THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
which laid stress upon the preexistence of Christ as the eternal divine Logos and of the absolute deity of Jesus Christ from the time of his conception. The physical birth assumed more and more importance in the Christian consciousness. The celebration of Christmas as a special Christian festival spread rapidly from the middle of the fourth century onward in sympathy with the triumph of the orthodox christology.
How much the calculation of Hippolytus had to do with the fixing of the festival on Dec. 25, and how much the date of the festival depended upon the pagan Brumalia (Dec. 25), follow-
Relation ing the Saturnalia (Dec. 17-24) and to the celebrating the shortest day in the
Roman year and the " new sun " or the begin- Saturnalia. ning of the lengthening of days, can not be accurately determined. The pagan Saturnalia and Brumalia were too deeply entrenched in popular custom to be set aside by Christian influence. The recognition of Sunday (the day of Phoebus and Mithras as well as the Lord's Day) by the emperor Constantine as a legal holiday, along with the influence of Manicheism, which identified the Son of God with the physical sun, may have led Christians of the fourth century to feel the appropriateness of making the birthday of the Son of God coincide with that of the physical sun. The pagan festival with its riot and merrymaking was so popular that Christians were glad of an excuse to continue its celebration with little change in spirit or in manner. Christian preachers of the West and the Nearer East protested against the unseemly frivolity with which Christ's birthday was celebrated, while Christians of Mesopotamia accused their Western brethren of idolatry and sun-worship for adopting as Christian this pagan festival. Yet the festival rapidly gained acceptance and became at last so firmly established that even the Protestant revolution of the sixteenth century was not able to dislodge it and Evangelical Christians even of the more radical types, who reject or ignore nearly all of the ecclesiastical festivals, have never been able wholly to ignore it.
The religious significance of Christmas has been too commonly minimized among Christians, the day among adults being degraded into one merely for the exchange of presents, often neither given nor received in any affection, but out of a sense of obligation or as barter. In too many homes the children, whose day it more particularly is, are not taught to link their merrymaking on Christmas with the gift of God to the world in the person of his Son Jesus Christ. Although some of our denominations hold service on that day, the vast majority of Protestants do not attend, and most of our denominations keep their churches closed. But as it is unquestioned that the Christian Church was founded by Jesus Christ, it will be well to celebrate the event of his birth, if not on Christmas day, then on some other day. The old gospel story of the Nativity was formerly taken literally and has inspired many beautiful hymns and been the suggestion of many legends and elaborate festivities. By design, on Christmas many important events have
taken place, as the crowning of Charlemagne as Holy Roman Emperor (800), and WiUiam as King of England (1066). A. H. Newman.
Bibliography: E. Martfene, De antiquis ecclesicE ritibus, iii. 31 sqq., Venice, 1783; A. J. Binterim, Denkwurdigkeilen, V. 1, pp. 528 aqq., Mainz, 1829; J. C. W. Augusti, i/andbuch der christlichen Archaologie, 3 vols., Leipsic, 1836- 1837; J. P. Thompson, Christmas and the Saturnalia, in Bibliotheca Sacra, xii (1855), 144 sqq.; P. Cassel, Weihnachten; Ursprilnge, Brduche und Aberglauben, Berlin, 1862; J. Marbach, Die heilige Weihnachtsfeier, Frankfort, 1865; A. H. Grant, The Church Seasons, New York, 1881; J. H. Hobart, Festivals and Feasts, London, 1887; T. K. Hervey, The Book of Christmas; descriptive of the Customs, Ceremonies, Traditions, Superstitions, Fun, Feeling, Festivities of the Christmas Season, London, 1841, New York, 1888; H. Usener, Religionsgeschichtliche V ntersuchungen, vol. i., Bonn, 1889; P. de Lagarde, Mittheilungen, iv. 241-323, Gottingen, 1891; F. C. Conybeare, Hist, of Christmas, in AJT, iii (1899), 1-21; idem. The Key of Truth, Introduction, Oxford, 1898; H. Thurston, in American Ecclesiastical Review, Dec., 1898; A. Tille, Yule and Christmas, London, 1899; H. Anz, Die lateinischen Magierspiel. Untersuchungen und Texte zur V orgeschichte des Weihnachtsspiels, Leipsic, 1907;
R. H. Schauffler, Christmas, its Origin, Celebration and Significance, New York, 1907; Bingham, Origines, XX. iv. (investigation of sources); DC A, i. 357- 364; DCG, i. 261-262.
CHRISTO SACRUM ("Sacred to Christ"): The name of a religious society organized in 1792, at Delft in Holland, by certain well-educated young men belonging to the Walloon deacons' confraternity. Its purpose was the defense of the Christian faith against deistic and Voltairean tendencies, and the promotion of universal Christian love, independent of ecclesialstical affiliations. Though it disregarded separate creeds, it had a creed of its own, expressing its own minimum of belief; it recognized as brothers " all who honestly believe that all men are sinful and corrupt; that God requires the punishment of sin; that Jesus Christ came as a mediator to take this punishment upon himself, which he alone, being both God and man, could do; that those who believe in him and in his satisfaction, and penitently invoke his intercession, are immediately saved ; and that through his ascension the Holy Spirit operates faith and conversion in them." The society grew by the accession of members of various churches, until a special meeting-place was needed, which was dedicated by Canzius, one of the principal founders, in 1802. The services were more like Lutheran or Anglican worship than Reformed, and everything was done to enhance the solemnity of the Lord's Supper. The original intention was to have the members retain their former church connections; but when the society was condemned by the Walloon and Reformed authorities, it gradually took shape as a separate sect. It numbered as many as 117 members under Canzius, but when in 1810 he removed to Leyden it gradually fell off, maintaining a precarious existence until 1836, when the building was closed. (J. A. Gbrth van Wijk.)
BinLioGRAPHT: Kalender voor de Protestanten in Nederland, vii (1862), 195-256; H. Gri^goire, Histoire des sectes religieuses, v. 331, 6 vols., Paris, 1828-45; B. Glasius, Gesrhiedenis der rhristelijke kerk en godsdienst in N'ederland, iii. 376-380, Amsterdam, 1S44; J. Reitsma, (leschiedenis drr Hervorming en hervormde kerk in Nederland, p. 347, Groningen, 1893.