Chap. I. and vigils that are to be observed in the Church of England, and other days of fasting or abstinence, with an account of certain solemn days for which particular services are ap-. pointed. But these, and every thing relating to them, I shall have a more convenient opportunity to treat of hereafter; and therefore shall pass on now to the Tables for finding Easter.

The Bishop

first ap

When the Nicene council had settled the true time for of Alexan- keeping Easter in the method set down in the first section dria was at of this chapter, the Bishop of Alexandria (for the Egyppointed to tians at that time excelled in the knowledge of astronomy) give notice was appointed to give notice of Easter-day to the Pope of Easter- and other Patriarchs, to be notified by them to the Metroday to other Churches. politans, and by them again to all other Bishops. But this injunction could be but temporary: for length of time must needs make such alteration in the state of affairs, as must render any such method of notifying the time of Easter impracticable. And therefore this was observed no longer than till a Cycle or course of all the variations which might happen in regard to Easter-day might be settled. §. 2. Hereupon the computists applied themselves to frame such a Cycle: and the vernal equinox being fixed by drawn up. the council of Nice, and Easter-day by them also appointed to be always the first Sunday after the first full moon next after the vernal equinox; they had nothing to do, but to calculate all the revolutions of the moon and of the days of the week, and inquire, whether, after a certain number of years, the new moons, and consequently the full moons, did not fall out, not only on the same days of the solar year, (for that they do after every nineteen years,) but also on the same days of the week on which they happened before, and in the same ordinary course. Because, by calculating a table for such a number of years, they might find Easter for ever; viz. by beginning again at the end of the last year, and going round as it were in a circle.

Cycles afterwards

The Cycle And first a Cycle was framed at Rome for eighty-four of 84 years. years, and generally received in the Western church; it being thought that in that space of time the changes of

the moon would return to the same days both of the week and year in such manner as they had done before 7. Dur-, ing the time that Easter was kept according to this Cycle, Britain was eparated from the Roman Empire, and the

6 See Pope Leo's Epistle to the Emperor Marcianus, epist. 64.

7 See the Bishop of Worcester's

Historical Account of Church-government, p. 67. and Bede Hist. 1. 5. c. 22. in fin.

British churches for some time after that separation conti- Part I. nued to keep their Easter by this table of eighty-four years. But soon after that separation, the church of Rome and several others discovered great deficiencies in this account, and therefore left it for another, which was more perfect: not but that also had its defects, though it has been continued ever since in the Greek church, and some others; and till very lately in our own.

The Cycle I mean was drawn up about the year 457, The Cycle by Victorius, or Victorinus, a native of Aquitain, an emi- of 532 nent mathematician: who, observing that the Cycle of the Victorian Sunday letter consisted of twenty-eight years, and conse- Period. quently that the days of the week have a complete revolution, and begin and go on again every twenty-eight years, just in the same order that they did twenty-eight years before, and that the Cycle of the Moon returned to have her changes on the same days of the solar year and month, whereon they happened nineteen years before, but not on the same days of the week: Victorius, I say, having observed this, and endeavouring to compose a Cycle, which should contain all the changes of the days of the week, and of the moon also, (which was necessary to find Easter for ever;) he multiplied these two Cycles of nineteen and twenty-eight together, and from thence composed his period of five hundred and thirty-two years, from him ever after called the Victorian Period. And in this time he supposed the new moons would fall out on the same days both of the month and week, on which they happened before, and in the same orderly course. So that this day (be it what day it will) is the same day of the year, month, moon, and week, that it was five hundred and thirty-two years ago, or will be five hundred and thirty-two years hence; i. e. if this calculation has no defect in it, as it was then thought to have none, or so little as would make no considerable variation. And when the first full moon after the vernal equinox, or March 21, happens on the same day both of the month and week, it did any year

8 This alteration of the cycle to find Easter was the cause that the Britons, who kept to the old account, differed from the Romans in the time of celebrating this festival. For though both kept it on a Sunday, according to the Rule of the Council of Nice; yet they differed as to the particular Sunday. This upon the

coming in of Augustin the monk, first
Archbishop of Canterbury, caused
some contests in this island, of which
Bede gives a large account, [Hist.
Eccl. 1. 3. c. 25. l. 5. c. 22.] where it
may be seen that the Britons never
were Quartodecimans, as some have
imagined them to be.

Chap. I. before; Easter-day must also fall on the same day on which it happened that year: so that Easter, according to this computation, must go through all its variations in five hundred and thirty-two years; forasmuch as the moon and the days of the week have all their variations in that

This Cycle established

by the Church.

space.

§. 3. This calculation was thought to come much nearer to the truth (as indeed it did) than the former table of eighty-four years: for which reason it was generally followed in a little time. And the fourth council of Orleans, A. D. 541, decreed, that "the feast of Easter should be "celebrated every year according to the table of Victo"rius; and that the day whereon it is to be celebrated 66 every year should be declared by the Bishop in the time And after- of divine service on the feast of Epiphany." However in a little time it was thought more convenient to adapt these tables to the calendar, so that every one, who had a book of the divine offices wherein this calendar was placed, might know the day whereon Easter should be kept, without any farther information.

wards

adapted to the calendar in the

service book.

The occa

Golden

Number

But the whole table being of too great a length to be sion of the inserted into one book of divine offices, it was found more advisable to place the Golden Number, or Cycle of the and Domi- moon, in the first column of the calendar, and the Dominical Letters in another column; in such manner that the Golden Number should point out the new moons in every month: by which means it would be easy to find out the fourteenth day of the Easter moon, or the first full moon after the twenty-first day of March, and then, by the Dominical Letter following that day, to be assured of the day whereon Easter must be kept.

nical Letters being placed in the calen

dar.

for ever

The table to §. 4. And from these two columns was drawn up a find Easter Table to find Easter for ever; that so at any time, by only erroneous. knowing the Golden Number and the Dominical Letter, New tables it might be seen at one view (without any trouble or com

to find it

by.

putation) what day Easter would happen on in any year required. But that table being founded on this erroneous supposition, viz. that the Golden Numbers, as fixed in the calendar, would for ever shew the day of the new moon in every month, which they have long since failed to do, it is laid aside, and others substituted in its place, whereby to find the paschal full moon and Easter-day till the year 1900; when the Golden Numbers must be shifted (accord

9 Can. I. Concil. tom. v. col. 381. E.

ing to the tables prepared for that purpose) to make Part I. them continue to answer the ends for which they stand in the tables and calendar. But it does not fall within our present design to consider tables which are calculated for so distant a time.

SECT. III. Of the Golden Number.

I PASS on now to the table of moveable feasts for fifty-The Golden two years, where it may be expected I should speak of Number. three things therein mentioned, viz. the Golden Number, the Epact, and the Dominical Letter; and of these the first that offers itself is the Golden Number: of this therefore in the first place.

§. 2. And this, as we have already hinted, was invented By whom long before our Saviour's nativity by Meton the Athenian, invented, and why from whence it was styled the Metonic Cycle; till after-called wards it changed its name, being, either from its great Golden usefulness in ascertaining the moon's age, or else from its Number, being written in letters of gold, called the Golden Number; &c. though sometimes, for the first of these reasons, it is called the Cycle of the Moon.

brought

§. 3. The occasion of this Cycle was this: It having The occabeen observed that at the end of nineteen years the moon sion of it, returned to have her changes on the same days of the and how solar year and month whereon they happened nineteen into the years before; it was thought that by the use of a cycle, calendar. consisting of nineteen numbers, the time of the new moons every year might be found out, without the help of astronomical tables, after this manner: viz. They observed on what day of each calendar month the new moon fell in each year of the cycle, and to the said days they set respectively the number of the said year. And after this method they went through all the nineteen years of the cycle, as may be seen in the calendar of most Common Prayer Books printed before the year 1752.

be left out

§. 4. And by this method the new moon could be Why now found with accuracy enough at the time of the Nicene ordered to council, forasmuch as the Golden Number did then shew the day (i. e. the Nuchthemeron) upon which the new lendar. moon fell out. And hereupon is founded the rule of the Nicene council for finding Easter, as has been already

10 See the four last tables in the Book of Common Prayer.

Chap. I. shewed.

But here it is to be observed, that the cycle of

the moon is less than nineteen Julian

count.

Golden The Paschal
Limits.

Numb.

2345OD

April 13.
April 2.
March 22.
April 10.

March 30.
6 April 18.

years, by one hour, twenty-seven minutes, and almost thirty-two seconds: whence it comes The Paschal Limits to pass, that although the new moons answering the Gold- fall again upon the same days as they en Numbers, accord- did nineteen years before, yet they ing to the new ac- fall not on the same hour of the day, or Nuchthemeron, but one hour, twenty-seven minutes, and almost thirty-two seconds sooner. And this difference arising in about three hundred and twelve years to a whole day; it must follow that the new moon, after every three hundred and twelve years, would fall a whole day (or Nuchthemeron) sooner. So that for this reason the new moons were found to fall about four days and a half sooner now than the Golden Numbers indicated. And though this might have been rectified for the present, by shifting the Golden Numbers to the days on which the astronomical new moons now happen; yet it has been ordered by the late Act for correcting the Calendar, that the column of Golden Numbers, as they were prefixed to the respective days of all the months in the calendar, shall be left out in all future editions of the Book of Common Prayer. And accordingly the Golden Numbers have now no place in the calendar but against the twenty-first of March and the eighteenth of April*, and some of the intermediate days, where they stand only as the paschal terms, (for a limited time",) shewing the days of the full moons, by which Easter is to be governed through all the several years of the moon's cycle; as is expressed in the table annexed.

April 7.
March 27.
April 15.

7

8

9

10

April 4.

March 24.

12

April 12.

13

April 1.

* The twenty-first of March and the eighteenth of April are properly the paschal limits, because the full moon by which Easter is governed must not fall before the former or after the latter day:

11 Till the year 1899 inclusive.