rther
back than 336 at all events the festival cannot be traced.

From Rome, Christmas spread throughout the West, with the |21| conversion
of the barbarians. Whether it came to England through the Celtic Church
is uncertain, but St. Augustine certainly brought it with him, and
Christmas Day, 598, witnessed a great event, the baptism of more than
ten thousand English converts.{9} In 567 the Council of Tours had
declared the Twelve Days, from Christmas to Epiphany, a festal tide;{10}
the laws of Ethelred (991-1016) ordained it to be a time of peace and
concord among Christian men, when all strife must cease.{11} In Germany
Christmas was established by the Synod of Mainz in 813;{12} in Norway by
King Hakon the Good about the middle of the tenth century.{13}

In the East, as has been seen, the Birth of the Redeemer was at first
celebrated not on December 25, but on January 6, the feast of the
Epiphany or manifestation of Christ's glory. The Epiphany can be traced
as far back as the second century, among the Basilidian heretics, from
whom it may have spread to the Catholic Church. It was with them
certainly a feast of the Baptism, and possibly also of the Nativity, of
Christ. The origins of the Epiphany festival{14} are very obscure, nor
can we say with certainty what was its meaning at first. It may be that
it took the place of a heathen rite celebrating the birth of the World or
AEon from the Virgin on January 6.[5] At all events one of its objects was
to commemorate the Baptism, the appearance of the Holy Dove, and the
Voice from heaven, "Thou art my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased"
(or, as other MSS. read, "This day have I begotten thee").

|22| In some circles of early Christianity the Baptism appears to have
been looked upon as the true Birth of Christ, the moment when, filled by
the Spirit, He became Son of God; and the carnal Birth was regarded as of
comparatively little significance. Hence the Baptism festival may have
arisen first, and the celebration of the Birth at Bethlehem may have been
later attached to the same day, partly perhaps because a passage in St.
Luke's Gospel was supposed to imply that Jesus was baptized on His
thirtieth birthday. As however the orthodox belief became more sharply
defined, increasing stress was laid on the Incarnation of God in Christ
in the Virgin's womb, and it may have been felt that the celebration of
the Birth and the Baptism on the same day encouraged heretical views.