itted into the Household of Faith, are the
people of the Faith--_fideles_, that is, _believers_.

Faldstool.--Literally, a portable folding seat, similar to a camp
stool, and formerly used by a Bishop when officiating in any church
other than his Cathedral. The name now is generally applied to the
LITANY DESK (which see).

Fasting.--Going without food of any kind as a religious discipline
and as a help to the spiritual life, especially on the great Fasts
of the Church. The Homily on Fasting says: "Fasting is found to be
of two sorts; the one outward, pertaining to the body; the other
inward, in the heart and mind. The outward fast is an abstinence
from meat, drink and all natural food, for the determined time of
fasting; yea, from all {108} delicacies, pleasures and delectations
worldly. The inward fast consists in that godly sorrow which leads
us to bewail and detest our sins and to abstain from committing
them."

Fasting Communion.--(See EARLY COMMUNION.)

Fasts, Table of.--The Reformers of the English Church retained and
enjoined _one hundred and twenty-three_ days in each year, to be
sanctified wholly or in part as Fasts and days of abstinence. These,
with the exception of the Table of Vigils, have been retained in the
American Prayer Book and are the following:

ABSOLUTE FASTS,

Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.

OTHER DAYS OF FASTING,

_on which the Church requires such a measure of abstinence as is
more especially suited to extraordinary acts and exercises of
devotion, namely_:

I. The Forty Days of Lent.

II. The Ember Days at the four seasons.

III. The Three Rogation Days.

IV. All Fridays in the year, except Christmas Day.

These Fasting Days must always be announced to the congregation in
Church, the rubric in the Communion Office requiring that "Then the
Minister shall declare unto the People what Holy Days or Fasting
Days are in the week following to be observed."

Fathers, The.--The name used to designate the ancient writers of
the Church. Their writings are of the greatest value as bearing
witness to the N. T. Scriptures and their interpretation, and also
as {109} showing forth the belief and usage of the Church in the
earliest years of its history. (See TRADITIONS, also UNDIVIDED
CHURCH.) The term "Fathers" is generally confined to the writers
of the first five or six hundred years of the Christian Era. They
are usually grouped together according to the period in which they
lived, _e.g