[638] La Corinne.
[639] Translata episcoporum manibus, cum alii pontifices lampadas cereosque præferrent.—Hieron., Ep. 27, ad Eustach., in Epitaph. Paulæ.
[640] Sometimes a single candelabrum bears three hundred and sixty-five lights, emblematic of the days of the year. More impressive is a solitary lamp ever burning at some lowly shrine, the type of the flame of love burning in perpetual adoration on the altar of the heart.
[641] Canon., 34.
[642] The following inscription from Gruter indicates this practice:
QVISQVE · HVIC · TVMVLO
POSVIT · ARDENTEM · LVCERNAM
ILLIVS · CINERES · AVREA · TERRA · TEGAT.
“Who ever places a burning lamp before this tomb, may a golden soil cover his ashes.”
Lactantius accuses the pagans of burning lights to God as to one living in darkness, (Institut. Divin., lib. vi, cap. 2,) and the Theodosian Code forbids the custom.
[643] Prope ritum gentilium videmus sub prætextu religionis introductum in ecclesias, sole adhuc fulgente moles cereorum accendi, etc.—Adv. Vigil., ii.
[644] From ἀμφί and φέρω—on account of the handles on each side of the neck. They were also called diota, or two-eared, from διώτη.