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in 1583, he bewails the vain pastimes of the Christmas season.

      “Especially,” he says, “in Christmas time, there is nothing else used but cards, dice, tables, masking, mumming, bowling, and such like fooleries; and the reason is, that they think they have a commission and prerogative at that time to do what they want, and to follow what vanity they will. But (alas!) do they think that they are privileged at that time to do evil? The holier the time is (if one time were holier than another, as it is not), the holier ought their exercises to be. Can any time dispense with them, or give them liberty to sin? No, no; the soul which sins shall die, at whatever time it offends . . . Notwithstanding, who knows not that more mischief is at that time committed than in all the year besides?”46

      During the Elizabethan Period poets wrote carols of a more polished character but still dealt with the life of the Christ Child. One of the best known of this era would be Nahum Tate’s “While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks.” This work was more of a transitional piece from true carols to hymns and paved the way for such Methodist Revival hymns as “Hark The Herald Angels Sing,” “Angels From the Realms of Glory,” or “It Came Upon the Midnight Clear.” These were made widespread over the years by careful editors and enterprising publishers. On Christmas Day in England, these and other carols took the place of psalms in the churches, especially at afternoon service with the congregation joining in. At the end of the service the parish clerk would usually declare in a loud voice his wishes for “a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.”

      Puritan Era

      When the Puritans had gained the upper hand they proceeded with the suppression not only of seasonal abuses but of the season itself. On September 2, 1642, the largely Puritan Parliament outlawed the performance of plays, including Christmas pageants and plays, and the theaters were closed.47 On June 12, 1643, Parliament abolished the offices of Archbishops, Bishops, their Chancellors, Commissaries, Deans, Deans and Chapters, Archdeacons, declaring “and other Ecclesiastical Officers depending upon the Hierarchy, is evil, and justly offensive and burthensome to the Kingdome.”48

      On August 26, 1643, legislation was passed which included a bill entitled, “An Ordinance for the utter demolishing, removing and taking away of all Monuments of Superstition or Idolatry.”

      The aim was to facilitate an improved observation of the Lord’s Day, and thereby the “better advancement of preaching God’s Holy Word in all parts of the kingdom.”

      Communion tables were to be moved from their customary location on the east side of churches, to be fixed in some convenient place in the body of the church. All altars and rails, tapers, candlesticks, basins, crucifixes, crosses, images, pictures of saints or the Virgin Mary or depicting the Persons of the Trinity, and superstitious inscriptions in churches or churchyards, were to be taken away or defaced.49 Church organs were also moved from many churches.

      An excellent opportunity for turning the annual Christmas feast into a fast, as the church had done earlier with the Kalends festival, came in 1644. It had been the practice in the past to preach a sermon to the Lords in Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day, something that a growing number of Puritans were uncomfortable with. The issue came to a head in that year, when Christmas Day happened to fall upon the last Wednesday of the month, a day already appointed by the Lords and Commons for Fasting and Humiliation. Parliament published the following “Ordinance for the better observation of the Feast of the Nativity of Christ,” on December 19, 1644:

      Whereas some doubts have been raised whether the next Fast shall be celebrated, because it falleth on the day which, heretofore, was usually called the Feast of the Nativity of our Savior; the lords and commons do order and ordain that public notice be given, that the Fast appointed to be kept on the last Wednesday in every month, ought to be observed until it be otherwise ordered by both houses; and that this day particularly is to be kept with the more solemn humiliation because it may call to remembrance our sins and the sins of our forefathers, who have turned this Feast, pretending the memory of Christ, into an extreme forgetfulness of him, by giving liberty to carnal and sensual delights; being contrary to the life which Christ himself led here upon earth, and to the spiritual life of Christ in our souls; for the sanctifying and saving whereof Christ was pleased both to take a human life, and to lay it down again.50

      This, in effect, banned the celebration of Christmas that year, 1644. Edward Calamy (1600–1666) from London, preached the Lord’s sermon on December 25. He stated:

      This day is commonly called The Feast of Christ’s nativity, or, Christmas-day; a day that has formerly been much abused to superstition, and profaneness. It is not easy to say, whether the superstition has been greater, or the profaneness. . . .

      And truly I think that the superstition and profanation of this day is so rooted into it, as that there is no way to reform it, but by dealing with it as Hezekiah did with the brazen serpent. This year God, by his Providence, has buried this Feast in a Fast, and I hope it will never rise again. . . .

      I have known some that have preferred Christmas Day before the Lord’s Day. I have known those that would be sure to receive the Sacrament on Christmas Day though they did not receive it all the year after. This was the superstition of this day, and the profaneness was as great. There were some that did not play cards all the year long, yet they must play at Christmas.51

      In 1645 the English Parliament approved the Directory for the Public Worship of God, which stated, “There is no day commanded in Scripture to be kept holy under the gospel but the Lord’s day, which is the Christian Sabbath. Festival days, vulgarly called Holy-days, having no warrant in the word of God, are not to be continued” (this document is examined in more detail below in the penultimate chapter, “Twelve Reasons Justifying the Endorsement of Christmas”). It was on June 8, 1647, that Christmas, along with all other holy days, was formally banned by an ordinance or Act of Parliament.

      Forasmuch as the feast of the nativity of Christ, Easter, Whitsuntide, and other festivals, commonly called holy-days, have been heretofore superstitiously used and observed; be it ordained, that the said feasts, and all other festivals, commonly called holy-days, be no longer observed as festivals; any law, statute, custom, constitution, or canon, to the contrary in anywise notwithstanding.52

      The Puritan parliament was concerned, however, that this would deprive many people, especially those employed as servants, of having this as a day off work in accordance with past custom (just as the Genevan Reformers were similarly concerned a hundred years previously). To mitigate the loss of the day, they stipulated in another ordinance three weeks later that all servants were to have “with the leave of their masters, such convenient reasonable recreation, and relaxation from labour, every second Tuesday in the month throughout the year.”53 The ban on Christmas was reiterated in 1652 and 1657, with all shops in London required to remain open as usual for business on December 25. Research based on the records of 367 English parishes reveals that between 1645 and 1649, the vast majority ceased to observe Christmas “festival communion,” but the records do not always represent reality, especially outside London.54

      As an aside, it is a complete myth without any documentary evidence that Oliver Cromwell or any of his peers banned the eating of mince pies, even though some pamphleteers of his day on the Christmas topic speak as a matter of fact of Parliament formally banning them.55 The myth has been perpetuated to this day, particularly by those opposed to the godliness reflected in the lives of the Puritans. The myth possibly arose as a consequence of the monthly fast. This was instituted by Act of Parliament in August 1642, due to the perceived low state of true religion in England and Wales. The Act required that on routinely set days, once a month, the public should engage in acts of humiliation and prayer, enjoined with public worship, with abstinence from the normal eating routine. As we noted above, in December 1644 this fast day fell on the twenty-fifth day of the month, so that the normal Christmas Day feasting (which would undoubtedly have included the consumption of minced pies) was forbidden. No legislation was ever passed during the Puritan Interregnum outlawing mince pies or any other particular food!

      All these measures were insufficient and celebrations continued, often covertly, despite the penalties of fines and imprisonment. The English people’s love of Christmas could not be destroyed. This is not surprising, given that the

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