quadragene
An indulgence from 40 days of fasting or similar abstinence, especially during Lent; (later) various equivalent indulgences against punishment in Purgatory.
historical
Careen (and its Latin source, quadragene) no longer made sense in the fifteenth century because priests no longer distributed punishments in forty-day parcels, the duration of Lent... the culture had shifted from brief punishments on earth to long punishments in the afterlife, in Purgatory. But the term was still in circulation, and people sought to make sense of it by inventing new definitions for it.
An indulgence provided by 40 days of fasting.
historical
Actors and spectators were often granted indulgences; generally^([sic]) to the scale of one Quadragene (a forty-day fast on bread and water in return for divine grace).
Where it comes from
From Late Latin quadragēna (“40-day period, Lent”), from Latin quadrāgēnus (“40 each”), from quadrāgintā (“four tens, forty”). Doublet of carene.
Adapted from the Wiktionary entry quadragene (CC BY-SA 4.0).