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: According to the Ordo Romanus, children after baptism
on this day were to take no food or milk before Communion "and on all
days of Easter-week let them go to Mass, and let their parents offer
for them, and let all communicate". As Cabassutius proves in his
notitia Ecclesiastica saeculi primi, they used to receive the B.
Sacrament under the form of wine alone. The bishop dipped his finger
into the sacred blood, and then put it into the mouth of the child a
practice observed in modern times in some parts of the East, according
to the learned Maronite Abraham Ecchellensis; afterwards a little milk
and honey was put into their mouths, as an emblem (according to John
the deacon) of the promised land, to which they were called. This
custom of giving communion to children was not of necessity for
salvation, as Cardinal Noris proves in Vindiciis Augustinianis Sec.
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