The present Occidental usage with regard to holy water admits of being traced substantially, without a break, back to the Carolingian period. In the pseudo-Isidorian decretals, Alexander, bishop of Rome (c. 109 A.D.), commenting on Heb. ix. 13, is represented as applying that text to prove the purifying power of consecrated salt and water j and in a genuine charge to his clergy Leo IV. (847 A.D.) says, “Every Lord’s day before mass bless water wherewith the people may be sprinkled, and for this have a proper vessel.” Hincmar of Rheims to a similar injunction adds permission to all who may wish to carry some of the water home in their own clean vessels, and sprinkle it ‘ ‘ over their dwellings and fields and vineyards, over their cattle also and their provender, and likewise over their own meat and drink.” In Gratian the decree runs —“Webless water sprinkled with salt, that all being therewith besprinkled may be sanctified and purified. Which also we recommend to be done by all priests.” But from the Ordo Romanus (i. 42) we learn that, in Rome, if not elsewhere in the West, a peculiar sacredness and magical efficacy were attributed, to baptismal water at least, two centuries before the publication of the forged decretals. After the usual consecration of the font on Easter eve, “the whole people, whoever wished, took a blessing in their vessels of the water itself, before the children were baptized in it, to sprinkle about their houses and vineyards and fields and fruits.” We learn from Chrysostom (Be Bapt. Chr.) that in the East a similar custom prevailed even in his time, while the Apostolical Constitutions (viii. 29) show that at a somewhat later period (probably in the 5th century) it had become usual also to bless water and oil without any reference to baptismal uses. An indication of later Oriental practice is gathered from Theodore Balsamon (c. 1200), according to whom, by immemorial custom, holy water was in his day consecrated in Greek churches at the beginning of every lunar month. The use of holy water at the church door can be traced back to pre-Christian practice, both Jewish and pagan. The laver in front of the altar (Exod. xxx. 18-21) in the old ritual of Israel had its analogue in the vessels with consecrated water (πeρφf>avτhριa or aτro^pavτhpιa) at the entrance of the peribolos of the Greek temple; from these the entrants used to sprinkle themselves, or to be sprinkled by the priests, to symbolize the purity required of those who sought to enter the sanctuary of God. There is evidence that, as early as Tertullian (Be Oral., 11) at least, it was customary to place outside Christian places of worship in the atrium (aiθριov) a fountain or cistern of watex ’ (κpi ∣ vτη, <f>ιaλ∙η, φρέαρ, eμβaτηs, κoλυμβeiov, ∖ eovτapιov, nymphaeum, cantharus) in which persons about to enter were expected to wash their hands and (perhaps) also the face. The vessel was not taken into the church and placed near the entrance of the nave until after the 8th century. It is not evident at what date it became customary within the Christian Church to mix salt with the water employed for sacramental or quasi-sacramental purposes; this practice also, however, must be traced to pre-Christian usage (see Iliad i. 314; Aristoph., Plut., 656; and <f. Tzetzes, Schol. in Lycoph., 135—τδ aλικbv κal θαλάσσιον ΰδωρ κaθdpτικιi>τepov φυσcι τS>v γλυκέων).