731. in answer to
the enquiries of Boniface, bishop of Mayence, states that "on holy
thursday, when the sacred chrism is consecrated, three lamps of a
large size filled with oil collected from the different lamps of the
church, and placed in a secret part of the said church, should burn
there constantly, so that the oil may suffice till the third day,
that is saturday. Then let the fire of the lamps which is used for the
sacred font be renewed. But concerning the fire taken _ex cristallis_,
as you have asserted, we have no tradition". Pouget (Inst. Cathol. l.
1) observes that the new fire is blessed with great solemnity on this
day, "because the fire struck from a flint appears to be a type of
Christ arising from the dead". Formerly not only the lights of the
church, but all the fires of the city were enkindled from the blessed
fire (as we learn from a MS. Sancti Victoris (ap. Martene, De ant.
Eccl. Ritibus lib. IV, c. XXIV). "After the _Ite Missa est_" says
the Ordinarium of Luke archbishop of Cosenza "the bishop gives his
blessing, and immediately the deacon commands the people, saying
"Receive the new fire from the holy candle, and having put out the
old, light it in your houses in the name of Christ; then rejoicing
they depart with the light". This custom is mentioned also in Leo
IVth's homily above quoted.]

[Footnote 112: As for the Paschal candle, Anastasius says that
Zosimus, who was elected pope in 417, gave leave that candles should
be blessed in the churches. Bened. XIV, Merati and Gretser understand
by these words, that that Pontiff only extended to the parish churches
a custom already practised in the greater churches: however this may
be, the blessing of this candle is at least as old as the time of Pope
Zosimus. It is inserted in the ancient sacramentary of Pope Gelasius
(A.D. 495). S. Augustine (lib. 15 de Civ. Dei) mentions some verses
written by himself in praise of the paschal candle. S. Jerome also
speaks of it in his epistles; and Ennodius bishop of Pavia in
519 wrote two formulas, according to which it might be blessed.
Cancellieri, at the end of his _Funzioni della Settimana Santa_,
describes two blessings of the paschal candle contained in manuscripts
of the 12th century. Du Vert as usual rejects every mystical meaning
of the candle: but why then should it be lighted on this night, and
not on christmas and other nights? The 4th Council of Toledo, held in
633, states that the paschal candle is b