Part 62 (1/2)

[223:3] Dupuis: Origin of Religious Beliefs, pp. 246, 247.

[224:1] King's Gnostics and their Remains, p. 225.

[224:2] Ibid. p. 226.

[224:3] See Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p. 102. Dupuis: Origin of Religious Belief, pp. 256, 257, and Bonwick's Egyptian Belief, p. 169.

[224:4] See Dupuis: Origin of Religious Belief, p. 135, and Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. i. 322.

[224:5] Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. i. p. 294. See also, Goldzhier's Hebrew Mythology, p. 127. Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 322, and Chambers's Encyclo., art. ”Hercules.”

[224:6] Aryan Mytho., vol. ii. p. 90.

[224:7] See Bell's Pantheon, vol. i. p. 56.

[224:8] Aryan Mytho., vol. ii p. 94.

[225:1] Mallet's Northern Antiquities, p. 449.

[225:2] See Knight: Ancient Art and Mythology, p. 85.

[225:3] See Davies: Myths and Rites of the British Druids, pp. 89 and 208.

[225:4] See Kingsborough's Mexican Antiquities, vol. vi. p. 166.

[225:5] Quoted in Bonwick's Egyptian Belief, p. 174.

[225:6] As we shall see in the chapter on ”The Birth-day of Christ Jesus.”

[225:7] _Easter_, the triumph of Christ, was originally solemnized on the 25th of March, the very day upon which the Pagan G.o.ds were believed to have risen from the dead. (See Dupuis: Origin of Religious Belief, pp. 244, 255.)

A very long and terrible schism took place in the Christian Church upon the question whether _Easter_, the day of the resurrection, was to be celebrated on the 14th day of the first month, after the Jewish custom, or on the Lord's day afterward; and it was at last decided in favor of the Lord's day. (See Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p. 90, and Chambers's Encyclopaedia, art. ”Easter.”)

The day upon which Easter should be celebrated was not settled until the Council of Nice. (See Euseb. Life of Constantine, lib. 3, ch. xvii.

Also, Socrates' Eccl. Hist. lib. 1, ch. vi.)

[226:1] Even the name of ”EASTER” is derived from the heathen G.o.ddess, _Ostrt_, of the Saxons, and the _Eostre_ of the Germans.

”Many of the popular observances connected with Easter are clearly of _Pagan origin_. The G.o.ddess Ostara or Eastre seems to have been the personification of the morning or East, and also of the opening year or Spring. . . . With her usual policy, the church endeavored to give a Christian significance to such of the rites as could not be rooted out; and in this case the conversion was practically easy.” (Chambers's Encyclo., art. ”Easter.”)

[226:2] Quoted in Dupuis: Origin of Religious Belief, p. 244.

[226:3] See Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p. 340.

[227:1] Eccl. Hist., lib. 6, c. viii.

[227:2] Anacalypsis, ii. 59.