the large lentil is the most productive and the common the best flavored. Considerable quantities are imported into this country, but their use is mainly confined to Europeans; lentil soup is a favorite dish with Germans. The cultivation of the lentil is very similar to that of the pea, requiring a dry, warm, sandy soil; it is sown early in May, broadcast if intended merely for fodder, but in drills if the ripe seeds are desired; as a green food for stock it is highly valued in Europe, but it has not obtained a place in our agriculture. Like other legumes, the lentil contains a great amount of nutriment, Einhoff finding in 100 parts 32.81 of starch and 37.32 of matter analogous to animal matter. The preparation sold as a food for children under the names of revalenta and ervalenta Arabica consists of lentil meal flavored with sugar and salt. Lentils are regarded as a highly nutritious and easily digestible food, but they must be deprived of their skins either before or after cooking, as these are indigestible and hurtful.

LENTULUS, the name of a patrician family, long prominent in ancient Roman history. PUBLIUS LENTULUS SURA, the chief associate of Catiline, was quæstor in 81 B. C., prætor in 75, consul in 71, and in the following year was ejected from the senate for his infamous life. Joining the conspiracy of Catiline, he became prætor again in 63, was left in command of the conspirators in the city when Catiline departed for Etruria, was detected and proved guilty by Cicero through the Allobroges, and was strangled in the Capitoline prison, Dec. 5, 63 B. C.

LENZ, Jakob Michael Reinhold, a German poet, born at Sesswegen, Livonia, Jan. 12, 1750, died in Moscow, May 24, 1792. He was the son of a clergyman, studied in Königsberg, and as a tutor of Russian nobles went to Strasburg, where he was an unsuccessful lover of Goethe's Friederike of Sesenheim. In 1776 he associated with Goethe, Herder, and Wieland at Weimar; but his aversion to the conventionalities of society put a speedy end to his residence there. He became insane, and ended his life in great misery. His writings, chiefly dramatic, edited by Tieck (3 vols., Berlin, 1828), reflect the "storm and pressure period" of German literature.

LEO, the name of twelve popes, of whom the following are the most important. I. Leo I.,

Saint, surnamed the Great, born of Tuscan parents in Rome about 390, died there in November, 461. He was employed by Popes Zosimus, Celestine I., and Sixtus III. on the most important missions. In 418 he was sent to the churches of northern Africa to unite the bishops against the spread of the Pelagian doctrines; and he displayed great activity in combating the Nestorian heresy. When the dissensions between the imperial commanders in the West, Aëtius and Albinus, left Gaul and Italy exposed to the attacks of the barbarians, Leo was sent by the emperor Valentinian III. to appease the quarrel, and had just succeeded in his mission when Sixtus III. died in the summer of 440, and Leo was unanimously chosen his successor. His first efforts as pope were directed toward restoring harmony and discipline among the churches of Africa, annulling fraudulent episcopal elections in Gaul, enforcing celibacy among the clergy, and suppressing the immorality charged on the Manichæans of Italy. In 445 he held a council in Rome to judge the appeal of Celidonius, bishop of Besançon, who was declared innocent and restored to his see; and St. Hilary, archbishop of Arles, who had deposed him, was for a time deprived of his metropolitan jurisdiction. In Spain he approved of the execution of Priscillian, convicted of magic and immorality, and put to death by the usurper Maximus, and he procured the condemnation of Priscillianism by a national council of Spanish bishops. Eutyches, condemned for heresy at Constantinople in November, 448, made an appeal to Leo which was supported by the emperor Theodosius II. This led to the convocation at Ephesus, in 449, of what is known as the "robber synod," in which the partisans of Eutyches, protected by the imperial troops, excommunicated Leo, and caused or hastened the death of Flavian, patriarch of Constantinople. These violent proceedings were cancelled by the general council of Chalcedon in 451, over which Leo's legates presided, and in which his letter was accepted as the expression of orthodox doctrine. In 452, at the invasion of Italy by the Huns under Attila, the emperor Valentinian having taken refuge in Rome, and his general Aëtius having abandoned Italy to her fate, Leo with two senators went to meet Attila near Mantua, and persuaded him to accept a pecuniary ransom from the Romans, and to retire beyond the Danube. In 455, Genseric and an army of Vandals having come to Rome at the invitation of the empress Eudoxia, the mediation of Leo could only obtain a promise that the lives of the citizens should be spared, together with three churches, which served as an asylum while the rest of the city was sacked. All the treasures of Rome having been carried to Africa with her chief citizens, the pope devoted himself to redeeming the captives and relieving the manifold distress of his flock. He also used his influence with the court of Constantinople to quell the religious

troubles caused in Egypt and Syria by the partisans of Eutyches.-Besides a large collection of sermons, there remain 173 letters of St. Leo on ecclesiastical matters addressed to contemporary sovereigns, bishops, and councils. Quesnel attributed to him the treatise De Vocatione Gentium, considered by some to belong to St. Prosper, and by others to St. Ambrose. Of the numerous editions of his works, the principal are those by Pasquier Quesnel (2 vols. 4to, Paris, 1675), Cacciari (2 vols. fol., Rome, 1753-'5), and Ballerini (3 vols. fol., Verona, 1755-7). See also Dumoulin, Vie et religion de deux bons papes, Léon I. et Grégoire I. (Paris, 1650); Maimbourg, Histoire du pontificat de St. Léon (1687); Arendt, Leo der Grosse und seine Zeit (Mentz, 1835); Perthel, Pabst Leo's I. Leben und Lehren (Jena, 1843); Saint-Chéron, Histoire du pontificat de St. Léon le Grand et de son siècle (2 | vols., Paris, 1846). II. Leo III., Saint, born in Rome about 750, died there, June 11, 816. He was educated in the monastic school attached to the Lateran palace, was cardinalpriest of Santa Susanna, and distinguished for his learning and eloquence, when he succeeded Adrian I., Dec. 25, 795. He immediately wrote to Charlemagne to renew the relations which existed between the latter and Pope Adrian, confirmed the title of patricius, senator or protector of Rome, bestowed upon Charlemagne's father Pepin by Pope Stephen III., and received in return a portion of the spoils won from the Avars by Charlemagne. At the time of Leo's election Rome was visited by Offa, king of the Mercians, who increased the revenues of the English college founded at Rome by Ina (died 728), and which was supported by a tax originating with these princes, which afterward received the name of "Peter pence." On April 25, 799, while present on horseback at the solemn procession in honor of St. Mark, Leo was attacked by an armed band led by two priests, Paschal and Campolo, nephews of Adrian I., who, after attempting to put out his eyes and cut out his tongue, imprisoned him in a neighboring convent. Having been delivered by the citizens, he took refuge in Spoleto, and thence went to Paderborn, where Charlemagne received him with honor, and gave him a numerous escort of bishops, counts, and armed men to accompany him on his return to Rome. The two priests who had made the assault on him were then tried and banished to France. Toward the close of the year 800 Charlemagne, after expelling the Saracens from the Balearic islands, went to Rome, where a council of bishops examined the charges brought against Leo by the exiled assassins, and declared the pope's innocence. On Christmas day Charlemagne was anointed emperor of the West by Leo. In 804 the pope visited the emperor at Aix-la-Chapelle, and prevailed on him to restore the full liberty of canonical elections, to prevent those called chorepiscopi from exercising episcopal powers or conferring

holy orders, to forbid churchmen from bearing arms, and to enforce the obligation of residence for bishops. The council of Aix-la-Chapelle in 809 having approved the custom established in Spain and followed by the Frankish monks of Palestine, of inserting the words Filioque in the Nicene creed, the decision of the council was submitted in 810 to Leo, who advised the discontinuance of the custom. He had the Nicene creed engraved in Greek and Latin, without the addition Filioque, on silver tablets, which were hung up near the Confession of St. Peter. In 815 a new conspiracy was discovered, and its authors were put to death. The sentence and its hasty execution were censured by the new emperor Louis le Débonnaire. In 816, an earthquake having ruined several towns in Italy, and thrown down a church in Rome, Leo in order to propitiate the divine wrath established the solemn litanies and processions known as the Rogations. Leo III. is praised by his contemporary Anastasius the Librarian for his munificence in building and adorning churches. Thirteen letters of this pontiff are extant in Labbe's Concilia, vol. vii. Hermann Conring published his Epistola ad Carolum Magnum (4to, Helmstedt, 1647). III. Leo IV., Saint, born in Rome about 800, died there, July 17, 855. He was educated in the monastery of San Martino, became a member of the community, was selected by Gregory IV. as one of his domestic prelates, and created a cardinal by Sergius II. He was unanimously elected pope Jan. 30, 847, without the customary notice being sent to the emperor, because the city was threatened by Saracen pirates. They had just ravaged the environs of Rome, and sacked the basilicas of St. Paul without the wall and St. Peter on the Vatican, carrying away the silver and gold which decked St. Peter's tomb. Leo, aided by the emperor, enclosed the Vatican with fortifications. (See LEONINE CITY.) In 849, while the work was still in progress, the Saracens landed a great force at Ostia. The pope armed every man in Rome and the neighborhood, obtained auxiliary troops from Gaëta and Naples, and sallied forth at their head in his priestly robes. A fearful storm came to the aid of the Romans; the Saracen fleet was scattered or wrecked, and the invaders were utterly routed. The rich booty recovered by the victors helped the pope to complete the entire circuit of the walls of Rome. The city of Porto was also rebuilt by Leo for purposes of defence in 852, and peopled by a colony of Corsicans, whom the Saracens had driven from Bastia. On Dec. 8, 853, he held in Rome a council of 67 bishops, in which canons were enacted for the discipline of the clergy and the instruction of the people in the knowledge of gospel truth. letters of Leo's are extant in Labbe's Concilia, vol. viii. IV. Leo X. (GIOVANni de' Medici), born in Florence, Dec. 11, 1475, died in Rome, Dec. 1, 1521. He was the second son of Lorenzo the Magnificent, destined for the church

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