longstanding festival of Sol that they see evidence where there was none. Hoey (1939: 480), for instance, writes: “An inscription of unique interest from the reign of Licinius embodies the official prescription for the annual celebration by his army of a festival of Sol Invictus on December 19”. The inscription (Dessau, Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae 8940) actually prescribes an annual offering to Sol on November 18 (die XIV Kal(endis) Decemb(ribus), i.e. on the fourteenth day before the Kalends of December).
^ 1908 Catholic Encyclopedia: Christmas: Natalis Invicti
^ Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (Benedict XVI), The Spirit of the Liturgy, trans. John Saward (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2000), p. 108; cf. p. 100. He regards the old theories as no longer sustainable. March 25 was also considered to be the day of Jesus death (although obviously this has to be considered in relation to the dates of the Jewish passovers in possibly relevant years), and the day of creation. See also H. Rahner, Griechische Mythen in christlicher Deutung. Darmstadt, 1957. An English translation is available as Greek Myths and Christian Mystery, trans. Brian Battershaw (New York: Harper Row, 1963).
^ Tighe, William J. Calculating Christmas, 2003
^ Schmidt, Alvin J.(2001), “Under the Influence”, HarperCollins, p377-9
^ “Christmas, Encyclopdia Britannica Chicago: Encyclopdia Britannica, 2006.
^ New Catholic Encyclopedia, “Christmas”
^ (cited in Christianity and Paganism in the Fourth to Eighth Centuries, Ramsay MacMullen. Yale:1997, p. 155)
^ (cited in “The Story of Christianity, volume 1, The Early Church to the Dawn of the Reformation”, HarperCollins Publishers, 1984, p36)
^ Text at Parts 6 and 12 respectively.