by that time alone and the elements rise.
IV. Theophilus said to the bishops: "Now then we must proceed with an ordinance as to how we ought to observe the Pascha." The bishops said: "Can the Lord's day be passed over, so that the Pascha is not celebrated on it, when it has been sanctified by so many and such great blessings?" Theophilus said: "Tell me then by what and what kind of blessings you assert it to have been sanctified, so that we may write it down." The bishops said: "Its first blessing is that on it darkness was removed and light appeared. The second A blessing is that from the land of Egypt, just as from the darkness of sins, as if through the font of baptism, the people were delivered through the Red Sea. The third blessing is that on the same day heavenly food, Manna, was given to men. The fourth blessing is that Moses commands the people: 'The first day and the last shall be observed by you.' The fifth blessing, as it is said in the one hundred and seventeenth psalm: 'They surrounded me like bees a honeycomb, and they burned like fire among thorns.' Regarding the resurrection of the Lord it says: 'This is the day which the Lord has made: let us exult and rejoice in it,' up to the horn of the altar. The sixth blessing is that on it the Lord rose again."
V. "You see then that the day of the Lord's resurrection is particularly instructed to be observed at the Pascha." Theophilus said: "But regarding the time, it was commanded by God to Moses: 'This month shall be to you the beginning of months: keep the Pascha in it.' B All thirty days, then, have been consecrated by the Lord." The bishops said: "We have already given the answer above, that the beginning of the world is the equinox, the eighth day before the Kalends of April. And from the seventh day before the Kalends of April, until the eighth day before the Kalends of May, we read that they are consecrated. Theophilus said to the bishops: "And is it not impious for the Lord's passion, so great a mystery of the sacrament, to be excluded outside the limit? For the Lord suffered from the eleventh day before the Kalends of April, on which night He was betrayed by Judas, and rose again on the eighth day before the Kalends of April. How then are three days excluded outside the limit?" All the bishops said: "By no reason should it happen that such a great sacrament be excluded outside the limit; but let these three days be brought within the limit, and then let it be retracted C until the eleventh day before the Kalends of May."
VI. "It was decided, therefore, in that synod, that the Pascha ought to be observed from the eleventh day before the Kalends of April until the eleventh day before the Kalends of May; and let it not be in the power of anyone to cross the limit established either before or after. Similarly regarding the moon, let the Lord's precept be held, which was commanded through Moses: 'The fourteenth day from the moon shall be observed by you, up to the twenty-first.' It is agreed, therefore, that these eight moons, when observed in the Pascha, were consecrated in the same way. When, therefore, it falls within that limit, from the eleventh day before the Kalends of May, the Lord's day, and the moon is one of those eight sanctified ones, the Pascha has been ordered for us to celebrate." Thus far the epistle of Theophilus, as it exists in Bucherius.
FRAGMENT OF S. THEOPHILUS
FROM THE EPISTLE WRITTEN ON THE PASCHAL QUESTION, IN THE NAME OF THE SYNOD OF CAESAREA.
(From Eusebius, *Hist. eccl.*, book V, chap. 25)D Take care that copies of our epistle be sent throughout every Church, so that we may not be held accountable by those who easily lead their own souls astray from the straight path of truth. We also signify to you that on the same day as with us, the Pascha is celebrated at Alexandria.