CHRISTMAS, the festival in celebration of the birth of Christ now celebrated all over Christendom on 25th December, as coinciding with an old heathen festival celebrated at the winter solstice, the day of the return of the sun northward, and in jubilation of the prospect of the renewal of life in the spring.

CHRISTOLOGY, the department of theology which treats of the person of Christ.

CHRISTOPHE, HENRI, a negro, born in Grenada; one of the leaders of the insurgent slaves in Hayti, who, proving successful in arms against the French, became king under the title of Henry I., but ruling despotically provoked revolt, and shot himself through the heart; he was a man of powerful physique; b. 1820.

CHRISTOPHER, ST., (the Christ-Bearer), according to Christian legend a giant of great stature and strength, who, after serving the devil for a time, gave himself up to the service of Christ by carrying pilgrims across a bridgeless river, when one day a little child, who happened to be none else than Christ Himself, appeared to be carried over, but, strange to say, as he bore Him across, the child grew heavier and heavier, till he was nearly baffled in landing Him on the opposite shore.  The giant represented the Church, and the increasing weight of the child the increasing sin and misery which the Church has from age to age to bear in carrying its Christ across the Time-river; the giant is represented in art as carrying the infant on his shoulder, and as having for staff the stem of a large tree.

CHRISTOPHER NORTH, the name assumed by JOHN WILSON (q. v.) in Blackwood’s Magazine.

CHRISTOPHER’S, ST., (30), popularly called St. Kitts, one of the Leeward Islands, discovered by Columbus (1493), who named it after himself; belongs to England; has sugar plantations.

CHRIST’S HOSPITAL, the Blue-Coat School, London, was founded in 1547, a large institution, on the foundation of which there are now 2170 pupils instead of 1200 as formerly; entrance to it is gained partly by presentation and partly by competition, and attached are numerous exhibitions and prizes; among the alumni have been several noted men, such as Bishop Stillingfleet, Coleridge, Leigh Hunt, and Charles Lamb.

CHROMATICS, that department of optics which treats of colours, and resolves the primary colours into three—­red, yellow, and blue.

CHRONICLERS, THE RHYMING, a series of writers who flourished in England in the 13th century, and related histories of the country in rhyme, in which the fabulous occupies a conspicuous place, among which Layamon’s “Brut” (1205) takes the lead.

CHRONICLES I. and II., two historical books of the Old Testament, the narratives of which, with additions and omissions, run parallel with those of Samuel and Kings, but written from a priestly standpoint, give the chief prominence to the history of Judah as the support in Jerusalem of the ritual of which the priests were the custodians; Ezra and Nehemiah are continuations.