[624:2] Acts xxiv. 5.
[624:3] Euseb. iv. 5.
[625:1] The English name Easter is derived from that of a Teutonic goddess whose festival was celebrated by the ancient Saxons in the month of April, and for which the Paschal feast was substituted.
[626:1] Pentecost, called Whitsunday or White-Sunday, on account of the white garments worn by those who then received baptism, was observed as early as the beginning of the third century. Origen, "Contra Celsum," book viii. Tertullian, "De Idololatria," c. 14. We have then no trace of the observation of Christmas. See Kaye's "Tertullian," p. 413.
[626:2] See Mosheim's "Commentaries," by Murdock, cent. ii. sec. 71. Dr Schaff seems disposed to deny this, but he assigns no reasons. See his "Hist. of the Christ. Church," p. 374.
[626:3] Even as to this point there is not unanimity—some alleging that our Lord partook of the Paschal lamb on the night preceding that on which it was eaten by the Jews.
[627:1] This is distinctly asserted by Irenaeus. "Anicetus and Pius, Hyginus with Telesphorus and Xystus, neither did themselves observe, nor did they permit those after them to observe it. And yet though they themselves did not keep it, they were not the less at peace with those from churches where it was kept, whenever they came to them, although to keep it then was so much the more in opposition to those who did not."—Euseb. v. 24.
[629:1] It would appear that the Armenians, the Copts, and others, still observe this rite. Mosheim's "Comment." cent. ii. sec. 71. As to the continuance of this custom at Rome, see Bingham, v. 36, 37.
[629:2] Socrates, an ecclesiastical historian of the fifth century, has expressed himself with remarkable candour on this subject. "It appears to me," says he, "that neither the ancients nor moderns who have affected to follow the Jews have had any rational foundation for contending so obstinately about it (Easter). For they have altogether lost sight of the fact that when our religion superseded the Jewish economy, the obligation to observe the Mosaic law and the ceremonial types ceased…. The Saviour and His apostles have enjoined us by no law to keep this feast: nor in the New Testament are we threatened with any penalty, punishment, or curse for the neglect of it, as the Mosaic law does the Jews."—Ecc. Hist. v. c. 22.
[629:3] This system seems to have been in existence in the time of Tertullian. See Tertullian, "Ad. Martyr." c. 1., and "De Pudicitia," c. 22.