Antelucani

Antelucani (sc. SEE COETUS), i.e. before daylight. In times of persecution the Christians, being unable to meet for divine worship in the open day, held their assemblies in the night. The like assemblies were afterward continued from feelings of piety and devotion, and called antelucan or night assemblies. This custom is noticed in Pliny's Letter to Trajan (lib. 10, ep. 97). — Bingham, Orig. Eccl. bk. 13, ch. 10, § 11.