GREGORIAN CALENDAR. 



GUATEMALA. 



373 



solar year at the rate of 11 minutes, 12 seconds 

 a year. In the course of centuries the dis- 

 crepancy hence arising began to show itself 

 very inconveniently, and the popes were often 

 urged to eifect a reform. This was pressed 

 chiefly on the ground that Easter and the 

 Church festivals depending on the time Easter 

 is celebrated were all thrown out of their proper 

 seasons. Reiterated remonstrances at last had 

 their effect. Pope Gregory XIII, in 1582, as- 

 sisted by Aloysius, Lilius, Clavius, and others, 

 took up the work and carried it out thoroughly. 

 The equinoxes at this date appeared seven days 

 earlier than in 325, when the Council of Nice 

 was held, and the prevailing rule as to Easter 

 was established. The mode adopted of reform- 

 ing the civil year was simple and effective. The 

 Julian year was gaining on the true solar year 

 at the rate of three days and three hours in 400 

 years. All that was necessary was to drop three 

 days in that period. Therefore every centenary 

 year which was not divisible by four was made 

 for the future a common instead of a leap- 

 year. The years 1600, 1700, 1800, 1900, 2000, 

 were to have been bissextile or leap-years ; but, 

 by the regulation of the Pope and his helpers, 

 the years 1700, 1800, and 1900 were to receive 

 no intercalation, while the years 1600 and 2000 

 were to be leap-years, as before. As by this 

 process the Gregorian year is only twenty- 

 four seconds longer than the mean tropical, it 

 will take 3,600 years (if the world last so long) 

 before posterity will find themselves a day in 

 advance. The bull of the Pope ordering this 

 reform was issued February 24, 1582, and as 

 the year was now ten days in the wrong, it 

 was made right by requiring the 5th of Oc- 

 tober to be the 15th. This brings us to the 

 date in 1882 which is the tercentenary of the 

 birthday of the Gregorian Calendar. 



As was stated above, there is a lunar calen- 

 dar for the use of those churches in Christen- 

 dom which follow the rule of the Council of 

 Nice in regard to the great festival of Easter. 

 A lunar cycle is of course a necessity for this 

 purpose, and at different dates different cycles 

 have prevailed. The cycle of Meton, improved 

 by Calippus, introduced at Athens, in the fifth 

 century B. o., obtained much favor, and was 

 adopted at Alexandria, and subsequently at 

 Rome. As revised by Dionysius Exiguus, it 

 was still to a certain extent in error, amount- 

 ing to a day in excess after 308 years. Hence 

 some method was to be devised of bringing the 

 lunar year into harmony with the Gregorian 

 solar year. A compendious table was wanted 

 to find the new moons for any date in the past 

 or future. The simplest plan was to adopt the 

 tables for finding the new moons which had 

 been previously in use, applying to it the ne- 

 cessary correctives. The " Golden Number," 

 the "Epact," the "Dominical Letter," are the 

 names applied to the Prayer-Book tables in 

 connection with this subject. Our limits do 

 not admit of details. It is sufficient to say 

 that the united devices furnished by these in- 



dicate the date of Easter in each year. The 

 Golden Number gives us the place of the year 

 in the cycle of 19. The Epact supplies the 

 age of the moon at the beginning of the first 

 year of the cycle, and by inference its age at the 

 beginnmg,of the other eighteen years, regard 

 being always had to the century. The Domin- 

 ical Letter informs us upon what days of 

 the year in question Sunday falls. But these 

 methods do not determine Easter with entire 

 accuracy, according to the rules laid down by 

 the Council of Nice. The vernal equinox is 

 assumed to be the 21st of March, at which 

 time it happened to fall A. D. 325, the date ot 

 the council. Owing to what is called the 

 "precession of the equinoxes," the vernal equi- 

 nox is found to vary from year to year, being 

 sometimes on the 20th, and even the 19th of 

 March. But as this one date was fixed, for the 

 purpose in view, on the 21st, it enables calcu- 

 lations to be made on a settled basis for the 

 movable feasts ; and certainly, in so far, the 

 laying down the rule by the council was a good 

 thing for the Church and Christian world. 



The Gregorian Calendar was introduced into 

 the greater part of Italy, as well as into Spain 

 and Portugal, on the day named in the Pope's 

 bull. It was adopted in France two months 

 after, and, by an edict of Henry III, December 

 9th was followed by the 20th. The Roman 

 Catholic parts of Switzerland, Germany, and 

 the Low Countries, adopted the correction in 



1583, Poland in 1586, Hungary in 1587. The 

 Protestant parts of Europe resisted, for more 

 than a century, the change, mainly owing to 

 an unwillingness to receive anything from the 

 source whence it emanated. At last, in 1700, 

 Protestant Germany, as well as Denmark and 

 Holland, put aside their prejudice in this mat- 

 ter, and the Protestant cantons of Switzerland 

 copied their example the following year. In 

 England, an attempt was made, as early as 



1584, to introduce the new style ; but it failed 

 of success. Finally, however, in 1751, an act 

 was passed regulating the beginning of the year 

 for the future, and correcting the calendar now 

 in use. The old year began on the 25th of 

 March. The act provided that the ne w year, 

 1752, should begin January 1st; and, as the 

 year was now eleven days out of the way, it was 

 enacted that the 3d of September should be 

 reckoned the 14th. Sweden adopted the Gre- 

 gorian Calendar in 1753. Russia, however, 

 and those countries where the Greek Church 

 is predominant, adhere to the Julian year, or 

 " old style," as it is called. 



GUATEMALA (REPFBLIOA DE GUATEMALA), 

 one of the five independent states of Central 

 America. According to recent census returns, 

 the population* of the republic in October, 

 1882, was 1,226,602, against 1,200,000 esti- 

 mated in 1875. Of the number given for the 

 year first mentioned, 381,828 (185,536 males 

 and 196,292 females) were classified as "not In- 



* For statistics relative to area, territorial divisions, popu- 

 lation, etc., see " Annual Cyclopaedia" for 1ST5 and 1880. 



