A period of fasting previous to Easter, at first lasting only 40 hours, was gradually extended to three, four, or six days, then different Churches extended it to three and six: weeks; in the 6th century Gregory the Great fixed it for the West at 40 days from Ash Wednesday to Easter, excluding Sundays; in the Eastern Church it begins on the Monday after quinquagesima and excludes both Saturdays and Sundays; in the Anglican Church the season is marked by special services, but the fast is not rigidly kept.
The Nuttall Encyclopædia: Being a Concise and Comprehensive Dictionary of General Knowledge[1] is a late 19th-century encyclopedia, edited by Rev. James Wood, first published in London in 1900 by Frederick Warne & Co Ltd.
WikipediaEditions were recorded for 1920, 1930, 1938 and 1956 and was still being sold in 1966. Editors included G. Elgie Christ and A. L. Hayden for 1930, Lawrence Hawkins Dawson for 1938 and C. M. Prior for 1956.[2]
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