Note 328 — Chapter I · THE CHURCH’S YEAR (continued 2)

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.