2i8 The Statural Hiflory 



perfe&ed by Csfar) which though not performed till the time of 

 Gregory the 13 th , Anno 1582. yet the firfl motion of its being 

 done, was certainly made by this Learned Friar to Pope Clement 

 the 4 th , as appears from a fair MS Copy of the fourth part of his 

 Opus minus in the Bodleyan Library : Where after he has paflio- 

 natly lamented its errors awhile, he gives this fuccinft account of 

 it, vi%. that its being greater than the true Solar year, was the 

 caufe of the going back of the JEquinoxes and Solftices, and then 

 how all was to be amended. 



9. Quod autem hicintendo (fays he x ) eft de correttione Calendarii 

 quoutitur Ecclefia. Julius quidem Casfar in Aftronomia edoclus 

 complevit ordinem Calendarii fecundum quod potuit in tempore fuo ; 

 is? ficut K\ ft or\x narrant contra Achorium Aslronomum, & Eudo-< 

 xum ejus Dcflorem difputavit in Egypto de quantitate Anni Solaris, 



fuper quam fundatum eft Calendarium nnftrumjindeficut Lucanus rt- 

 ftrt, ij>fe dixit 



Non meus Eudoxi vincetur faftibus Annus. 



Sednonpervenit Julius adveram anni quantitatem quampofuit effe in 

 Calendario /7o/?/'0 365 dies, <& quart am diei integram, qu<e quartet 

 col/igitur per quatuor annos, ut in anno Biflextili computetur unus 

 dies plus quam in aim annis communibus : Manifeftum autem eft per 

 omnes computiftas, antiquosist novos, fed (9 certificatum eil per vias 

 Aftronomia?, quod quantity anni Solaris non eff tanta, imo minor ; 

 (y iftud minus <zftimatur a fapientibus effe quaft 130 pars unius diei, 

 unde tanquam in 130 annis fuperflue computatur unius dies, qui ft au- 

 ferretur, effet Calendarium correftum quoad hoc peccatum, i. e. 



10. That which I intend here (fays he) is the corrc&ionof 

 the Calendar now in ufe in the Church. Julius C<efar indeed be- 

 ing learned in Aftronomy, compleated the Calendar very well for 

 his time, and as Hiftories tell us, difputed in Egypt againft Acho- 

 riui, and his Mafter Eudoxus, concerning the quantity of the 

 Solar year, on which our Calendar is founded, which made Lu- 

 can bring him in fpeaking to this erM:, 



The J ul'idn-iftja linear be proved amifs, 

 By the Eudoxian Ephemeris. 



But Julius never came to the knowledge of the true quantity of* 



* 4 MS. h Bib. Sod. in MufxO Protobibliotheiarii f- 327. 



the 



