Advent includes four Sundays or weeks; commencing either from the Sunday which falls on St. Andrew's Day, or that next after it. But, it is to be noted, this rule has not always obtained. In the Ambrosian Office, there are six weeks marked for Advent; and St. Gregory, in his Sacramentary, allows five. The first week of Advent, in our way of reckoning, is that wherein it begins; but it was anciently otherwise, the week next Christmas being reputed the first; and the numeration carried backward. Great austerity was practiced in the ancient Church during this season. At first, they fasted three days a week; but were afterward obliged to fast every day; whence the season is frequently called in ancient writers, Lent, and Quadragesima. See LENT and FAST.
The courts of justice were all shut. Under King John, it was expressly declared that in Adventu Domini nulla Assisa capi deberet; but this was afterward altered, and it was made lawful, in respect of justice and charity which ought at all times to be regarded, to take Assizes of Novel Disseisin, Mort d'Ancestor, and Darrein Presentment, in the Time of Advent, Septuagesima, and Lent. See ASSIZE.