14. For on account of beginning the new life, and on account of the new man which we are bidden to put on and to put off the old, purging away the old ferment in order that we may be a new sprinkling (_conspersio_), since Christ is sacrificed as our Pascha (Passover); on account of this newness of life, then, the first month in the months of the year is mystically assigned to the Easter festival. 15. And that Easter is celebrated on a day in the third week, that is, a day that occurs between the fourteenth and twenty-first, this signifies that in the whole time of the world, which is based on the unit of seven days, this mystery has now opened a third time. 16. For the first time is before the law, the second under the law, the third under grace. Wherein the mystery before hidden in the prophetic allegory is now plain, and the resurrection of the Lord is on the third day on account of these three periods of the world. 17. As to the fact that Easter day is sought through seven days from the fourteenth to the twenty-first, this is done on account of the number seven, by which the meaning of completeness is often figured, which is also assigned to the church itself because it is universal. For this reason also John, the apostle, writes to the seven churches. 18. And by the name of the moon in the Scriptures, on account of its mutability it is signified that the church as yet is established [only] in the mortality of the flesh. 19. An observance of different opinions as to the feast of Easter sometimes produces error. For the Latins seek for the moon of the first month from the third day before the Nones of March to the third before the Nones of April, and if the fourteenth day of the moon comes on Sunday, they postpone Easter to another Sunday. 20. The Greeks observe the moon of the first month from the eighth before the Ides of March to the day of the Nones of April, and if the fifteenth day of the moon comes on the Lord’s day, they celebrate Easter. A difference of this sort between them disturbs the regularity of the Easter canon. BOOK VII ON GOD, THE ANGELS, AND THE ORDERS OF THE FAITHFUL EXTRACTS Chapter 1. On God. 1. The most blessed Hieronymus, a man of the greatest learning and skilled in many languages, first rendered into the Latin language the meaning of the Hebrew names. And leaving out many for brevity, I propose to insert certain of them in this work with their meanings in addition. 2. For the explanation of words sufficiently indicates what they mean. For certain have the reason for their names in peculiar causes. And at the beginning we set down ten names by which God is called among the Hebrews.... Chapter 5. On angels. 2. The word angel is the name of a function, not of a nature; for they are always spirits, but are called angels when they are sent.