esjDecially after Pope Gregory I. (the "pater cserimoniarum "), with a good, but mistaken intention, favored the christianizing of heathen forms of cultus and popular festivals, and thereby contributed unconsciously to the paganizing of Christianity in the Middle Age. The calendar saints took the place of the ancient deities, and Rome became a second time a pantheon. Against this new heathenism, with its sweeping abuses, pure Christianity was obliged with all earnestness and emphasis to protest. KoTE. — The Reformation of the sixteenth century sought to restore the entire cultus, and with it the Catholic church year, to its primitive Biblical simplicity ; but with different degrees of consistency. The Lutheran, the An.iilican, and the German Reformed churches — the latter with the greater freedom — retained the chief festivals, Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost, to- ' Comp. the passages in Augusti, 1. c. i. p. il-i sqq. ^ Orat. 38 in Theoph., cited at large by Augusti, p. 483 sq. Comp. Augustine, Ep. 22, 3 ; 29, 9, according to which " comessationes et ebrietates in honorem etiam beatissimorum martyrum " were of almost daily occurrence in the African church, and were leniently judged, lest the transition of the heathen should be discouraged. § 76. THE CHURCH TEAK. 393 getliei* with the system of pericopes, and in some cases also the days of Mary and the apostles (though these are passing more and more out of use) ; while the strictly Calvinistic churches, particularly the Presbyterians and Congregationalists, rejected all the yearly festivals as human institu- tions, but, on the other hand, introduced a proportionally stricter observ- ance of the weekly day of rest instituted by God Himself. The Scotch General Assembly of August 6th, 1575, resolved : " That all days which heretofore have been kept holy, besides the Sabbath-days, such as Yule day [Christmas], saints' days, and such others, may be abolished, and a civil penalty be appointed against the keepers thereof by ceremonies, ban- queting, fasting, and such other vanities." At first, the most of the Re- formers, even Luther and Bucer, were for the abolition of all feast days, except Sunday ; but the genius and long habits of the people were against such a radical reform. After the end of the sixteenth and beginning of the seventeenth century the strict observance of Sunday developed itself in Great Britain and North America; while the Protestantism of the con- tinent of Europe is much looser in this respect, and not essentially diiferent from Catholicism. It is remarkable, that the strictest observance of Sun- day is found just in those countries where the yearly feasts have entirely lost place in the popular mind : Scotland and New England. In the United States, however, for some years past, the Christmas and Easter festivals have regained ground without interfering at all with the strict observance of the Lord's day, and promise to become regular American institutions. • Good Friday and Pentecost will follow. On Good Friday of the year 1864