nus menses habet duodecim..._" says the Breviary. The year has
twelve months, fifty-two weeks plus one day, or 365 days and almost six
hours. But these six hours make up a day every four years, and this
fourth year is called bisextile.

In making calculations the six hours were taken as six complete hours,
and not six hours wanting some minutes. And the aggregate miscalculation
continued until the minutes added yearly, amounted to ten days and
changed the date of the spring equinox. Pope Gregory XIII. (1572-1585)
sought to remedy the error. He re-established the spring equinox to the
place fixed by the Council of Nice (787). The year had fallen ten days
in arrear from the holding of the Council until the year of the
Gregorian correction, 1582. He again fixed it to the day arranged by the
Council, the 14th of the Paschal moon. And he arranged, that such a
time-derangement should not occur again. He omitted ten full days in
October, 1582, so that the fourth day of the month was followed
immediately by the fifteenth. He determined that the secular year must
begin on 1st January, that three leap years should be omitted in every
four centuries, e.g., 1700, 1800, 1900, 2100, and his arrangement has
been observed throughout nearly the whole world.

_Quarter Tenses_ fall on the Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays after
the third Sunday of Advent, after the first Sunday of Lent; after
Pentecost Sunday, and after the feast of the exaltation of the Cross.

_The Nineteen Years' Course of the Golden Number_. This course or
cycle was invented by an Athenian astronomer about 433 B.C. It was not
exact, but was hailed with delight by the Greeks, who adorned their
temples with the key number, done in gold figures; hence the name. The
cycle of course is the revolution of nineteen years, from 1 to 19. When
this revolution or course of years is run there is a new beginning in
marking, No. 1, e.g., in the year 1577 the nineteenth number, the golden
number, was 1; the following year it was 2, and so on until in 1597 the
golden number again is 2. A table given in the Breviary shows how the
golden number may be found and a short rule for the finding of it in any
year is given. To the number of the year (e.g., 1833) add 1; then divide
the sum thus resulting by 19 and the remainder is the golden number; if
there be no remainder the golden number is 19.

EPACTS AND NEW MOONS.

The Epact (Greek [Greek: epaktos] from [Greek: eapgo] I add) i