[Footnote 130:  In a missal of Pavia it is called a figure of the column which preceded the Israelites going out of Egypt.]

[Footnote 131:  The stag was a favourite subject of the early Christian artists, who often represented it in their paintings, and afterwards on their mosaics.  The text above quoted explains its signification.]

[Footnote 132:  “In most of the old rituals we find that the font was hallowed with various ceremonies besides prayer.  It was customary to make the sign of the cross, as we learn from the testimony of Chrysostom, Augustine, and Pseudo-Dionysius”.  Palmer vol. 2, p. 195.  Martene observes that the rite of pouring chrism into the water is mentioned in all the ancient Gallican, Ambrosian, and Mozarabic liturgies.  The blessing of baptismal water is reckoned by S. Basil, in the 4th century, among apostolical traditions. (De Spiritu.  S. c. 27).]

[Footnote 133:  “Some form of admission to the class of catechumens was used in all churches at an early period, and it seems most commonly to have consisted of imposition of hands with prayers for the person.  To this in many places were added various rites, such as, signing the forehead of the candidate with the cross, the consecration and giving of salt, which was entitled the sacrament of catechumens, repeated exorcisms, or prayers and adjurations to cast out the power of Satan, anointing with oil, and other mystical and figurative rites.  In the course of many ages, when the Christian church had overspread the face of the world, and infidelity had become in most places extinct, the form of admission to the class of catechumens was from a veneration for old customs in many places conjoined to the office of baptism, and administered at the same time with it to the candidates for that sacrament whether they were infants or not”.  Palmer, vol. 2, c. 5, sect. 1.]

[Footnote 134:  “It has been customary in the Christian church from the most remote period, for the candidates for baptism to renounce the devil and all his works, before they were admitted to that sacrament.  This renunciation was always followed by a profession of faith in Christ, as it is now in the English liturgy.  The last interrogation and answer “Vis baptizari, Volo” have long been used in the west.  (Martene de Antiq.  Eccl. rit. tom.  I, p. 180, 192).  According to the ancient custom of the Roman church, represented in the Sacramentary of Gregory, the profession of faith occurs between the hallowing of the water and the administration of the sacrament.  This custom has long been used in the Roman church; since the Sacramentary of Gelasius (A.D. 494) appointed the confession of faith to be made immediately before baptism, though the renunciations were made some hours before.  In primitive times the sign of the cross was not only made on the forehead of the elect at the time of baptism, but was used very often in other ways:  this act is probably not more recent than the apostolical age; and this sign