ity of another.

It is a curious fact that the custom which now created such violent
excitement gradually passed into desuetude. At present there are few
places [629:1] where the eating of the Paschal lamb is continued. But
otherwise the practice for which Victor contended eventually prevailed,
as the Roman mode of celebration was established by the authority of the
Council of Nice. What is called Easter Sunday is still observed in many
Churches as the festival of the resurrection. But the institution of
such a festival is unnecessary, as each returning Lord's day should
remind the Christian that his Saviour has risen from the dead and become
the first-fruits of them that sleep. [629:2]

This Paschal controversy generated no schism, but other disputes, which
subsequently occurred, did not terminate so peacefully. About the middle
of the third century disagreements respecting matters of discipline rent
the Churches of Carthage and Rome. At Carthage, the malecontents sought
for greater laxity; at Rome, they contended for greater strictness. At
that time the _confessors_ and the _martyrs_, or those who had
persevered in their adherence to the faith under pains and penalties,
and those who had suffered for it unto death, were held in the highest
veneration. They had been even permitted in some places to dictate to
the existing ecclesiastical rulers by granting what were called _tickets
of peace_ [629:3] to the _lapsed_, that is, to those who had apostatized
in a season of persecution, and who had afterwards sought readmission to
Church communion. These certificates, or tickets of peace, were
understood to entitle the parties in whose favour they were drawn up to
be admitted forthwith to the Lord's Supper. But it sometimes happened
that a confessor or a martyr was himself far from a paragon of
excellence, [630:1] as mere obstinacy, or pride, or self-righteousness,
may occasionally hold out as firmly as a higher principle; and a man may
give his body to be burned who does not possess one atom of the grace of
Christian charity. There were confessors and martyrs in the third
century who held very loose views on the subject of Church discipline,
and who gave tickets of peace without much inquiry or consideration.
[630:2] In some instances they did not condescend so far as to name the
parties to whom they supplied recommendations, but directed that a
particular individual "and his friends" [630:3] should be restored to
ecclesias