Licence to eat during Lent

[Wilkes_ml]

OK..this one puzzled me! I stumbled across this entry in the parish register of All Saints, Springfield, Essex

A licence granted to Robert SEWELL for himself to eat certain meals in lent according to ye Statute in that ease provided 12th March 1660

and a search led me to this https://freespace.virgin.net/guy.etchells/Lent.htm

from Guy Etchells, which is very interesting!

So why would certain people be allowed to eat certain meals, and be granted a licence to do so?

From Wiki https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lent
I get the impression that only Catholics were allowed dispensation.

This tiny little snippet from the parish register gives us an insight into how strict the rules were during the 17th century in England, and how they affected our ancestors lives.

[DorothySandra]

Lent was a particularly severe time, but there were many days when meat was forbidden. It wasn't a particularly onerous rule, since they were allowed to eat fish.

Of course, it made no difference to poor people, who could only afford to eat meat once in a while anyway.

People would be allowed to eat meat if they were sick or old, and in need of additional sustenance. It might only be beef broth (the Chicken Soup of the British) but it still needed a special dispensation.