Christian era
    n 1: the time period beginning with the supposed year of
         Christ's birth [syn: Christian era, Common era]

Christian \Chris"tian\, a.
   1. Pertaining to Christ or his religion; as, Christian
      people.
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   3. Pertaining to the church; ecclesiastical; as, a Christian
      court. --Blackstone.
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   4. Characteristic of Christian people; civilized; kind;
      kindly; gentle; beneficent.
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            The graceful tact; the Christian art. --Tennyson.
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   Christian Commission. See under Commission.

   Christian court. Same as Ecclesiastical court.

   Christian Endeavor, Young People's Society of. In various
      Protestant churches, a society of young people organized
      in each individual church to do Christian work; also, the
      whole body of such organizations, which are united in a
      corporation called the United Society of Christian
      Endeavor, organized in 1885. The parent society was
      founded in 1881 at Portland, Maine, by Rev. Francis E.
      Clark, a Congregational minister. [Webster 1913 Suppl.]

   Christian era, the present era, commencing with the birth
      of Christ. It is supposed that owing to an error of a monk
      (Dionysius Exiguus, d. about 556) employed to calculate
      the era, its commencement was fixed three or four years
      too late, so that 1890 should be 1893 or 1894.

   Christian name, the name given in baptism, as distinct from
      the family name, or surname.
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Christian Era \Christian Era\
   The era in use in all Christian countries, which was intended
   to commence with the birth of Christ. The era as now
   established was first used by Dionysius Exiguus (died about
   540), who placed the birth of Christ on the 25th of December
   in the year of Rome 754, which year he counted as 1 a. d.
   This date for Christ's birth is now generally thought to be
   about four years too late.
   [Webster 1913 Suppl.]