[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: 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. 4, and the Council of Trent observes. In some places an abuse crept in of putting the milk and honey into the consecrated chalice, but it was prohibited by an African Council.]