te 115: Prudentius speaks of the "guttas olentes" or
odoriferous drops of the candle, and S. Paulinus of Nola of "odora
lumina": hence P. Arevalo conjectures that the grains of incense were
fixed in the paschal candle even at the time of Prudentius in the 4th
century.]

[Footnote 116: In churches, at the words _Apis mater eduxit_, the
lamps also are lighted. With regard to the triple candle, we may
observe that on an ancient marble column preserved in the Piazza
before the cathedral of Capua is a bas-relief representing the
lighting of the paschal candle by means of a reed surmounted by 3
small candles, as the Canonico Natali testifies in a letter printed at
Naples in 1776. The triple candle is mentioned in the Ordo Romanus
of Card. Gaetano, in that of Amelius, and in a MS. Pontifical of the
church of Apamea, ap. Martene. As Thomassin observes, "we light a
candle divided into three in honour of the Trinity, considering that
enlightened by Christ we know that recondite mystery". Gavant also
gives the same explanation. In the Greek service the bishop gives
his blessing, as often as he sings mass, with a triple candle. In the
Latin church it is used only on holy Saturday.]

[Footnote 117: See Appendix.]

[Footnote 118: This custom is proved from the letter of Siricius
Pope in the 4th century to Himmerius, from letters of S. Leo and
Pope Gelasius, as well as other ancient documents (ap. Bened. XIV,
Institut. prima ed lat.); and vestiges of it are preserved in the
liturgy of the weeks of Easter and Pentecost. Ordinations were
generally conferred before Christmas, as is evident from the lives of
the early Popes. Baptism was administered before the great festivals
of Easter and Pentecost, that the newly-baptised might be prepared to
celebrate them worthily, and receive the graces therein commemorated.
Perhaps another reason for selecting the eve of Easter may be found in
the parallel drawn by S. Paul between baptism and Christ's death and
resurrection (Rom. VI, 5 and foll.): "we who are baptised in Christ
Jesus are baptised in his death. For we are buried together with him
by baptism unto death: that as Christ is risen from the dead by the
glory of the Father, so we also may walk in newness of life" etc.]

[Footnote 119: See on such subjects Del Signore's Institut. Hist.
Eccles. with notes by Prof. Tizzani Cap. V. Sec. 19 seq.]

[Footnote 120: See Comm. ad Ord. Rom. Mabillonii tom. 2, Mus. Ital. p.
95.]

[Footnote 121: