Augustine of England ; and in the writings of Pope St. Gregory the Great the Dionysian Era is not adopted. It is only from about the year that we are able to appeal to English charters of indisputable authenticity. Taking eight such documents, the eight earliest which we can quote with confidence and dated respectively , , , , , , , , we may notice says Professor Earle Land Charters, Introduc. On the other hand, the last three agree in using the Christian Era and from this time the practice is continuous.

In the intervening year which breaks this series into two parts falls the death of Bede A. It is in any case certain that neither in the papal chancery nor in that of the Western Empire was the system introduced until considerably later.

In the empire it only became general in the latter part of the ninth century, while although it occurs occasionally in papal documents of the time of John XIII , it was not the rule before the twelfth century.

RECKONING OF YEARS. The indiction was a cycle of fifteen years, the first of these cycles being conceived to have started at a point three years before the beginning of the present Christian Era.

It was usual to indicate only the position of the year in the current indiction, and no notice was taken of the number of cycles already completed. Thus, for example, indictio quarta meant the fourth year of some particular indiction and not the fourth cycle of fifteen years after B. In reckoning the beginning and consequently the changing-point of the indiction-cycles four different systems were adopted: the indictio Gresca according to which the indiction began on September 1st; the indictio Coesarea or indiction of Bede beginning September 24th; the indictio Romana beginning December 25th or January 1st; and the indictio Senensis beginning September 8th.

The indictio Grceca was the oldest of these and it remained in use in papal bulls until and in imperial documents until It was partly supplanted, especially in the Carlovingian sphere of influence, by the indictio Coesarea. Concurrently with the year of the indiction it was customary both in papal and imperial documents to mention the regnal year of the pope or emperor.

So far as regards the emperors this was prescribed by Justinian Novella xlvii. In the case of the popes we do not know any instance earlier than Generally speaking though the rule admitted of many exceptions, especially later the regnal year was calculated from the day of coronation or consecration.

In the official acts of most of the countries of Christendom , and notably in England , the regnal year of the sovereign was always given and sometimes this was the only indication of the year. Its starting-point was the accession of the Emperor Diocletian , August 29, The Spanish Era sera Hispanica was in familiar use in Spain from the fifth century down to late in the Middle Ages.

It adds about thirty-eight years to the ordinary numbering of the Christian Era. Where Byzantine influences prevailed the years were generally numbered from the beginning of the world ab origine mundi. This era was calculated from September 1, and the birth of Christ, which is the point of departure of our present chronology, took place in the year of the Byzantine system.

Several other methods of reckoning, of which the best known is the Era of the Hegira followed in Mahommedan countries, have also prevailed in various localities, but they cannot be discussed in detail here. After the Christian Era had been universally adopted an important source of confusion as regards the dating of documents still remained in the diversity of practice about the beginning of the year. For the details of this the reader must be referred to the article General Chronology.

and to the works mentioned in the bibliography, but we may notice here that among the Anglo-Saxons, as also at many different periods in the papal chancery, the new year was calculated to begin on December 25th. On the other hand, in England from the twelfth century onwards, largely under Norman influences, the years were numbered from the 25th of March. This arrangement was often called the mos Anglicanus or corn put atio Anglicana , though it also prevailed in Florence , Siena , Pisa , and at least occasionally in other parts of the Continent as well as in many papal documents.

In England it lasted on down to the eighteenth century, though after Elizabethan times it became increasingly common in the dating of letters to indicate the system of dating adopted, N. often standing for the New or Continental Style in which the year began on January 1st, and O. for the Old Style in which the year was counted from March 25th. Further N. was still more frequently used for dates which followed the reformed calendar of Gregory XIII , as explained in the article General Chronology.

The Reckoning of Days. According to this, three fixed points were taken in each month, the kalends on the first day, the ides on the thirteenth or in some months on the fifteenth , and the nones on the ninth day before the ides, and consequently on the fifth or seventh.

A beautiful young woman from Long Island was blessed to have been raised in a solidly Catholic family and to have attended a truly Catholic high school. She made up her mind before entering college that she wanted no part of premarital sex. After graduating from a Catholic college, she took a job in Philadelphia.

She prayed the rosary daily and often attended Mass during the week in addition to Sundays. At one point, she met a man who seemed like a perfect match. He was polite, treated her well, and was Catholic.

In fact, he attended daily Mass. After eight months of dating, he said it was time for them to have sex. She needed no time to think about it, ending the relationship immediately. It hurt her a lot because she really liked him, but she loved the Lord more. Eight months later, he called and asked to see her. When they got together, he apologized for his worldly attitude and for being a hypocrite about his faith. I was wrong. If I promise to embrace biblical values, will you consider dating me again?

After giving it some thought, she agreed. They courted for a couple of years and then got married. Now, after six years of marriage, they have four lovely children, and they go to daily Mass together!

A young friend, a daily communicant, dated a woman who was raised in a faithful Catholic community. When she wanted to cut corners on chastity, his spiritual director warned him that not only was that sinful, but more trouble lay ahead. His director was right. They got engaged, and a couple of months before the wedding, she told him it was time to have sex. Being a daily communicant, he told her he had no intention of doing that.

A big blow-up followed, but he prevailed. Unfortunately, he never told his spiritual director about that episode. Had he done so, his director told him later, he would have had urged him to run from this woman.

But they married, and within three months, she was asking to do some strange things. The marriage went spiraling downward from that point on, and they divorced. British journalist Hephzibah Anderson decided to live one year without having sex, after some years having a great deal of sex. She wrote this in her book, Chastened :. I had constantly mistaken casual hookups for rose-tinted beginnings.

However uninvolved I started out—however uninvolved it seemed I was supposed to be—I could not remain cool-headed or cool-hearted as the temperature shot up.

Dates and Dating. This was commonly done by such words as dabam Roma ante diem g q uartum Kalendas Januarias, i. I gave or delivered this at Rome on December 29th. For this the later formula was data Roma given at Rome. Hence data , the first word of the formula, came to be used for the time and place therein specified. that they must bear upon them the indication of the day and year when they were delivered, may be traced back to the time of Constantine.

In the course of the Middle Ages this principle was generally admitted, and we find, for example, that at Cologne in the twelfth century the validity of a certain instrument was contested because it lacked a date. But although this principle was recognized in theory it was not always carried out in practice.

Even down to the beginning of the twelfth century not only royal and imperial letters but even charters Urkunden , properly so called, were occasionally through the carelessness of officials sent out without a date. Bresslau, Handbuch, I, In this matter the Italian chancery officials seem to have been much more careful than those of the rest of Europe.

The same is true with regard to the correctness of the dates which do appear in official documents, especially those of the early Middle Ages. As a rule the charters emanating from the chancery of the Western Emperors are much more liable to this form of error than those of the Holy See Bresslau, ib.

But even the bulls of such a pontiff as Innocent III are not unfrequently at fault, and as Leopold Delisle has shown, an erroneous calculation of the indiction may be perpetuated through a whole series of authentic documents Bib. In any case it remains certain and is admitted by all serious writers upon diplomatics that the mere fact that an erroneous date occurs in a document, especially when we are dealing with the earlier Middle Ages , cannot by itself be accepted as a proof, or even a presumption, of the spuriousness of the document.

THE CHRISTIAN ERA. Although, as explained in the article General Chronology q. For example no trace of it will be found in that great historian of the Gallic Church , St.

Gregory of Tours, the contemporary of our St. Augustine of England ; and in the writings of Pope St. Gregory the Great the Dionysian Era is not adopted. It is only from about the year that we are able to appeal to English charters of indisputable authenticity. Taking eight such documents, the eight earliest which we can quote with confidence and dated respectively , , , , , , , , we may notice says Professor Earle Land Charters, Introduc.

On the other hand, the last three agree in using the Christian Era and from this time the practice is continuous. In the intervening year which breaks this series into two parts falls the death of Bede A. It is in any case certain that neither in the papal chancery nor in that of the Western Empire was the system introduced until considerably later. In the empire it only became general in the latter part of the ninth century, while although it occurs occasionally in papal documents of the time of John XIII , it was not the rule before the twelfth century.

RECKONING OF YEARS. The indiction was a cycle of fifteen years, the first of these cycles being conceived to have started at a point three years before the beginning of the present Christian Era.

It was usual to indicate only the position of the year in the current indiction, and no notice was taken of the number of cycles already completed. Thus, for example, indictio quarta meant the fourth year of some particular indiction and not the fourth cycle of fifteen years after B.

In reckoning the beginning and consequently the changing-point of the indiction-cycles four different systems were adopted: the indictio Gresca according to which the indiction began on September 1st; the indictio Coesarea or indiction of Bede beginning September 24th; the indictio Romana beginning December 25th or January 1st; and the indictio Senensis beginning September 8th.

The indictio Grceca was the oldest of these and it remained in use in papal bulls until and in imperial documents until It was partly supplanted, especially in the Carlovingian sphere of influence, by the indictio Coesarea. Concurrently with the year of the indiction it was customary both in papal and imperial documents to mention the regnal year of the pope or emperor. So far as regards the emperors this was prescribed by Justinian Novella xlvii.

In the case of the popes we do not know any instance earlier than Generally speaking though the rule admitted of many exceptions, especially later the regnal year was calculated from the day of coronation or consecration. In the official acts of most of the countries of Christendom , and notably in England , the regnal year of the sovereign was always given and sometimes this was the only indication of the year.

Its starting-point was the accession of the Emperor Diocletian , August 29, The Spanish Era sera Hispanica was in familiar use in Spain from the fifth century down to late in the Middle Ages. It adds about thirty-eight years to the ordinary numbering of the Christian Era.

Where Byzantine influences prevailed the years were generally numbered from the beginning of the world ab origine mundi. This era was calculated from September 1, and the birth of Christ, which is the point of departure of our present chronology, took place in the year of the Byzantine system.

Several other methods of reckoning, of which the best known is the Era of the Hegira followed in Mahommedan countries, have also prevailed in various localities, but they cannot be discussed in detail here.

After the Christian Era had been universally adopted an important source of confusion as regards the dating of documents still remained in the diversity of practice about the beginning of the year. For the details of this the reader must be referred to the article General Chronology.

and to the works mentioned in the bibliography, but we may notice here that among the Anglo-Saxons, as also at many different periods in the papal chancery, the new year was calculated to begin on December 25th. On the other hand, in England from the twelfth century onwards, largely under Norman influences, the years were numbered from the 25th of March. This arrangement was often called the mos Anglicanus or corn put atio Anglicana , though it also prevailed in Florence , Siena , Pisa , and at least occasionally in other parts of the Continent as well as in many papal documents.

In England it lasted on down to the eighteenth century, though after Elizabethan times it became increasingly common in the dating of letters to indicate the system of dating adopted, N. often standing for the New or Continental Style in which the year began on January 1st, and O. for the Old Style in which the year was counted from March 25th. Further N. was still more frequently used for dates which followed the reformed calendar of Gregory XIII , as explained in the article General Chronology.

The Reckoning of Days. According to this, three fixed points were taken in each month, the kalends on the first day, the ides on the thirteenth or in some months on the fifteenth , and the nones on the ninth day before the ides, and consequently on the fifth or seventh. The dates which fell between these fixed points were designated by the number of days by which they fell short of the next fixed point.

Thus the twenty-fourth of May was called ante diem nonum kalendas Junias i. the ninth day before the kalends of June. During the early Middle Ages this system was retained practically unaltered except that the long Roman form was somewhat contracted, for example decimo kalendas Julii was written instead of the ante diem decimum kalendas Julias. A curious arrangement prevailed at Bologna it was called from its place of origin the consuetudo Bononiensis and extended over a large part of the north of Italy.

According to this the first half of the month was numbered forwards and called mensis intrans , but the last half of the month was called mensis exiens and numbered backwards, as in the Roman system; thus the seventeenth of May was called die quinto decimo exeuntis mensis Maii. Our present system of numbering the days straight on from the first of each month began to appear in the sixth century and gradually became more prevalent throughout the Middle Ages , but it never came into general use on account of the custom of indicating the day by the feasts of the local calendar.

Not only did the common festivals serve for this purpose, but the Sundays were also often used, and were designated by the first words of their Introit in the Mass. For instance in Dominica lcetare means on the Sunday whose Introit begins with Lcetare in Domino, i. the fourth Sunday of Lent. Moreover the vigil of a feast, or the previous day, or the octave, or a specified day within the octave, were all familiarly designated by their relation to the feast, e.

in pervigilio Nativitatis Beatcs Maria:; postridie Sancti Laurentii; in octava Sti. Laurentii , etc. In this method of dating, which was constantly employed both in Latin and in the vernacular, the use of the English word etas for octave should be noticed. Skip to main content Accessibility feedback encyclopedia.

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Nor do I know of one person who regretted leaving a charming but unchaste sweetheart. Please support our mission! This was commonly done by such words as dabam Roma ante diem g q uartum Kalendas Januarias, i. Download Share. However uninvolved I started out—however uninvolved it seemed I was supposed to be—I could not remain cool-headed or cool-hearted as the temperature shot up. Skip to main content Accessibility feedback encyclopedia.

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