which is specially alluded to in ll. 125 _et seq._ Others, following
the best MSS., give the simpler title used in this text, and regard
it as a hymn for daily use. This view is supported by the weight
of evidence: the position of the hymn among the first six (none of
which are for special days), and the fact that the Benediction of
the Paschal Candle was not in use, at any rate in Rome, in the
pontificate of Zacharias (_ob._ 752 A.D.) point in this direction.
In the Spanish Church particularly the very ancient custom of
praying at the hour when the evening lamps were lighted had developed
into the regular office of the _lucernarium_, as distinct from
Vespers. The Mozarabic Breviary (seventh century) contains the
prayers and responses for this service, and the Rule of St. Isidore
runs: "In the evening offices, first the lucernarium, then two
psalms, one responsory and lauds, a hymn and prayer are to be
said." St. Basil also writes: "It seemed good to our fathers not
to receive in silence the gift of the evening light, but to give
thanks as soon as it appeared." It is probable, therefore, that
Prudentius intended the hymn for daily use, and that after speaking
of God as the source of light, and His manifestations in the form
of fire to Moses and the Israelites, his thoughts pass naturally,
though somewhat abruptly, to the special festival--Easter Eve--on
which the sanctuaries were most brilliantly illuminated. The
question is fully discussed by Brockhaus (_A. Prudentius Clemens
in seiner Bedeutung fuer die Kirche seiner Zeit_), and Roesler (_Der
catholische Dichter A. Prudentius_). Part of this hymn is used in
the Mozarabic Breviary for the First Sunday after Epiphany, at
Vespers, being stanzas 1, 7, 35, 38-41.

7 The words _incussu silicis_ are perhaps reminiscent of the Spanish
ceremonial of Easter Eve, when the bishop struck the flint, lighting
from it first a candle, then a lamp, from which the deacons lighted
their candles; these were blessed by the bishop, and the procession
from the _processus_ into the church followed.

21 Cf. Vaughan, _The Lampe_:--

"Then thou dost weepe
Still as thou burn'st, and the warm droppings creepe
To measure out thy length."

119 The _folium_ here is probably the ancient _malobathru