Christmas Day (Vol. iii., p. 167.).—Julian I. has the credit of transferring the celebration of Christ's birth from Jan. 6th to Dec. 25th; but Mosheim considers the report very questionable (vol. i. p. 370. Soames's edit.). Bingham, in his Christian Antiq., devotes ch. iv. of book xx. to the consideration of this festival, and that of the Epiphany; but does not notice the claim set up on behalf of Julian I.; neither Neander (vol. iii. pp. 415-22. Eng. Translation). It would appear that the Eastern Church kept Christmas on Jan. 6th, and the Western Church on Dec. 25th: at length, about the time of Chrysostom, the Oriental Christians sided with the Western Church. Bingham also cites Augustine as saying that it was the current tradition that Christ was born on the eighth of the kalends of January, that is, on the 25th of December. Had, therefore, Julian I. dogmatically fixed the 25th of December as the birthday of our Saviour, it is scarcely possible to suppose that Augustine, who flourished about half a century later, would allege current tradition as the reason, without any notice of Julian.
N. E. R. (A Subscriber).
[See Tillemont's Histoire Ecclésiastique, tome i., note 4., for a full discussion of this question. Also Mosheim's De Rebus Christianorum ante Constantinum Commentarii, sæculum primum, sec. 1.; and Butler's Lives of the Saints, article Christmas-Day.]
Christmas-day (Vol. iii, p. 167.).—St. John of Chrysostom, archbishop of Nice (died A.D. 407), in an epistle upon this subject, relates (tom. v. p. 45. edit. Montf. Paris, 1718-34) that, at the instance of St. Cyril of Jerusalem (died A.D. 385), St. Julius (Pope A.D. 337-352) procured a strict inquiry to be made into the day of our Saviour's nativity, which being found to be the 25th Dec., that day was thenceforth set apart for the celebration of this "Festorum omnium metropolis," as he styles it. St. Tilesphorus (Pope A.D. 128-139), however, is supposed by the generality of ancient authorities to be the first who appointed the 25th Dec. for that purpose. The point is involved in much uncertainty, but your correspondent may find all the information he seeks in Baronii Apparatus ad Annales Ecclesiasticos, fol., Lucæ, 1740, pp. 475. et seq.; and in a curious tract, entitled The Feast of Feasts; or, the Celebration of the Sacred Nativity of our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ; grounded upon the Scriptures, and confirmed by the Practice of the Christian Church in all Ages. 4to. Oxf. 1644. This tract is in the British Museum. J. C. makes a tremendous leap in chronology when he asks "Was it not either Julius I. or II.?" Why the one died exactly 1161 years after the other!
Cowgill.
Christmas Day (Vol. iii., p. 167.).—In a note to one of Bishop Pearson's sermons (Opera Minora, ed. Churton) occurs the following passage from St. Chrysostom:—
"Παρὰ τῶν ἀκριβῶς ταῦτα εἰδότων, καὶ τὴν πόλιν εκείνην (sc. Romam) οἰκούντων, παρειληφάμεν τήν ἡμεραν. Οἱ γὰρ ἐκεῖ διατρίβοντες ἄνωθεν καὶ ἐκ παλαῖας παραδόσεως ταῦτην ἐπιτελοῦντες," &c.—Homil. Di. Nat. ii. 354.
The remainder of the quotation my note does not supply, but it may be easily found by the reference. The day, therefore, seems fixed by "tradition," and received both by the Eastern and Western Church, and not on any dogmatical decision of the popes.
R. W. F.
MS. Sermons by Jeremy Taylor (Vol. i., p. 125.).—Coleridge's assertion, "that there is now extant in MS. a folio of unprinted sermons by Jeremy Taylor," must have proceeded from his wishes rather than his knowledge. No such MS. is known to exist; and such a discovery is, I believe, as little to be expected as a fresh play of Shakspeare's. Was it in the "Lands of Vision," and with "the damsel and the dulcimer," that the transcendental philosopher beheld it?