Christian Cyclopedia

(Lat. “closed season”). Season in which festivities and merrymaking (e.g., weddings) were forbidden by the ch.. The prohibition applied to Lent (or Quadragesima*) is in the 52d canon of the Syn. of Laodicea.* The 1091 Syn. of Benevento, It., extended the prohibition to Advent, the 1284 Syn. of Nimes (Nismes), Fr., to the period from the 1st of the Rogation* Days to the 1st Sunday after Pent. The Council of Trent,* Sess. XXIV, Chap 10 on the Reform of Matrimony, commands “that from the Advent of our Lord Jesus Christ till the day of the Epiphany, and from Ash Wednesday till the octave of Easter inclusive, the old prohibitions of solemn nuptials be carefully observed by all.” CIC, Canon 1108, allows marriage to be contracted at any time of the yr.; only the solemn blessing of marriage is forbidden from the 1st Sunday of Advent to Christmas inclusively and from Ash Wednesday to Easter inclusively. The Luth. Ch. gen. recommended observance of tempus clausum, esp. Lent.