CHRONOLOGY. 
cessor Numa, was reckoned by lunar 
months, and adjusted to the seasons by a 
number of intercalary days. It consisted 
of ten lunar months, of which December 
was the last, and to these two whole inter- 
calary months were added, but not inserted 
in the calendar. This year began at first 
in March ; but the Decemviri, who under- 
took its reformation, changed the order of 
the months into that in which they now stand, 
introduced the two intercalary months, Ja- 
nuary and February, into the calendar, and 
made January the first month of the year. 
Owing to the ignorance, or the careless- 
ness, of the Pontitices Maximi, to whose care 
the regulation of the intercalary days was 
committed, the year was reduced to such dis- 
order in the time of Julius Caesar, that the 
winter months had fallen back to the au- 
tumn. To restore them to their proper 
season, Caesar formed a year of 445 days, 
which has been styled the year of confusion. 
With the assistance of Sosigenes, a mathe- 
matician of Alexandria, he afterwards, in 
the year B. C. 45> instituted a solar year 
of 365 days 6 hours, which is now known 
under the name of the Julian year. To 
adjust this year to the annual revolution 
of the earth, which is six hours and some 
minutes more than 365 days, the length of 
the ordinary year, a day was appointed to be 
intercalated every fourth year in the month 
of February : this day, from its position in 
the Roman calendar, was called bissextile, a 
name which has also been given to the year 
in which the intercalation takes place. 
The Julian year, although it approaches 
very near the truth, is not, however, per- 
fectly correct. The true time of the an- 
nual revolution of the sun in the ecliptic 
is 363 days, 5 hours, and nearly 49 minutes, 
which falls short by a few minutes of the 
time assumed in the Julian year. How 
trifling soever this difference might at first 
appear, it amounted in a hundred and 
thirty-one years to a whole day : in conse- 
quence of this, the vernal equinox, which 
Sosigenes, in the first year of tlie Julian 
coiTection, observed to fall on the 25th of 
March, had gone back in A. D. 325, at tlie 
time of the council of Nice, to the 21st, 
and in A. D. 1582 to the 11th of March. 
To remedy this growing defect. Pope Gre- 
gory Xlll. caused the calendar to undergo 
another correction. In A. D. 1580, he 
ordered ten days to be cut out of the month 
of October, so that tire fourth was reckoned 
die 15th day : and to prevent such retro- 
cession in future, in addition to the Julian 
regulation with respect to the bissextile 
year, he ordained that the years 1600, 2000, 
2400, and every fourth century in succes- 
sion should have an intercalation of a day, 
but that in the other centuries 1700, 1800, 
1900, 2100, &c. the day should be omitted 
and those years remain common years. 
This regulation comes so near the truth that 
the only correction it will require will be 
the suppression of a day and a half in five 
thousand years. 
The Gregorian year, or, as it is vulgarly 
called, the new style, was immediately 
adopted in Spain, Portugal, and part of 
Italy. It was introduced into France in 
October of the same year, the tenth of 
which month was, by an ordinance of 
Henry III. reckoned the twentieth day. 
In Germany it was adopted by the Catho- 
lic states in 1583, but the Protestant states 
adhered to tlie old calendar until the year 
1700. Denmark also adopted it about 
this period, and Sweden in 1753. It was 
not used in England before 1752, when, by 
act of parliament, the style was changed, 
and the third of September was reckoned 
the fourteenth, the difference having by 
this time increased to eleven days. Russia 
is the only country in Europe in which 
the old mode of reckoning is still in use. 
The want of some specific standard, 
which could be regarded as common to all 
nations, has occasioned great diversity in 
different countries in fixing the beginning 
of the year. The Chaldceans and Egyp- 
tians reckoned their years from the au- 
tumnal equinox. The Jews also reckoned 
their civil year from tliis period, but be- 
gan their ecclesiastical year in the spring. 
Gemschid, the King of Persia, ordered 
the year in that countiy to commence at 
the vernal equinox. In Sweden the year 
formerly commenced at the winter solstice. 
The Greeks used different methods, some 
of the states beginning the year at the ver- 
nal, others at the autumnal equinox, and 
some at the summer solstice. The Roman 
year at one time began in March, but gfter- 
wards was made to commence in January. 
The new year’s day of the Ciiurch of Rome 
is fixed on the Sunday neai-est the full 
moon of the vernal equinox. In England 
the year began in March until A. D. 
1752, when the act of parliament which 
altered the style ordained it to commence 
on the first of January. 
Having thus given a short account of the 
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