86 SYLVA CEITICA CANADENSIUM. 



"The era of Diocletian, -which was chieiiy used at that time, began with his 

 reign, A.D. 284; and therefore the new era of the incarnation, A.D. 284 + 248 

 =A.D. 532. Strauchius, and other chronologers, I know not upon what 

 grounds, date it A.D. 527, five years earlier. 



"How justly Dionysius abhorred Diocletian's memory, may appear from 

 Eusebius, who relates, that in the first year of his reign, when Diodorus the 

 bishop was celebrating the holy communion with many other Christians in a 

 cave, they were all immured in the earth, and buried alive ! Hence, his era 

 was otherwise called the Era of the Martyrs ; and not from the tenth, last and 

 bloodiest of the Christian persecutions by the Roman emperors, in the 19th 

 year of his reign. 



' ' Dionysius began his era with the year of our Lord's incarnation and nativity, 

 in U.C. 753, of the Varronian Computation, or the 45th of the Julian Era. And 

 at an earlier period, Panodorus, an Egyptian monk, who flourished under the 

 Emperor Arcadius, A.D. 395, had dated the incarnation in the same year. 



"But by some mistake, or misconception of his meaning, Bede, who lived 

 in the next centiiry after Dionysius, adopted his year of the Nativity, U.C. 753, 

 yet began the Vulgar Era, which he first introduced, the year after, and made 

 it commence Jan. 1, U.C. 754, which was an alteration for the worse, as making 

 the Christian Era recede a year further from the true year of the Nativity." 



As the foregoing extract sufficiently explains the motive that in- 

 fluenced Dionysius, and the manner in which he introduced the new- 

 mode of computation, it remains for me to discuss the date of the 

 Nativity, so as to indicate the errors of the date of the Vulgar 

 Christian Era. 



The date of our Lord's birth iucludes the year, the month, and the 

 day. "We shall first consider the year, and then proceed to the 

 month and the day. First, it is evident that our Lord's birth-day 

 must have preceded the death of Herod, for we are told by St. 

 Matthew that the return from Egypt took place " -when Herod was. 

 dead." If, then, we can find out the year of Herod's death, we may 

 be sure that, as "Jesus was born in the days of Herod the King," 

 the year of the birth of Jesus Christ must have been before that. 

 Erom Josephus, Antiq. xvii. 8, § 1, it appears that Herod died, 

 having reigned thirty-four years from the murder of Antigonus, 

 aad thirty-seven years from the date of his appointment as king. 

 The latter event (on the same authority, Antiq. xiv. 14, § 5,) was in 

 the consulship of Domitius Galvinus and Asirdus Pollio. Now we 

 know that they were consuls in A. U.C. 714. Bxit we also know 

 (Josephus, Antiq. xiv. 16, § 4,) that the death of Antigonus took place 

 in the consulship of Vipsanius Agrippa and Ganinlus Gallus, i.e., in. 

 A. U.C. 717; and further, thex*e is evidence that proves that in. the 



