Remarks upon the solar and the lunar years, the cycle of 19 years, commonly called the golden number, the epact, and a method of finding the time of Easter, as it is now observed in most parts of EuropeMacclesfield, George Parker, Earl of
Religion
Remarks upon the solar and the lunar years, the cycle of 19 years, commonly called the golden number, the epact, and a method of finding the time of Easter, as it is now observed in most parts of Europe
Macclesfield, George Parker, Earl of
Calendar -- Early works to 1800; Calendar reform -- Early works to 1800; Easter -- Early works to 1800
4thly and lastly, In the Years 1900, 2200, 2300, 2500, _&c._ where the
Number of Hundreds is divisible neither by 3 nor 4; the _Gregorian_
Solar Year having lost one Day, and the Lunar none, the Difference
betwixt them being only 10; that Number only, and not 11, is to be
added to the Epact of the preceding, in order to form the Epact
of that, the then present Year; whereby a new Set of Epacts will
be introduced, all of them less by an Unit than their precedent
corresponding Epacts: And the Golden Numbers must be set a Day
forwarder in the Calendar; that is, be prefixed to the Day following
that, against which they stood in the precedent hundred Years.
This Method would preserve a sort of Regularity betwixt the Solar
and the Lunar Years; and, by means of the Rules and Directions
before-mentioned, the Days of the New Moons might be pointed out,
either by the Golden Numbers or by the Epacts, placed in the Calendar
for that Purpose; according to the _Julian_ Account for ever, and
according to the _Gregorian_ Account till the Year 4199 inclusive,
after which there must be some little Variation made in the four last
Precepts or Rules, but it would be to little Purpose now, to attempt
the framing of a new Set of Rules for so distant a Time.
The _Gregorians_ have chosen to make use of the Epacts to determine the
Days of the New Moons, and follow pretty nearly the Rules prescribed
above; except that they order the Epacts to have an additional
Augmentation of an Unit eight times in 2500 Years, beginning with the
Year 1800, as at the End of 400 Years; to which 400 Years if there be
added three times seven hundred, or 2100 Years, the Period of 2500
Years will be completed in the Year 3900. After which they do not make
their extraordinary Augmentation of an Unit in the Epacts, till at the
End of another Term of 400 Years; which defers that Augmentation from
the Year 4200 to the Year 4300. And this is the Reason that the Rules
above delivered will require a Variation in the Year 4200; whereas
it is directed in this Paper that the Epacts should be augmented,
or (which is the same thing) the Golden Numbers be set back in the
Calendar nine times in 2800 Years. This arises from the _Gregorians_
supposing, that the Difference betwixt 19 Solar and as many Lunar
Years would not amount to a whole Day in less than 312 Years and a
half; whereas it has appeared above, that it would amount to a whole
Day in 310.7 Years. But although the Rule prescribed in this Paper
comes much nearer to the Truth, yet the Error in either Case is very
inconsiderable, being so small as not to amount to a whole Day in many
thousand Years; and therefore is not worth regarding.
_A Method of finding the Time of_ Easter, _as it is observed in most
Parts of_ Europe.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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