Some time ago there appeared in The Ministry some articles I wrote concerning Mithraism and the introduction of the seven-day cycle into Roman usage. It was shown that Mithraism was introduced into the West in the first century B.C., and that it soon became the popular cult. The following statement throws more light on the matter:
"As the Mithras worship was such a rival of the early Christian worship, it may be added that in 1915 there was opened under the church of St. Clement at Rome, and made accessible to visitors, the foundations of a temple of Mithras built during the reign of Augustus. The sacred font was found, also a part of the altar and the remains of the ancient sacrifices which proved to be wild boars." —Camden M. Cobern, "The New Archeological Discoveries," p. 506, 9th edition, 1920. Funk and Wag-nails.
In the same series of articles, I traced the usage of calling the days by the names of the planetary deities, first appearing in Latin literature not long before or about the time Christ was born. Mention was made of the discovery of a fragment of a Roman calendar with the names of the days of the pagan week upon it, and that Tertullian spoke of the heathen as being responsible for putting "the day of the sun" into the "register" of the days. From the Catholic Encyclopedia we learn that the pagan week was also found in Roman calendars at times, as well as the nundinae, or market-day cycle of eight days :
"When the Oriental seven-day period, or week, was introduced, in the time of Augustus, the first seven letters of the alphabet were employed in the same way [i.e., as for the nundinae], to indicate the days of this new division of time. In fact, fragmentary calendars on marble still survive in which both a cycle of eight letters—A to H—indieating nundinae, and a cycle of seven letters—A to G—indicating weeks are used side by side (see "Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum," 2d. ed., I, 220. The same peculiarity occurs in the Philocalian Calendar of 356 A.D., ibid., p. 256). This device was imitated by the Christians, and in their calendars the days of the year from I January to 31 December were marked with a continuous recurring cycle of seven letters : A, B, C, D, E, F, G."—The Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. V, 109, art. "Dominical Letter."
The pagan origin of Sunday observance and the calendar names of the days of the week is unmistakably certain. There is yet much archeological evidence on this matter which one who has the time and means for research may gather. We may truly profit by such corroboration of our message.
