the sixth century, when the general papal power began to increase. The Benedictines had been securely founded, the strongest order in the sacred college. The regal weaklings who succeeded Justinian; the brilliancy of Gregory the Great; the institution of the mass; and the origin of Christian architecture, all tended to extol the Church and extend her power. Then came the six centuries of those 'dark ages,' wherein the Church almost alone preserved the muniments of the faith; and the accessory reckoning of the Christianity.
24. The spread of that religion brought the need of the Christian era more clearly before the rulers of the different nations. Traces of the new reckoning are to be found in Italy and France in the seventh century, in Germany and possibly in Ireland in the ninth century, but the difficulty is to be sure that one is getting original writings of these times.
25. From the efforts of Abbot Dionysius in the first half of the sixth century to the Gregorian correction of the sixteenth century, there falls to be noticed only the papal change in dating the indiction, already explained. On the coins issued by the Vatican Minter's, the A.D. dates were used.[1]
25. In the year 1582, Pope Gregory XIII, after much consideration, ordered a fundamental amendment in the calendar because the Romish Church authorities had found that the leap years, being twenty-five in the century, had causes the civil year to break with the solar year by ten days. Had the excess of the solar year been six hours exactly beyond the 365 days, then one leap year in every
- ↑ Coins, dated thus, must have helped to familiarise the different nations with the year of grace.
