Montour American. (Danville, Pa.) 1866-1920, 1907-04-04
THE SNARLS OF TINE
POPE GREGORYs CORRECTION OF
THE JULIAN CALENDAR.
At One Time October Was the Years
Shortest MOnth-It Contained Only
Twenty-One Days In 15S2-Commo-
tion the Change Made In England.

Twenty-One Days In 15S2-Commo-
tion the Change Made In England.
Did you ever hear of the famous
short month of October, which had
only twenty-one days? Some three cen
turtles ago in sOuthC II Europe men
tried to correct an error that had been
growing continually for more than
thousand years, and the result was
that they called the day after Oct. 4,
1882, Oct. Is instead of Oct. 5.
We get our ideas and principles re-
garding the calendar from two sources,
Roman and Jewish. Every one knows
that the names Of the months are
Latin, and in the histories we read how
the various Roman rulers changed the
distribution of days within the month,
etc. to suit their pride or political
schemes. much as modern politicians
hasten or postpone a convention, and
brought things into great confusion
until Julius Caesar decreed that the
coming year should consist of 1855 days
and every fourth year Of 1886. The ex-
ira day was to be inserted between the
24th and 25th of February. In their
way OF numbering the days of the
month, which seems to us so awkward
the oath was seXto calendas, or the
sixth day before the calends of
March. When the extra day was in
serted it was called the second sixth.
or. In Latin, bisseXto calendas, whence
our biSsextilc.
From Jewish sources we get other
features. The great Jewish festival Of
the passover was celebrated on the
very day of the first full moon after
t:anS. or many Of them. took the same
day. .slt this led to charges of heresy,
to discussion, criticism and even con-
tempt; so II was decreed probably by
Constantine he Great In 325 A. D., in
connection with the council of Nicaea,
that tha Christian festival Easter
should be observed on the Sunday fol-
lowing the passover. and the other
movable feasts of the church were
made dependent on this. So the ele-
nent Of fixed day Of the week was
brought into the calculation.
In jh:s 325-the vernal equinox
fai. Ga MtscA Il. end. If Caesars work
III es:Hh In" lie Julian calendar had
only been correct this event would have
happened Oh this date forever. But ma
ture seems to abhor simple ratios as she
was salG; to abhnr a vacuum. Cnfortu
nately for simplicity the year is not ex-
actly 3G5 days hours, but about II
minutes ii seconds less. So the inser
ton of the extra day in four years was
OVERRIDING the correction, as was known
even In the dark ages, but after the re-
vival Of learning and the establishment
of observatories it was commented on
In the council of Trent and was very
much discussed by mathematicians.
And by the middle Of the sixteenth cen
tury the hundreds of small errors had
accumulated to tcn days, SO the vernal
equinox fell not on the 21st, but ON
the 11th, of March.
This was the condition of things
elected. He realized the glory that it
would be to his reign If this confusing
N: tier was settled, and so set COM
pary of mathematicians to work out
the problem, not only Of rectifying the
old errors. tut of providing rules to
prevent cr-or3 In the future. The hard
est part g., the work was to fix the
movable c,.-'"ci ctasts without doing
violence to the traditions That a good
deal could be said about the work Is
evidenced by the book of 800 pages I
written by Clavius, one Of the compa
ny. The result was that in 1881 a pa
pal bull was issued declaring, among
lowing Oct. should be called Oct. 15
and that centuries should not be leap .
years unless divisible by 400.
Rulers and states that were then
Catholic responded to the pope's re-
quest for acceptance of the reform. In
France the ten days were dropped aft
er Dec. 8, 1872; in Catholic Germany
the change was made in 1884, but the
Protestant ste tes delayed until Feb.
10 (Narch II, 1902. In Switzerland and
Poland there was such resistance made
that the troops We're necessary to sup
press it.
The change was long delayed In Prot
estant Engl;' nd, which would not will
ingly accept an alleged reform due to
Il pope that had encouraged the ar
NADIA. But the need of the uniformity
among neighboring states was too
great, and il 1151 Lord Chesterfield In
troduced into parliament bill for the
a7c Sf the calendar Snrua Glt-"-