(3) The ordinary Sundays, which exclude all but doubles of the first or second class, feasts of our Lord, and their octave days. The date of Easter is the pivot of Calendar construction. Before Easter come the Sundays of Lent and Quinquagesima, Sexagesima, Septuagesima Sundays. Septuagesima cannot fall earlier than the eighteenth day of January, nor later than the twenty-second day of February. Hence, in some years there are fewer "Sundays after the Epiphany" than in others, owing to the dates of Easter and Septuagesima. The smaller the number of Sundays after Epiphany the greater is the number of Sundays after Pentecost. If the number of Sundays after Pentecost be twenty-five, the twenty-fourth Sunday will have the office of the sixth Sunday after Epiphany. If there be twenty-six Sundays after Pentecost, the twenty-fourth Sunday will have the office of the fifth after Epiphany, and the twenty-fifth will have that of the fifth Sunday; the twenty-sixth will be the sixth Sunday's office. It should be remembered that the Sunday called the twenty-fourth after Pentecost is _always_ celebrated immediately before the first Sunday of Advent, even though it should not be even the twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost. TITLE V.--FERIAL OFFICE. _Etymology and different signification_ of the word _Feria_. The word is derived probably from the Latin _feriari_ (to rest). Among the Romans, the idea of a day of rest and a holy day was intimately united and received the name of _feria_. But it was amongst the Hebrews that the day set apart for the worship of God received the most distinctive character as day of rest (_Heortology_, p. 2). Hence the early Christians called the days of the week _feriae_. Why did the Church adopt the word _feriae_? She wished to mark the day of the week and not to name them by their pagan name (_e.g., dies lunae_) nor by their Jewish names (_e.g., prima sabbati_), which should be a sort of recognition of the dead and dying synagogue. Hence she adopted the word _feria_, to denote the Christian rest in the Lord, the Christian peace and the abstinence from all sin, and that each and every day should be consecrated to God. The Christian use of the word is found in Origen (185-254) and was fully established in the time of Tertullian.