The word Ember is of uncertain derivation. We may at once dismiss, as founded only on an accidental similarity of sound, that from the “embers” or ashes erroneously assumed to have been used at these seasons in token of humiliation. Other more probable derivations are from the Anglo-Saxon ymb-ren, a circuit or revolution (from ymb, around, and rennen, to run); or by process of agglutination and phonetic decay, from the Latin quatuor tempora. Those who advocate this latter derivation appeal to the analogous forms by which these seasons are designated in some of the Teutonic languages, e.g.—German, quatember; Dutch, quatertemper; Danish, hvatember; Swedish, tampeτ-dagar. But the occurrence of the Anglo-Saxon compounds ymbren-tid, ymbreη-ινucaη, ymbren-faes-tan, ymbren-dagas, for Ember tide, weeks, fasts, days, favours the former derivation, which is also confirmed by the use of the word imbren in the Acts of the council of Aenham, 1009 a.d. (“jejunia quatuor tempora quae imbren vocant ”). It corresponds also with Pope Leo the Great’s definition, “jejunia ecclesiastica per totius anni circulum distributa.”

The observance of the Ember days is confined to the Western Church, and had its origin as an ecclesiastical ordinance in Rome. They were probably at first merely the fasts preparatory to the three great festivals of Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost. A fourth was subsequently added, for the sake of symmetry, to make them correspond with the four seasons, and they became known as the jejunium vernum, aestivum, autumnale, and hiemale, so that, to quote Pope Leo’s words, “the law of abstinence might apply to every season of the year,” An earlier mention of these fasts, as four in number—the first known—is in the writings of Philastrius, bishop of Brescia, in the middle of the 4th century, He also connects them with the great Christian festivals (De Hceres., 119). In Leo’s time, 440-461 a.d., Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday were already the days of special observance. From Rome the Ember days gradually spread through the whole of Western Christendom. Uniformity of practice, however, in this particular was of somewhat slow growth. Neither in Gaul nor Spain do they seem to have been generally recognized much before the 8th century. Their introduction into Britain appears to have been earlier, dating from Augustine, 597 a.d., acting under the authority of Gregory the Great, lhe general period of the four fasts being roughly fixed, the precise date appears to have varied considerably, and in some cases to have lost its connection with the festivals altogether. The Ordo Romanus fixes the spring fast in the first week of March (then the first month); the summer fast in the second week of June; the autumnal fast in the third week of September; and the winter fast in the complete week next before Christmas eve. Other regulations pre vailed in different countries, until the inconveniences arising from the want of uniformity led to the rule now observed being laid down under Pope Urban II. as the law of the church, in the councils of Placentia and Clermont, 1095 a.d.

The present rule which fixes the ordination of clergy in the Ember weeks cannot be traced further back than the time of Pope Gelasius, 492-496 a.d. In the early ages of the church ordinations took place at any season of the year whenever necessity required. Gelasius is stated by ritual writers to have been the first who limited them to these particular times, the special solemnity of the season being in all probability the cause of the selection. The rule once introduced commended itself to the mind of the church, and its observance spread. We find it laid down in the pontificate of Archbishop Egbert of York, 732-766 a.d., and referred to as a canonical rule in a capitulary of Charles the Great, and it was finally established as a law of the church in the pontificate of Gregory VII., c. 1085.

Authorities: Muratori, Dissert, de Jejuη. Quαt. Temp., c. vii., anecdot. tom. ii. p. 262; Bingham, Antiq. of the Christ. Church, bk. iv. chap. vi. § 6, bk. xxi. chap. ii. § 1-7; Binterim, Denkwürdigkeiten, vol. V. part 2, pp. 133 ff.; Augusti, Handbuch der Christlich. Archäol., vol. i. p. 465, iii. 486.