[328] Usener (272 seqq.) starts with the preconceived opinion that Liberius delivered his address on the 6th Jan. 353, and so is of opinion that Christmas was celebrated for the first time in Rome on the 25th Dec. 353. On the other hand, Duchesne (Bull. Crit., 1890, No. 3, p. 41 seq.), having the circumstance in view that the Depositio Episcoporum begins the year with the 27th Dec. and the Depositio Martyrum with the 25th Dec., thinks he has proof for holding that the 27th Dec. for a long time already, indeed even from about 243, had been a marked day in the Church’s Calendar, and, accordingly, that the 25th Dec. had been kept as the Natalis Domini as early as the third century. We leave these points to the reader’s discretion. Christmas was kept in Rome certainly before 353.
[329] Mommsen, Röm. Gesch., v. 481.
[330] Marquardt-Mommsen, Röm. Altert., vi., 2nd. ed., 588.
[331] Hospinian (fol. iii.) and others held that the 25th December was chosen purposely in order to supplant the Saturnalia. But the Saturnalia did not last over the 25th, although Maximus of Turin seems to think it did.
[332] De Orat. Dom., 35.
[333] Sermo, 7, 1, 3; Migne, Patr. Lat., xvii. 614.
[334] Zeno Ver., Tract., 2, 9, 2, calls Christ “Sol noster, sol verus.” Gregor. I., Hom., 29 in Evang., c. 10: “Quis solis nomine nisi Christus designatur?” Prud., Cathem., 11, 1: “Quid est, quod arctum circulum sol jam recurrens deserit?” Gregor. Naz., Orat. in S. lumina, calls Christ the sun.
[335] On the Vigil: “Sidus refulget jam novum”; at Lauds: “Orietur sicut sol salvator mundi”: in the Preface: “Per incarnati Verbi mysterium nova mentis nostræ oculis lux tuæ claritatis infulsit”: on the octave: “Tu lumen et splendor Patris”; in the hymn: “In sole posuit tabernaculum suum”; in the antiphons: “Hodie descendit lux magna in terris. In sole posuit tabernaculum suum,” etc.
[336] Maximus Taur., Hom., 103; Migne, Patr. Lat., lvii. 491.
[337] Peregr. Silv., 82 (59 cod.), ed. Geyer, c. 25.