THE REV. W. ST. CLAIR TISDALL^ D.D., ON MITHRAISM. 273 



in Japan, India, and Ceylon especially, Shintoism, Buddhism, 

 and Hinduism are boldly borrowing and adopting much that is 

 Christian, often endeavouring to claim it as originally their own. 

 It is possible, however, though by no means certain, that the 

 practice of celebrating our Lord's birth on the 25th December 

 is due to the desire to turn to Christian use not only the ancient 

 Eoman festival of the Saturnalia but also the Mithraic cele- 

 bration of the winter solstice on that day.* 



Christianity had endured centuries of danger, discouragement, 

 and persecution. Mithraism had been favoured for centuries by 

 the state,t and had on its side the army, and many of the 

 Avealthy and powerful. More than one Emperor had either 

 been initiated into its mysteries or had at least openly encouraged 

 its spread. J ulian did his best to make the worship of the sun, 

 whom he identified with Mithra, the religion of the Empire. 

 Yet, when he died and when persecution fell in turn (as, alas I 

 was the case) upon the Mithraic community, it showed none of 

 the unconquerable vitality of the Christian Church. It soon 

 vanished from the face of the earth, leaving little trace o-f its 

 having existed, except the sculptures in its hidden, underground 

 sanctuaries. Christianity had behind it the invincible might of 

 the truth. Therefore the cosmic myth of Mithra, with all its 

 works of darkness, its unhallowed mysteries, its alliance with 

 the lowest and most licentious forms of heathenism and super- 

 stition, after centuries of struggle, vanished at last like a morning 

 mist before the rays of the Sun of Righteousness. 



* Only after Aurehaii's building of a temple to the Sun at Eome 

 (Vopiscus, Aurel., 39), a.d. 270, does the 25th December seem to have 

 been observed there as the Sim's "birthday," i.e., the time when the 

 day begins perceptibly to lengthen after the winter solstice ; but about 

 A.D. 220 Hippolytus mentions it as the day on which the Western 

 Church in his time celebrated the Nativity of Christ. Almost certainly 

 this was the wrong date. Evidently the early church had not observed 

 such a day at all, but when it became desirable to fix a day for the 

 Christmas festival, it was natural to endeavour to convert to that purpose 

 a day already religiously observed at Rome. The Roman Saturnalia 

 under the Republic fell on December 19th. Julius Cesar's reformed 

 calendar fixed this festival on the 17th December. Augustus extended 

 it over the 17th, 18th, and 19th. Later it lasted for five, and finally for 

 seven days. 



t Openly from the time of Commodus' initiation (Cumont, Mysteries 

 of Mithra^ pp. 83, 84, 87-103), more privately long before {pp. cit.,^. 87). 



