re our era, in October; St.
Jerome, three years before our era, on December 25th; Eusebius, two
years before our era, on January 6th; and Ideler, seven years before
our era, in December." Milton, following the immemorial tradition of
the Church, says that--

"It was the winter wild."

But there are still many who think that the 25th of December does not
correspond with the actual date of the birth of Christ, and regard the
incident of the flocks and shepherds in the open field, recorded by
St. Luke, as indicative of spring rather than winter. This incident,
it is thought, could not have taken place in the inclement month of
December, and it has been conjectured, with some probability, that the
25th of December was chosen in order to substitute the purified joy of
a Christian festival for the license of the _Bacchanalia_ and
_Saturnalia_ which were kept at that season. It is most probable that
the Advent took place between December, 749, of Rome, and February,
750.

Dionysius Exiguus, surnamed the Little, a Romish monk of the sixth
century, a Scythian by birth, and who died A.D. 556, fixed the birth
of Christ in the year of Rome 753, but the best authorities are now
agreed that 753 was not the year in which the Saviour of mankind was
born. The Nativity is now placed, not as might have been expected, in
A.D. 1, but in B.C. 5 or 4. The mode of reckoning by the "year of our
Lord" was first introduced by Dionysius, in his "Cyclus Paschalis," a
treatise on the computation of Easter, in the first half of the sixth
century. Up to that time the received computation of events through
the western portion of Christendom had been from the supposed
foundation of Rome (B.C. 754), and events were marked accordingly as
happening in this or that year, _Anno Urbis Conditae_, or by the
initial letters A.U.C. In the East some historians continued to reckon
from the era of Seleucidae, which dated from the accession of Seleucus
Nicator to the monarchy of Syria, in B.C. 312. The new computation was
received by Christendom in the sixth century, and adopted without
adequate inquiry, till the sixteenth century. A more careful
examination of the data presented by the Gospel history, and, in
particular, by the fact that "Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea"
before the death of Herod, showed that Dionysius had made a mistake of
four years, or perhaps more, in his calculations. The death of Herod
took place in the year of Rome A.U.C. 750, jus