We thus fee, by the preceding tabular statements, that the dates quoted agree with hiftorical facts, but that the date taken by Dionyfius for the first year of the Christian era, as it is made to correfpond to the year of Rome 754 [i.e. 753-4], falls three years short of the year given by Clement of Alexandria for 1 Anno Chrifti.

The Dionyfian system of dating from the Incarnation of our Lord was used by the Saxons, as the following extract from a Saxon Charter dated in the year 676, shows:

Saxon Charter No. XII.

Ofric of the Hwiccas in a Charter of the 6th of November, 676, dates thus, "anno recapitulationis Dio"nyfii, id eft, ab incarnatione dni nři Jefu Christi, sexcentefimo feptuagefimo fexto. Indictione quarta; Mense Novembris 8° idus Novembris.” [= Thursday 6 Novem

ber, 676 A. D.]

The Chriftian era, according to the reckoning of Dionyfius, is faid to have been generally adopted in England in the ninth century, for by a Canon of the Council of Chelsea [27 July 816], it was ordained that all bishops fhould date their acts from the year of the Incarnation of the Saviour. The years of the Chriftian era are described in ancient writings as the years "of Grace;" "of the Incarnation;" "of our Lord;" "of the Nativity;" "of the Circumcifion ;" and "of the Crucifixion.

The Year-Letter,

and the Dominical or Sunday-Letter.

EVEN letters, viz. A, G, F, E, D, C, B, are the Year-letters which ferve to indicate the initial days of the year, in the following order,-A, Sunday; G, Monday; F, Tuesday; E, Wednesday; D, Thursday; C, Friday; and B, Saturday: and as the Year-letters with the Julian years follow the course of the fun they are repeated after the completion of the folar cycle, i. e. 28 years.

The length of the folar year was confidered by Julius Cæfar and the aftronomer Sofigines to be 365 days and 6 hours. These odd hours were allowed to accumulate until they amounted to a day, and then were added to the year to complete what was thought to be the true Civil Year, so that in every fourth year, according to Julius Cæfar's order, a day should have been intercalated, counting the day marked in the Roman Calendar " a. d. vj. Kalend. Martias" twice in fuch fourth years. Hence the term bifextum has been applied to the extra day, and the term biffextile to the year now called leap-year, the extra day being known as the 29th of February fince the displace

ment of the Roman divifions of the Calendar and the introduction of the Chriftian dates by Dionyfius [A. D. 532]. With respect to the use of the letters by the Romans for marking the days of the year, eight letters appear to have been used, viz. A, B, C, D, E, F, G and H, forming divifions of eight days1; this is fhown in an ancient Calendar infcribed on marble [fee Epitome Orthographie, Venetiis, CIɔ. Iɔ. XC. p. 207.]

The Dominical Letter.

Dionyfius Exiguus, a Scythian monk, in the year 532 of the Chriftian era, introduced the fyftem of dating from the Incarnation of our Lord, now written Anno Domini, [fee The Chriftian Era].

The seven days of the week, Dionyfius indicated by letters A, B, C, D, E, F and G, which were fixed to

"Among the many marks which stamped the Jews as a pecu"liar people, fabbath observance was perhaps the one mark most "diftinctive and confpicuous. A Greek had his religious feast, a Syrian his gathering in the temple, an Egyptian his facrifices and ❝his prayers.

"But no other people in the world had a seventh day of peculiar "fanctity, a God's day, on which no man would labour for the

things that perish. The Greek knew no Sabbath. The Philiftine "never ceased from his plough, the Sidonian from his ship. In “Tiberias, in Ptolemais, one day was like another day. A divifion "of time into weeks was unknown in Athens, and became known "in Rome only when the legions, learning it from the people of "Alexandria, carried it westward from the Nile."

The Holy Land, by Dixon, vol. ii. p. 115.

the days of the year, in a conftantly recurring order, beginning with letter A, for the 1ft of January, and fo on to letter G, when letter A would appear with the 8th of January, as well as with the 31st of December; fo that upon the completion of a year, as the days paffed on, the Sundays in one year would fall against a different letter, retrograding:-thus, in a year beginning with Sunday on the 1ft of January the letter A would be the Dominical letter, and in the next year, if it were a common year, compofed of 52 weeks and 1 day, Monday would fall to the 1ft of January, and the Dominical letter in that year would be G, and thus the letters would be found to have retrograded in each year. But in a leap-year with 52 weeks and 2 days, when two letters were needed to accommodate the 29th of February, there was an interruption in the order of the Dominical letters. In ancient Calendars it will be feen that in a leap-year the 24th of February and the 25th of February, the bifextum, both fall to the letter "F;" [by Statute 40 Henry III. A.D. 1256, those two days were ordered to be reckoned as one day, for legal purposes ;] and those days falling to the fame letter, the Dominical or Sunday letter in a leap-year changes after the 24th of February; confequently, when the letters G F, are found to be the Sunday letters, the fecond letter (F) will be obferved to have become the Sunday letter, or the 25th of February.

In corroboration of this ftatement the "Record" of the coronation of Edward the Second affords conclufive evidence. The coronation is ftated to have taken place

on Sunday next after the feast of St. Peter in Cathedrâ “[22 Feb.] A. D. 1307. Dominical letter F," which date will be feen to be the 25th of February, with the Yearletters G F, for the year 1307-8.

Coronation of

Edward II.
Sunday,
25 Feb. 1307,

Dom. Letter
F.

Memorandum quod die Dominicâ, proximâ poft feftum Sancti Petri in cathedrâ, [22 Feb.] anno Domini millefimo trefcentefimo feptimo anno, videlicet, bifextili concurrente litterâ dominicali F, coronatus fuit in Regem, et inunētus dominus Edwardus, filius Regis Edwardi, anno regni fui primo, in ecclefiâ beati Petri Weftmonafterii,

&c. &c. [Clofe Roll, 1 Edw. II. m. 10 đ.]

The above "Record" also serves to fhow that the English legal year was written in place of the "Julian Year," (which last, by the bye, has often been vaguely called "the historical year,") and if any further evidence be neceffary to prove that the English legal year alone was written, the "Memoranda" taken from the Calendar belonging to the "Black Book" of the Treasury of the Receipt of the Exchequer, must be fufficient to fatisfy all sceptical minds.

The Sundays falling, year after year, to different letters, there will be, of course, the corresponding changes of letters for the other days of the week to be noticed. And particular attention should be paid to these changes of letters, as a practice prevailed for feveral centuries of giving the letter belonging to the day of the week, in addition to the guide to the date, (i. e. the Saint's-day,) when an important event was recorded, (e. g. obferve the "Record" of the coronation of Edward II. above quoted).