Earth. Accordingly he appointed that the year 1390 fhould be Jubile; and fo return every 33 years; but he faw not the firft, for he died in 1389: However Boniface the Ninth celebrated the Jubile which was inftituted by Urban the fixth; and celebrated another in the year 1400, as Onuplorius witneffes. Laftly, when the Romans perceived that thefe Jubilean Concourfes were advantageous to them, Paul the fecond reduced the time of the Jubile to 25 years, the fanction whereof his Succeffor Sextus the fourth confirmed by a peculiar Bull in the year 1473, which is extant in the forecited Book cap. Quemadmodum. And by that it was fo ordered, that the Jubile was celebrated in the year 1475, and every 25th year fol lowing. Now of thefe Annual Jubilean Solemnities, and their Priviledges (the chief of which are Indulgences) and of which you may read more largely in the Bulls above-cited, this is not the leaft Solemnity, viz. At that time the Pope opens (as they call it) the Golden Gate, to which an infinite Concourse of People approach for obtaining the Remiffion of their Sins; then he ftrikes the Gate with a Golden Mallet, which he afterwards gives as a Token of Honour to fome body; after that the Workmen break the Gate with Bars, and the People who force in, fcramble for the Ruins of it among the Dirt, and under the Feet of one another. Vide Polyd. Virg. de invent. rerum, c. 8.

СНАР.

CHAP. V.

Of the Solar Cycle.

RULE.

The Solar Cycle is a certain Syftem of Time confifting of 28 years, or 7 Julian Luftra's; which being elapfed, the fame Order of Biffextiles or Dominical Letters, return again, according to the old Method.

The Reafon S. 1.
S. 1. A Period of 28 years is called the Solar Cycle;

why a Peri-
not because it fhews the Motion of the Sun,
od of 28 but becaufe by its help we know the Dominical Letter
or the Character of Sunday; and hence it appears, that
years is
called the this Apellation is Metonymical, not proper; Though
Solar Cycle the Cycle be confidered as intire, the Characters of
each of the 28 years retain the denomination of the
whole Cycle with the Number of the Cycle fought

ters to con

for.

Why the §. 2. The Reafon is, becaufe neither fooner nor later Ancients than after 28 years, all the Varieties return again which made the arife from the Changes of the Dominical Letter and Period of Biffextile: For if there had been no Biffextile (as 'tis Biffextile in the Nabonaffarean year) the Cycle of 7 years would and Domi- have fufficed, for fince a common year ends on the nical Let- fame day of the Week upon which it begins, the folfift of 28 lowing year muft begin on the following day, &c. But the Biffextile year renders this Affair more difficult fo that the Cycle of 7 years will not be fufficient, because the laft day in the year is not then the fame on which it began, but the following: So that in the space of 7 years all the variety cannot recurr as before, but there must be the number of years for a Biffextile, viz. 4. and the number of days in a Week viz. 7. which multiplied make 28 the Solar Cycle, Vide Monach. Method. cap. 3.

years.

S. 3. The

§. 3. The time of this Inftitution is not certain. Sca- of the time · Liger lib. 3. Canonum Ifagog. p. 172. deduces it from the of the Inyear of Chrift 321, when the Nicene Council was dif- ftitution of folv'd. From which Dionyfius Petavius lib. 6. de Doctri- this Cy Cy4. na Temp. cap. 28. blames Scaliger, as his way is, faying, Scaliger only gueffes it, and builds his falfe Opinion of it, in thinking that the Nicene Council continued till that time. In like manner Langius lib. 2. de Annis Chrifti c. 7. thinks the Solar Cycle took its rife from the fourth year after the Nicene Council, but with no greater certainty than Scaliger who propofed his Opinion before him. In fine, we cannot from any ancient Books find any certainty about it.

S. 4. It fhews the initial day of every year in the of the Use Fulian Account, and confequently it directs us to the of the SoWeekly Characters of the other days, the Dominical lar Cycle. Letter, and the quantity of the year.

§. 5. This varies according to the diverfity of the of the Dif Fulian and Gregorian Calendar. For the fulian the position of following Table will ferve for ever.

Cycl. f. init. 1. Dom. Cycl. f. init.

the Domi

nical Let

1. Dom.

ters, and

the initial

Feriæ in

4

E

16

7

B

the Solar

5

D

17

I

AG

Cycle.

6

C

18

3

F

7

BA

But in refpect of the Gregorian Calendar, the laft Table fails; and for the prefent Age that which follows will ferve.

S.6.There are not now eight Letters as there were in the old Julian Calendar, but only 7; and they are Of the Order kowtke placed in a retrograde Order, as is evident from the Characte preceding Tables: Whence Beda expreft the Order of ritic Let- the Dominical Letters in this Verficle:

ters of the

days in the

Week are placed.

Grandia, Frendet Equus, Dum Cernit Belliger
Arma.

§. 7. If we confider the Conftitution of the Civil Of what Year, the ancient Solar Cycle is convenient enough; would be but it anfwers lefs accurately to the Model of the Sodefirable in lar Year; because it fuppofes that every year is 365 the ancient days and 6 hours; whereas there are 11 minutes wanting difpofition of that time.

of the SoTur Cycle.

So far Strauchius.

Before we take leave of this Subject, 'twill not be improper to infert Dr. Holder's Defcription of the Solar Cycle, which for its brevity and perfpicuity may justly claim a place in the best Institutions of Chronolo; y.

Doctor

Doctor Holder's Defcription of the Solar Cycle.

THE

HE Cycle of the Sun, (fays the Doctor in his Dif courfe concerning Time) is fo called because it shews the Sunday Letter,being a Table or Cycle of the Changes of the Dominical Letter.

Instead of the ancient Roman Division of the Month, into Nones, Ides and Calends; we reckon the days of the Month in Order: And inftead of the accompting by their Nundina (quafi Novendina) their Mercates, or Fairs, for the Country People to come to Town every 9th day, for Commerce and Trade; and to receive their Laws, (as the Greeks reckoned by Ten's, 'dividing their Month into 3 Parts) We,as the Hebrews, number our days by Weeks, and their Returns, after every 7 days; which the Jews did in relation to their Sabbath, (and poffibly the Affyrians, &c. in relation to the Quarters of the Moon, confifting each of about 7 days) and we, as Chriftians, for our Lord's-day.

We describe the Days of the Week by feven feveral Names, as Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, &c. And to distinguish them in the Calendar, there are 7 Letters appropriated, and fet in Alphabetical Order before them, and fo repeated throughout the whole year; viz, A, B, C, D, E, F, G; and fome one of thefe is the Dominical Letter, or the Letter for Sunday; and the Letters following for the other days, as they follow.

But the Sunday Letter is not conftantly the fame, but is changed once in every Common Year, and in every Fourth, or Leap-year, twice. And the reafon is, firft, because the Common year does not confist of Juft Weeks, but of 52 Weeks and one day. So that as the Year begins with A, fet before New-yearsday: So it ends with A, fet before the last day. And

the