done before. 
With wondrous pompe and furniture, amid the Church they go,
With candles, crosses, banners, Chrisme, and oyle appoynted tho: 
Nine times about the font they marche, and on the saintes doe call,
Then still at length they stande, and straight the Priest begins withall,
And thrise the water doth he touche, and crosses thereon make,
Here bigge and barbrous wordes he speakes, to make the devill quake: 
And holsome waters conjureth, and foolishly doth dresse,
Supposing holyar that to make, which God before did blesse: 
And after this his candle than, he thrusteth in the floode,
And thrise he breathes thereon with breath, that stinkes of former foode:  And making here an ende, his Chrisme he poureth thereupon, The people staring hereat stande, amazed every one; Beleeving that great powre is given to this water here, By gaping of these learned men, and such like trifling gere.  Therefore in vessels brought they draw, and home they carie some, Against the grieves that to themselves, or to their beastes may come.  Then Clappers ceasse, and belles are set againe at libertee, And herewithall the hungrie times of fasting ended bee."[313]

It is said that formerly all the fires in Rome were lighted afresh from the holy fire kindled in St. Peter’s on Easter Saturday.[314]

[The new fire on Easter Saturday at Florence.]

In Florence the ceremony of kindling the new fire on Easter Eve is peculiar.  The holy flame is elicited from certain flints which are said to have been brought by a member of the Pazzi family from the Holy Land.  They are kept in the church of the Holy Apostles on the Piazza del Limbo, and on the morning of Easter Saturday the prior strikes fire from them and lights a candle from the new flame.  The burning candle is then carried in solemn procession by the clergy and members of the municipality to the high altar in the cathedral.  A vast crowd has meanwhile assembled in the cathedral and the neighbouring square to witness the ceremony; amongst the spectators are many peasants drawn from the surrounding country, for it is commonly believed that on the success or failure of the ceremony depends the fate of the crops for the year.  Outside the door of the cathedral stands a festal car drawn by two fine white oxen with gilded horns.  The body of the car is loaded with a pyramid of squibs and crackers and is connected by a wire with a pillar set up in front of the high altar.  The wire extends down the middle of the nave at a height of about six feet from the ground.  Beneath it a clear passage is left, the spectators being ranged on either side and crowding the vast interior from wall to wall.  When all is ready, High Mass is celebrated, and precisely at noon, when the first words of the Gloria are being chanted, the sacred fire is applied to the pillar, which like the car is wreathed with fireworks.  A moment more and a fiery dove comes flying down the nave, with