Sermons 228

'The day of the Lord's Nativity was for this reason instituted by the Fathers for a votive solemnity,' etc. It ends: 'And which therefore we ought to observe throughout the revolving cycle of the year with festal solemnity, that it may be called to remembrance that Christ was born.' Codex 3786 is indicated, from which it was copied, and it is confirmed by the testimony of six other codices as belonging to Saint Maximus. Were it not laboring under the same ineptitudes, it would at least have a place among the doubtful ones; but it must not be transferred even into that class. Moreover, it seems to be a fragment rather than a sermon.