392 TUIBD PERIOD. A.D, 311-590.
vals was enjoined under ecclesiastical penalties, and waa re garded as an established divine ordinance. But the most emi nent church teachers, a Chrysostoni, a Jerome, and an Angus tine, expressly insist, that the observance of the Christian festivals must never be a work of legal constraint, but always ai. act of evangelical freedom ; and Socrates, the historian, says ♦hat Christ and the apostles have given no laws and prescribed no penalties concerning it.'
The abuse of the festivals soon fastened itself on the just use of them, and the sensual excesses of the pagan feasts, in spite of the earnest warnings of several fathers, swept in like a wild flood upon the church. Gregory Naziauzen feels called upon, with reference particularly to the feast of Epiphany, to caution his people against public parade, splendor of dress, banquetings, and drinking revels, and says: "Such things we will leave to the Greeks, who worship their gods with the belly ; but we, who adore the eternal Word, will find our only satisfaction in the word and the divine law, and in the contemplation of the holy object of our feast." ^ On the other hand, however, the Catholic churcli, es})ecially after Pope Gregory I. (the "pater cserimoniarum "), with a goo(i, but mistaken intention, favored the christianizing of heathen forms of cultus and popular festivals, and thereby contributed unconsciously to the paganizing of Christianity in the Middle Age. The calendar saints took the place of the ancient deities, and Rome became a second time a pantheon. Against this new heathenism, with its sweeping abuses, pure Cliristianity was obliged with all earnestness and emphasis to protest.
Note.— The Reformation of the sixteenth century sought to restore tlie entire ciillus, and with it the Catholic church year, to its primitive Biblical gimplicity ; but with different degrees of consistency. The Lutheran, tlie Anglican, and the German Reformed churches — the latter with the greater freedom — retained the chief festivals, Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost, to-
' Comp. the passages in Augusti, 1. c. i. p. 474 sqq.
^ Orat. 38 in Theoph., cited at large by Augusti, p. 483 sq. Comp. Augustine, Ep. 22, 3 ; 20, 9, according to which " coinessationcs et ebrictates in honorein etiam beatisBimorum martyruiii " were of almost daily occurrence in the African church, «id were leniently judged, lest the transition of the heathen should be discouraged
§ 76. THE CHURCH YEAK. 393
gether with the system of pericopes, and in some cases also tLe days o Mury and the apostles (though these are passing more and more out of nso) ; while the strictly Calvinistic churches, particularly the Presbyteriani and Oongregationalists, rejected all the yearly festivals as human institu tions, but, on the other hand, introduced a proportionally stricter observance of the weekly day of rest instituted by God Himself. The Scotch General Assembly of August Gth, 1575, resolved: "That all days which heretofore have been kept holy, besides the Sabbath-days, such as Yule day [Christmas], saints' days, and sucli others, may be abolished, and a civil penalty be appointed against the keepers thereof by ceremonies, banqueting, fasting, and such other vanities." At first, the most of the Reformers, even Luther and Bucer, were for the abolition of all feast days, except Sunday ; but the genius and long habits of tiie people were against such a radical reform. After the end of the sixteenth and beginning of the seventeenth century the strict observance of Sunday developed itself in Great Britain and North America; while the Protestantism of the continent of Europe is much looser in this respect, and not essentially different from Oatliolicism. It is remarkable, that the strictest observance of Sunday is found just in those countries where the yearly feasts have entirely lost place in the popular mind: Scotland and New England. In the United States, however, for some years past, the Christmas and Easter festivals have regained ground without interfering at all with the strict observance of the Lord's day, and promise to become regular American inj^titutions. Good Friday and Pentecost will follow. On Good Friday of the year 1864 the loading ministers of the different evangelical churches in New York (the Episcopalian, Presbyterian, Dutch and German Reformed, Lutheran, Congregational, Methodist, and Baptist) freely united in the celebration of the atoning death of their common Saviour and in humiliation and praye to the great edification of the people. It is acknowledged more and more that the observance of the great facts of the evangelical history to the honor of Christ is a common inheritance of primitive Christianity and inseparable from Christian worship. "These festivals" (says Prof. Dr. Henry B. Smith in his admirable opening sermon of the Presbyterian General Assembly, N. S., of 1864, on Christian Union and Ecclesiastical Re-union) " antedate, not only our (Protestant) divisions, but also the corruptioni of the Papacy ; they exalt the Lord and not man ; they involve a public and solemn recognition of essential Christian facts, and are thus a standing protest against infidelity; they bring out the historic side of the Christian faith, and connect us with its whole history; and all in the difterent denominations could unite in their observance without sacrificing any article of their creed or discipline." There is no danger that American Protestantism will transgress the limits of primitive evangelical simplic iy in this respect, and ever return to the papal Mariolatry and Hagiolatry rhe Protestant churches have established also many new annual festivals,
•394 TillKD PERIOD. A.D. 311-590.
sach as the feasts of tlie Eefoimation, of Ilarvest-liome, and of tht Dead it Germany; and in America, the frequent days of fasting and prayer, hesidef the annual Thanksgiving-day, which originated in Puritan New England, and has been gradually adopted in almost all the states of the Union, and quite recently by the general government itself, as a national institution. "With the pericopes, or Sci'ipture lessons, the Keformed church everywhere deals much more freely than the Lutheran, aad properly reserves the right to expound the whole word of Scripture in a"ny convenient order according to its choice. The Gospels and Epistles miiy be read as a regular part of the Sabbath service ; but the minister should be free to select his text from any portion of the Canonical Scriptures ; only it is always advisable to follow a system and to go, if possible, every year through the whole plan and order of salvation in judicious adaptation to the church year and the wants of the people.