Ireland and Scotland, which had been mi faulty Cycles, were, at length, brought in formity. Finally, science was sufficiently a in the 16th century, for Pope Gregory the Thi to undertake a reform of the Calendar. The 1 had to be restored to the 21st of March, as the of Nicæa had prescribed. The Pope effected publishing a Bull, dated February 24, 1581, which he ordered that ten days of the followi namely from the 4th to the 15th of October be suppressed. He thus restored the work of Cæsar, who had, in his day, turned his atten the rectification of the Year. Easter was th object of the reform, or, as it is called, the Ne achieved by Gregory the Thirteenth. The pr and regulations of the Nicene Council wer brought to bear on this the capital question Liturgical Year; and the Roman Pontiff thu to the whole world, the intimation of Easter, one year only, but for centuries. Heretical were forced to acknowledge the divine power Church in this solemn act, which intereste religion and society. They protested again Calendar, as they had protested against the Faith. England and the Lutheran States of G preferred following, for many years, a Calendar was evidently at fault, rather than accept th Style, which they acknowledged to be indispe but it was the work of a Pope 1 The only in Europe that keeps up the Old Style is whose antipathy to Rome obliges her to b ten or twelve days behind the rest of the c world.

All this shows us how important it was to precise Day of Easter; and God has several

1 [Great Britain adopted the New Style, by Act of Par in the year 1752.-TR.]

shown, by miracles, that the date of so sacred a Feast was not a matter of indifference. During the ages, when the confusion of the Cycles and the want of correct astronomical computations occasioned great uncertainty as to the Vernal Equinox, miraculous events more than once supplied the deficiencies of science and authority. In a Letter to St. Leo the Great, in the year 444, Paschasinus, Bishop of Lilybea1 in Sicily, relates that under the Pontificate of St. Zozimus,-Honorius being Consul for the eleventh, and Constantius for the second time,-the real day of Easter was miraculously revealed to the people of one of the Churches there. In the midst of a mountainous and thickly wooded district of the Island was a village called Meltinas. Its Church was of the poorest, but it was dear to God. Every year, on the Night preceding Easter Sunday, as the Priest went to the Baptistery to bless the Font, it was found to be miraculously filled with Water, for there were no human means wherewith it could be supplied. As soon as Baptism was administered, the Water disappeared of itself, and left the Font perfectly dry. În the year just mentioned, the people, misled by a wrong calculation, assembled for the ceremonies of Easter Eve. The Prophecies having been read, the Priest and his flock repaired to the Baptistery, but the Font was empty. They waited, expecting the miraculous flowing of the Water, wherewith the Catechumens were to receive the grace of regeneration: but they waited in vain, and no Baptism was administered. On the following 22nd of April, (the tenth of the Kalends of May,) the Font was found to be filled to the brim, and thereby the people understood that that was the true Easter for that Year.2

Cassiodorus writing, in the name of king Athalaric,

1 The modern Marsala. 2 Sti. Leonis Opera, Epist. iii.

to a certain Severus, relates a similar miracle, happened every year on Easter Eve, in Lucania the small island of Leucothea, at a place Marcilianum. There was a large fountain whose water was so clear, that the air itself w more transparent. It was used as the Font f administration of Baptism on Easter Night soon as the Priest, standing under the rock w with nature had canopied the fountain, bega prayers of the Blessing, the Water, as though t part in the transports of the Easter joy, arose Font; so that, if previously it was to the level fifth step, it was seen to rise up to the sev impatient, as it were, to effect those wonders of whereof it was the chosen instrument. God show by this, that even inanimate creatures can when he so wills it, in the holy gladness o greatest of all Days.1

St. Gregory of Tours tells us of a Font, existed even then, in a Church of Andalusia, place called Osen, and whereby God miracul certified to his people the true Day of Easter. the Maundy Thursday of each year, the Bi accompanied by the Faithful, repaired to this Ch The bed of the Font was built in the form of a and was paved with mosaics. It was carefull amined, to see that it was perfectly dry; and several prayers had been recited, every one lef Church, and the Bishop sealed the door with his On Holy Saturday, the Pontiff returned, accompa by his flock; the seal was examined, and the was opened. The Font was found to be filled, above the level of the floor, and yet the water not overflow. The Bishop pronounced the exorc over the miraculous Water, and poured the Ch into it. The Catechumens were then baptised;

1 Cassiodorus, Variarum, lib. vii. epist. xxxiii.

as soon as the sacrament had been administered, the Water immediately disappeared, and no one could tell what became of it.1 Similar miracles were witnessed in several Churches in the East. John Moschus, a writer of the 7th century, speaks of a Baptismal Font in Lycia, which was thus filled every Easter Eve; but the Water remained in the Font during the whole fifty days, and suddenly disappeared after the Festival of Pentecost.2

We alluded, in our History of Passiontide, to the decrees passed by the Christian Emperors, which forbade all Law proceedings during the fortnight of Easter, that is, from Palm Sunday to the Octave Day of the Resurrection. St. Augustine, in a Sermon he preached on this Octave, exhorts the Faithful to extend to the whole year this suspension of law-suits, disputes, and enmities, which the Civil Law interdicted during these fifteen days.

The Church puts upon all her children the obligation of receiving Holy Communion at Easter. This precept is based upon the words of our Redeemer, who left it to his Church to determine the time of the Year, when Christians should receive the Blessed Sacrament. In the early Ages, Communion was frequent, and, in some places, even daily. By degrees, the fervour of the Faithful grew cold towards this august Mystery, as we gather from a decree of the Council of Agatha, (Agde,) held in 506, where it is defined, that those of the laity who shall not approach Communion at Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost, are to be considered as having ceased to be Catholics.3 This Decree of the Council of Agatha was accepted as the law of almost the entire Western Church. We find it quoted among the regulations drawn up by

1 De Gloria Martyrum, lib. i. cap. xxiv. 2 Pratum spirituale, cap. ccxv.

3 Concil. Agath., Canon xviii.

Egbert, Archbishop of York, as also in the Council of Tours. In many places, however munion was obligatory for the Sundays of Le for the last three Days of Holy Week, indepen of that which was to be made on the Easter F

It was in the year 1215, in the 4th General C of Lateran, that the Church, seeing the ever gi indifference of her children, decreed with regre Christians should be strictly bound to Comm only once in the Year, and that that Commun obligation should be made at Easter. In or show the Faithful that this is the uttermost of her condescension to lukewarmness, she de in the same Council, that he that shall presu break this Law, may be forbidden to enter a c during life, and be deprived of christian buria death, as he would be if he had, of his own a separated himself from the exterior link of Ca unity. These regulations of a General Council how important is the duty of the Easter Commu but, at the same time, they make us shudder a thought of the millions, throughout the Catholic who brave each year the threats of the Chur refusing to comply with a duty, which would bring life to their souls, and serve as a profess their faith. And when we again reflect upon many even of those who make their Easter munion, have paid no more attention to the L Penance than if there were no such obligati existence, we cannot help feeling sad, and we w within ourselves, how long God will bear with infringements of the Christian Law?

Two centuries after this, Pope Eugenius the Fourth, Constitution Digna Fide, given in the year 1440, allowe annual Communion to be made on any day between Palm S and Low Sunday inclusively. [In England, by permission Holy See, the time for making the Easter Communion e from Ash Wednesday to Low Sunday.—TR.]