The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1916-02-12
The CALENDAR
G Il NOLOGY WHICH THE
WORLD OWES TO JULIUS Gaze.
sAR AND POPE GREGORY XIII.

WORLD OWES TO JULIUS cAE-
sAR AND POPE GREGORY XIII.
With the beginning Of another year
II is interesting to look back upon the
past and study the methods Of the
ancients for keeping track Of Father
Tine. The necessity Of some diVi-
sion and measurement Of time was
felt at an early period of the worlds
existence. The phases or changes of
the moon supplied an obvious method
OF dividing and reckoning time, and
hence the division into months of
tWenty-nine and thirty days was per-
hapa the earliest and most universal.
But It was soon observed that the
changes of the seasons were more
serviceable as marks of division, and
thus arose the division into years, de-
termined by the motion Of the sun. IT
was soon discovered, however, that
The year or larger division did not
contain an exact number Of smaller
divisions, or months, and that an ac-
cOmmOdation was necessary, and va.
rious and not very dissimilar expedi-
cnts were employed for correcting the
error that arose.
The ancient Egyptians had a year
determined by the changes Of the sea-
sons, without reference to the changes
Of the moon, and containing 3G5 days,
iY1tn Of i,,ty
days each with five supplementary
days at the end Of the year
The Jewish year consisted in the
earliest periods as it still does, of
twelve months, a thirteenth being
from time to time introduced to ac-
commodate it to the sun and seasons.
This was also the case with the an
cient Macedonians, Syrians, etc.
The Greeks, in the most ancient pc
Rod, reckoned according to real lunar
months, twelve making a year, and
about $40 b. c., Scion introduced in
Athens the modes of reckoning alter
nately thirty and twenty-nine days to
the month, accommodating this civil
the occasional introduction Of an in
torcalary month. A change was after
Yards made by which three times in
eight years a month of thirty days
was intercalated, making the average
length Of the year 365 u days
Among the Romans the utmost con-
fusion prevailed in the arrangements
of the months and years, the original
year among them having but ten
months. 1t was not until julius
Caesar remedied the difficulty by the
introduction of the Julian calendar,
named after him, that some system
obtained. He divided the year into
365 days, and intercalated a day every
four years, thus introducing. the leap
year In the distribution of the days
through the several months, Caesar
adopted a simpler and more commo-
dious arrangement than that which
has since prevailed. He had ordered
that the first, third, fifth, seventh and
March, May, July, September and No
yember, should have each thirty-one
days, and the other months thirty
with the exception OF February, which
il common years should have twenty
nine, but every fourth year thirty
days This order was nullilied to
@ratify the vanity of Augustus, by Civ
ing the month bearing his name as
many days as July, which was named
after the first Caesar A day was ac-
taken from February and
given to August, and in order that
three months of thirty-one days might
not come together. September and
were reduced to thirty days
and thirty-one days given to October
and December. For SO friVilous rea-
son was the admirable regulation of
Caesar abandoned and a capricious
introduced which re-
quires some attention to remember.
So comparatively perfect was the
Julian style of reckoning time that it
prevailed generally among Christian
nations, and remained undisturbed
until the renewed accumulation Of the
error of eleven minutes
and ten seconds had amounted in 1882
years after the birth Of Christ to ten
complete days, the vernal equinox fall
ing on the 18th instead of the 21st of
March. This shifting of days had
caused great disturbances by unfXing
the times of the celebration of 1Gaster
and hence of all other movable feasts.
Pope Gregory XIII, after
deep study and calculation, ordained
that ten days should be deducted from
the year 1882 by calling what, by the
old calendar, would have been the 9Th
Of October, the 18th of October, 1882,
and in order that no further displace-
ment might occur, it was further or
dained that every hundredth year
$500, 1900, 2100, etc., should not be
counted leap year, excepting every
fourth hundred, beginning 1000. In
this way the difference between the
civil and the natural year will not
to a day in 5000 years.
In Spain, Portugal and part of Italy,
the Pope was exactly obeyed. In
France the change took place in the
same year by calling the 10th the goth
of December, but it was resisted by
the Professionals until the year 100.
The Catholic countries generally
the style ordained by the Sow
ereign Pontiff, but the Protesants were
then too much inflamed against Cath
olicism in all its relations to receive
even a purely scientific improvement