Who first said day of Christ's birth was hide like Moses body, likely to preclude idolatry?

[NaphtaliPress]

Following up on this here. Calderwood's Perth Assembly is the earliest English publication I can find that says that the day of Christ's birth was hid as was the body of Moses, to prevent idolatry? Calderwood, Mocket, Matther and others mention other writers who wrote in Latin close enough to where they all say this to perhaps infer this was not original to Calderwood but someone like Hospinian said it. Mocket I think sites his prefacing epistle to Pasche. I couldn't find what this refers to. Anyone up for a hunt? I need to find out before Monday is out as I want to wrap a note I'm adding to Gillespie Shorter Writings vol. 2.
Mather, page 20.
Mocket, page 16.
Calderwood, page 80.

 

[Phil D.]

I couldn't find anything specific earlier than Calderwood.

Hospinian has a sizable section in his Festa Christianorum (1593; f.110ff.) on the history of Christmas being observed on December 25, but does not make that correlation. He is fairly thorough, although he cites some sources now deemed spurious.

In his Sacred Chronologie (1648; p.72), Roger Drake broadly comments, "Its a pious conjecture of Divines that God of purpose concealed the time of Christs birth, as he did the bodie of Moses, as well fore-seeing how it would have been abused to superstition, &c. had it been exactly known." He has a tantalizing marginal note in Latin attached to this remark* - seemingly the only note in the entire book! - but it only peripherally has to do with the ambiguity of the dating, not the analogy of purpose. He doesn't state any source and I couldn't identify one either.

The idea that Moses' body was hidden to prevent idolatry can be found in RC writers from at least late medieval times, a rich irony not lost on the early reformers who seized the opportunity to criticize the RC veneration of saints' bodies and relics (Luther, Calvin, Beza, et al). However, I didn't encounter any Continental writers that drew the same corollary regarding holy days.

Calderwood is the only one of the three you have linked that mentions "Pasche," but it's clearly just a reference to Easter. I might be missing something here...?

*Quid si addoremus, ita forsan disposuisse divinam providentiam, ut partus tam Augustus contingeret, non tantum sub imperio Augusti, sed etiam in ipso mense Augusti: atque ita Trinitas Augustorum in uno nosire Immanuele concurreret.

 

[NaphtaliPress]

I couldn't find anything specific earlier than Calderwood.

Hospinian has a sizable section in his Festa Christianorum (1593; f.110ff.) on the history of Christmas being observed on December 25, but does not make that correlation. He is fairly thorough, although he cites some sources now deemed spurious.

In his Sacred Chronologie (1648; p.72), Roger Drake broadly comments, "Its a pious conjecture of Divines that God of purpose concealed the time of Christs birth, as he did the bodie of Moses, as well fore-seeing how it would have been abused to superstition, &c. had it been exactly known." He has a tantalizing marginal note in Latin attached to this remark* - seemingly the only note in the entire book! - but it only peripherally has to do with the ambiguity of the dating, not the analogy of purpose. He doesn't state any source and I couldn't identify one either.

The idea that Moses' body was hidden to prevent idolatry can be found in RC writers from at least late medieval times, a rich irony not lost on the early reformers who seized the opportunity to criticize the RC veneration of saints' bodies and relics (Luther, Calvin, Beza, et al). However, I didn't encounter any Continental writers that drew the same corollary regarding holy days.

*Quid si addoremus, ita forsan disposuisse divinam providentiam, ut partus tam Augustus contingeret, non tantum sub imperio Augusti, sed etiam in ipso mense Augusti: atque ita Trinitas Augustorum in uno nosire Immanuele concurreret.

Thanks Phil; appreciate your interest in checking and you save me searching Hospinian. What you said reminded me that Voetius has one or two dissertations on the time of Christ's birth. I wish I knew the Latin for what I am looking for. I don't remember the date but these were likely later than both Calderwood and Gillespie. Edit. Here he does mention Moses and Jude 9.