For the Sunday letters in the New Style and for the Cycle of Epacts in the Gregorian Kalendar, see Dr Seabury, Theory and Use of the Church Calendar.
The work of the Gregorian reformation is marvellous in its elaborate ingenuity. It even provides for a case which will not occur till Dec. 31, A.D. 8600. Yet it does not reach the attainment of an exact correspondence with astronomical phenomena. And it has been frequently observed that the new moons of the Kalendar may occur one, two, or even three days later than the new moons of the astronomer. In fact the astronomical new moon rarely occurs on the date marked for the ecclesiastical new moon. But care has been taken that the new moon of the Kalendar never occurs earlier than the new moon of astronomy.
The adoption of the New Style.
As was to be expected, the countries of Europe which recognised the authority of the bishop of Rome were not long in accepting the reformation of the Kalendar. Spain, Portugal, and part of Italy made the change on the same day as at Rome, that is on Oct. 15 (5), 1582. In France and Lorraine the change was made on December 20 (10) in the same year; in the Roman Catholic cantons of Switzerland in 1583 or 1584; in Poland in 1586; in Hungary in 1587. In Protestant countries and countries where Protestants were numerous the alteration was more slowly effected. But Denmark was an exception, for the New Style was adopted in 1582. In Holland and the Low Countries the provinces were divided in their acceptance of the New Style, and in some places the change was not effected till the year 1700. In Germany we also find a variety of usages: Austria and Roman Catholics in other parts accepted the change in 1584, but Protestants did not yield till 1700, when they adopted the Kalendar of the German astronomer, Erhard Weigel, which differed from the Gregorian Kalendar only in the rule for determining Easter. This variation brought about the result that the Protestants and Roman Catholics sometimes celebrated Easter on different days. In 1778 Frederick the Great ordained that from that time Easter should be kept at the time ascertained from the Gregorian Paschal moon. Weigel’s Kalendar was also adopted in the Protestant cantons of Switzerland in 1700. In Russia, Greece, and throughout the Christian East the Old Kalendar is still in use[167].
Great Britain was the last of the countries of Western Europe to adopt the New Style. It is true that as early as March 16, 1584-5, a bill was introduced in the House of Lords under the title, ‘An Act giving her Majesty [Queen Elizabeth] authority to alter and new make a Calendar according to the Calendar used in other countries.’ The bill was read a second time in the House of Lords, and proceeded no further.
Through an extraordinary blunder, it has been stated by writers of repute that Scotland adopted the New Style in A.D. 1600. The error originated in the fact that King James VI, with the advice of the Lords of his Privy Council, ordered by proclamation dated Haliruidhous, Dec. 17, 1599, that on and after Jan. 1, 1600, the year should be held to begin on Jan. 1 instead of March 25: but there was no rectification of the Kalendar by the omission of nominal days. In England the legal year continued to begin on March 25 till 1752. The accession of James VI to the throne of England on the death of Elizabeth occurred on March 24, 1602, according to the English style, but on March 24, 1603, according to the Scottish style. In this and such like cases the double dates may be wisely employed, thus, March 24, 1602-3. But Scotland did not use the New Style till it was adopted in 1752, in accordance with the provision of the Act of Parliament of Great Britain (24 George II, c. 23), entitled ‘An Act for regulating the commencement of the Year, and for correcting the Calendar now in use.’