This alteration of the style was immediately adopted in all Catholic countries ; hut not in Great llritaiu till the year 1752, when eleven days were dropped between the 2nd and 14th of September, so that month contained only nineteen days; and thenceforth the new or reformed sty to was adopted, as it had been before in most other countries of Europe. The same year also another alteration was made In England, by which the legal year, which before had begun on the 25th of March, began upon the first of January ; this alteration first took place on the lst of January., 1752 : see the Statute 24 Geo.
eh. 23. By this statute it was also enacted that the several years of our Lord 1800, 1900, 2100, 2200, 2300, or any hundred' year of our Lord which shall happen in time to come, except only every fourth hundreth year of our Lord, whereof the year 2000 shall be the first, shall not be deemed bissextile or leap-years, but shall be considered as common years, consisting of 365 days only ; and that the years of our Lord 2000, 2400, 2800, and every other fourth hundredth year of our Lord from the year 2000 inclusive, and also all other years of our Lord which, by the present computation, are considered bissextile or Imp-years, deal, for the future be esteemed bissextile or leap-years, consisting of 366 days : and that whereas according to the rule then in use for calculating Easter-day, that feast was fixed to the first Sunday after the first full moon next after the 21st of March ; and if the full moon happens on a Sunday, then Easter-day in the Sunday after; which rule had been adopted by the general council of Nice ; but that as the method of computing the full moons then used in the church of Eng land, arid according to which the table to find Easter prefixed to the book of Conunou Prayer is found, had become erroneous, it was enacted that the said method should be discontinued, and that from and after the 2nd of September, 1752 Easter-day and the other move able and other feasts were henceforwnrd to be reckoned according to the kalendar tables and rules annexed to the Act, sud attached to the books of Common Prayer. This was, in fact, an enactment of the Gregorian alteration, thought no allusion to the source of the alteration is made. [Earersai 3fernoo or FINDING.] It is not generally known that an effort was made to reform the kalendar in England as early as the reign of Queen Elizabeth. On the
16th of March, 27 Eliz., A.D. 1584-5, a bill was read the first. time in the House of Lords, entitled " An Act giving Her Majesty authority to alter and new make a Kalendar according to the Kalendar used in other Countries." It was read a second time on the eighteenth of that month, after which no notice occurs of the proposed measure.
The formation of the _Hebrew kalender is fixed by some to the same year as the council of Nice, A.D. 325: others have placed it in the year 360: and others as late as A.D. 500. Lindo however assures us that the Mishna compiled according to the Jewish account in the year A.D. 141, proves that the kalendar as used by the Jews in its present form, with the intercalary month, was generally known and followed at that time.
For further information upon the Jewish kalendar the reader may consult Dr. Adam Clarke's ' Commentary upon the Bible,' and Lindo's ' Jewish Calendar.' Two Kalendars arc in use in the East{: the Arabian, which is common to all the Mohammedan countries ; and the Persian, the use of which is peculiar to that country. This last is founded on the Persian era called Yezdegird.' Of the three parts into which the Romans divided their month, the kalendce, or kalends, have been already explained. They were so called (h calando vel rocando), from the pontifex calling out to the people that it was new moon. The fifth day of the month, was called Nonce, the DODC8, and the 13th Idus,ithe ides, from the verb iduare, to divide ; because the ides nearly divided the month. The nones, from nonns, the ninth, were so called because, counting inclusively, they were nine days from the ides. In March, May, July, and October, the mules fell on the 7th and the ides on the 15th of the month. The mode of fixing any particular day was by saying that it was so many days before the kalends, nones, or ides, next immediately following. Thus the 28th of April was the 4th day before the kalends of March ; the 4th of March was the 4th day- before the nones of March ; and the 9th of March was the 7th day before the ides of March.
The Attic year consisted of twelve lunar months of 30 and 29 days alternately : an intercalary month of 29 or 30 days was inserted every two years, but as this was 71 days too much, the intercalary month was sometimes omitted. The full Attic month consisted of 30 days, and was divided into three decades.