Rest in peace Rest in peace The phrase "Rest in peace", RIP, from Latin Requiescat in pace (, )) is sometimes used in traditional Christian services and prayers, such as in the Anglican, Lutheran, Methodist, and Roman Catholic denominations, sometimes to wish the soul of a decedent eternal rest and peace in Christ. It became ubiquitous on headstones in the 18th century, and is widely used today when mentioning someone's death. The phrase "dormit in pace" (English: "he sleeps in peace") was found in the catacombs of the early Christians and indicated that "they died in the peace of the Church, that is,
Common Era "before the beginning of the vulgar æra, by which we now compute the years from his incarnation." A 1796 book uses the term "vulgar era of the nativity". The first so-far-discovered usage of "Christian Era" is as the Latin phrase "aerae christianae" on the title page of a 1584 theology book. In 1649, the Latin phrase "æræ Christianæ" appeared in the title of an English almanac. A 1652 ephemeris is the first instance so-far-found for English usage of "Christian Era". The English phrase "common Era" appears at least as early as 1708, and in a 1715 book on astronomy is