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
From what has been already said, a Method may be obtained, for fixing,
with sufficient Exactness, the Time of the Celebration of the Feast
of _Easter_, which is governed by the _Vernal Equinox_, and by the
Age of the Moon nearest to it. The former whereof, when once rightly
adjusted, may (by the Corrections mentioned in that Part of this Paper
which relates to the Solar Year) be made to continue to fall at very
near the same time with, or at most not to differ a whole Day from the
true _Equinox_: and the same Rules and Directions, which, as was before
shewn, would, without any great Error, point out the Times of the first
Day of the Moon, would with equal Certainty point out the fourteenth,
fifteenth, or any other: And thus the Times of the Oppositions or
the Full Moons might be as well marked out thereby, as those of the
Conjunctions or the New Moons.
I shall not at present take notice of the Canon of the Council of
_Nice_, in the Year of our Lord 325, which directs the Time of
celebrating the Feast of _Easter_, or of the Reasons upon which that
Canon was founded. Nor shall I endeavour to explain the Rule now in
Use in the Church of _England_ for finding _Easter_: For, besides that
such an Explanation would extend this Paper to an improper Length,
those Points have already been treated of by several much abler
Hands, and particularly by our Countryman the learned Dr. _Prideaux_.
Nor is it my Intention to enter far into the Methods used by the
_Gregorians_, or those of the Church of _Rome_, or by any other Nations
or Countries, for finding the Time of that Feast. As to our own, I
shall only observe, that the Method now used in _England_, for finding
the fourteenth Day of the Moon, or the Ecclesiastical Full Moon, on
which _Easter_ dependeth, is, by Process of Time, become considerably
erroneous: as the Golden Numbers, which were placed in the Calendar, to
point out the Days on which the New Moons fall in those Years of which
they are respectively the Golden Numbers, do now stand several Days
later in the same than those New Moons do really happen. Which Error,
as was before observed, arises from the Anticipation of the Moons since
the Time of the Council of _Nice_: And as the _Vernal Equinox_ has also
anticipated eleven Days since that time; neither that Equinox, nor
the New Moons, do now happen on those Days upon which the Church of
_England_ supposes them so to happen.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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