Of XFO %V~SHI%E. ix 9 



the year, which he made to confift of 365 days, and a whole 

 fourth part of a day. which fourth part collected at four years 

 end, made, that in the Biffextil there was One day more than in 

 any otheryear : But 'tis manifeft (fays he) to all Aflronomers both 

 old and new, and 'tis plain from the rules of Astronomy, that the 

 quantity of the Solar year is not fo much, but lefs, and that as 'tis 

 judged by wife men, by the 130 th part of a day; whence it 

 comes to pafs,thatin 130 years we have one fuperfluous day, 

 which were it but taken away, the Calendar would be corrected as 

 to this error. 



1 1. And then he proceeds to fliew, that upon this account 

 it is that the /Equinoxes and Solstices arc not fixt, but continually 

 afcend in the Calendar, that in the beginning of the Church they 

 were not, where they are now in his time ; and in the conclufion 

 of the Difcourfe, Debet autemnunc temporis remedium apponi pro- 

 pter iftos errores manijeflos, &c Y . But that now fome remedy muft 

 be found for thofe palpable errors, and that to take off fcandal 

 from the Church ; for (fays he) all the learned in Aftronomy know 

 this, and laugh at the ignorance of the Prelates that fuffer it. Nay^ 

 the Infidel Arabians, Hebrews, and Greek, abhor the folly they fee 

 in the Chriftians in ordering the time they fet afide for their greater 

 Solemnities'. But now Ch riftians have fo much fkill in Agronomy, 

 that they can amend all thefe things. Therefore your Holynefs 

 (meaning PopeClement) may command, is? invenietk homines qui 

 prrfdara remedia apponent in hac parte. 



1 2. Thus earneftly wrote he for the reformation of the Calen- 

 dar, not only in this but in feveral other Books ; in 6\\t whereof 

 he makes alfo this complaint, Non tamen aliquis pr^fumit tradere 

 Calendarium correclum, propter hoc quod Concilium generate prohi-> 

 bet nc quis mutet Calendzrium, fine licentia fedis Apoftolicsegg/zmz^ 

 // z , i. e. Yet no body prefumes to correct this Calendar, becaufe 

 it is forbid by a General Council that no man fhould offer to alter 

 it, without fpecial licenfe firft obtained of the Apoflolick Sea. 

 Which licenfe I gather at length was given him, for I find him in 

 the end of the aforefaid Chapter, mentioning a more correct Copy 

 of a Calendar fent to the aforefaid Pope by his Boy John, than 

 any he had fent him before. Cumpropter feslinantiam, is 1 propter 



^ Loco citato {ub finem Paragraph. * In Operit Minor, part. 3. 4. m$, j Bib/iotheca ~Bodleiana* 

 lap. 67. 



E e 2 occa- 



