A century later Aloysius Lilius, a Verona physician and astronomer and doubtless an astrologer, worked out what he
believed to be the exact requirements for a calendar that would keep step with the seasons. After his death his brother
presented the plan to Pope Gregory XII, who gathered a group of learned men to discuss it, including Clavius, who later
wrote an 800-page Treatise explaining it. Thus it was that after five years of study the Gregorian calendar was put into
effect in 1582, instituting the following reforms:
(1) Ten days were dropped by ordering October 5th to be counted as October 15th. (2) The length of the solar year was
corrected to 365 d. 5 h. 49 m. 12 s. (3) The year was made to begin January 1. (4) The centesimal years were made leap
years only if divisible by 400 - thereby gaining the fraction of a day per hundred years that in fifteen centuries had
amounted to ten days.
The new calendar was immediately adopted in all Roman Catholic countries, but the rest of the world was slow to
accept it. Germany, Denmark and Sweden did not adopt it until 1700.
In Anglo-Saxon England the year began December 25th, until William of Normandy, following his conquest of
England, ordered it to begin on January 1st, chiefly because this was the day of his coronation. Later England adopted
March 25th, to coincide with the date on which most of the Christian peoples of the medieval epoch reckoned the
beginning of the year. By edict Constantine later made Easter the beginning of the year, and it continued to be observed
as New Year's Day until 1565, when Charles IV changed it back to January 1st.
Not until 1752 did Britain finally adopt the Gregorian calendar, suppressing 11 days and ordering that the day following
September 2, 1752 be accounted as September 14th. Those who objected to the disruption of the week of festivities with
which they were wont to celebrate the New Year, March 25th to April 1st, were sent mock gifts, or paid pretendedly
ceremonious calls on April 1st, a custom that survives today in April Fool's Day.
The countries under the sway of the Greek orthodox church continued to follow the Julian calendar, and not until 1918
did Russia finally adopt it.
Those to whom the calendar is an economic necessity, and who are proposing various calendar reforms designed to
facilitate interest computations and achieve uniformity of holidays, find themselves impeded by the requirements of the
Ecclesiastical Calendar as set forth by the Council of Nicea, 325 A.D., as follows:
(1) Easter must fall on a Sunday; (2) This Sunday must follow the 14th day after the Paschal Moon; (3) The Paschal
Moon is that Full Moon of which the Lunation 14 days thereafter falls on or next after the day of the Vernal Equinox;
(4) The Vernal Equinox is fixed in the calendar as the 21st of March.
It was then provided that if the 14th day after the Paschal Moon falls on a Sunday, the following Sunday is to be
celebrated as Easter - to make certain that it did not coincide with the Jewish Passover. Thereby did history again repeat
itself, for according to Dio Cassius the Egyptians began the week on Saturday, but the Jews, from hatred of their ancient
oppressors, made it the last day of the week.
To make Easter a fixed date in the calendar, such as April 8th, the suggestion of which has been advanced, would not