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Saturn's day over most of Southern Europe. But the plain numbers for the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th days, though regularly used by orthodox Church writers, took no popular root[1]. Our task is to find how far before Dion's time we can trace the planetary week. The first writer as we move backwards through the second century is Clement of Alexandria, one of the greatest and most liberal-minded of the Fathers. The Christian fast-days he observes[2] are the fourth day and the 'preparation,' i.e. Wednesday and Friday, and in this the enlightened will see an allegory. For these days are named after Mercury and Venus, and in fasting on them we symbolize the larger truth that our whole lives must be a fast from avarice (Mercury) and lust (Venus). This utilization of a piece of paganism to point a Christian moral is entirely after Clement's manner and we must not draw from his words an inference, which would be contradicted by plentiful evidence, that devout or strict Christians were reconciled to the use of the planetary names. But his words do shew that the planetary week was an accepted usage of the pagan world, in which the Christian necessarily moved.
We next come to a famous passage in the Apology of Justin Martyr[3]. This defence of
