Does anyone know when not eating meat on Fridays started? I know that this was mentioned in the fourth century by Pope Peter I of Alexandria (Pope of the Coptic church).
I wonder if this is something that started in order to help differentiate what was then the newly established Christian religion from Judaism. In Judaism, the Shabbat Friday night meal is an extremely festive affair celebrating the start of the Jewish Shabbat. If a Jew can only afford to eat meat once per week, it should be the Shabbat Friday night meal.
I could see the early Christian Church challenging this custom, making Friday night a night of sacrifice and penance instead of celebration. You either were going to eat meat, and be loyal to Judaism, or refrain from eating meat and be loyal to Christianity.
Do they? I know that Apostolic succession is a thing as far as ordination is concerned, but that should have been taken care of when they were ordained a priest or bishop.
Picking the Bishop of Rome is merely a political matter… there aren’t any requirements other than save being Catholic and male; they’ll ordain you up if need be. There are de-facto requirements- be a member of the College of Cardinals, etc… but they’re not theologically significant.
I understand what you’re saying, and the amount of sense it makes depends on your attitude toward the authority of the church. This wasn’t a case of people deciding on their own to abstain from meat on Fridays as a kind of personal semi-fast; it was imposed on *all *Catholics by the authority of the church. Someone, somewhere decided on that rule; it did not derive from Scripture or the teaching of the apostles. You can probably imagine that such a restriction seems “silly” (to use the operative term) to someone who does not recognize the authority of the pope or the Magisterium of the RCC.
You say that the rule is not in opposition to Scripture, but some would argue that it is:
1 Timothy 4:1-3 (ESV) Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared, who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.
Forbidding marriage, at least for clergy, is another doctrine of the RCC that might seem to be in opposition to this text.
The Didache contains three explicit references to fasting: 1.3, 7.4, and 8.1.246 Clearly fasting was an accepted part of life for the early Christian community being addressed, and the practice is given certain practical associations and distinctions. The main themes that emerge are that fasting and prayer should be done for the sake of one’s enemies, fasting is part of the preparation for baptism, and fasting should be practiced on different days from the Jews.
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Fasting on Different Days Than Jews. The final reference to fasting in Did. 8.1 follows immediately the reference in 7.4, and so fasting becomes the transitional hinge to a further brief discussion of prayer. The text reads: “Let not your fasts be with the hypocrites, for they fast on Mondays and Thursdays, but do you fast on Wednesdays and Fridays.” This is clearly similar to Matt 6:16, with the next verse following suit echoing Matt 6:5, “Whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites,” and finishing up with the Lord’s prayer that is similar in wording to Matt 6:9-13.256 Included in this passage is the not-so-subtle implication that the term “hypocrites” referred to by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount is being applied to practitioners of Jewish fasting generally. As already seen, certain members of the Jewish community fasted twice a week (like the Pharisee in Luke 18:12), on Mondays and Thursdays. Here the Christians are instructed to change their fasting days to Wednesdays and Fridays, and the imperative mood ( ὑμεῖς δὲ νηστεύσατε) suggests to some that this fasting may have been compulsory, though that is not certain.
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Fasting on Wednesdays and Fridays could commemorate Jesus’ betrayal and crucifixion, as well as distinguishing Christian practice from Judaism. Since Jews prepared meals for the Sabbath on Fridays, it was a day of extra food preparation, and Christian fasting on Friday would imply breaking with Jewish Sabbath observance as well. By marking out different days for fasting, the Christians represented by the writing of the Didache appear to be using fasting as a means of self-identity. This at least shows an awareness that they believed they were a new community, while still being linked through Christ, the promised fulfillment, to the old.