Christmas-Boxes

Christmas-boxes are said to have originated with the Romish priests, who had masses for almost everything: If a ship went to the Indies a priest had a box in her, under the protection of some saint, in which money was collected for mass to be said to that saint on the ship’s return, which was called Christ-mass. Servants also had the privilege of asking for box money, that they might be enabled to pay the priest for his masses. Other modes also of obtaining money, under the pretence of relieving the people of their sins, were resorted to by the priests, which forcibly illustrated the proverb, “No penny, no Paternoster.”