So where does this idea for a ‘pre-Lent” period come from? My friend Professor Tighe has pointed out to me that the Byzantine ‘Tyrophagy’ (Cheeseweek) was, according to the manuals, established during the reign of Heraclius (610-641). So the Gesimas of our Roman Rite can hardly be a ‘Byzantinising’ idea picked up by S Gregory the Great when he was Apocrisiarius (Nuncio) in Canatantinople (
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