serve the English reader; but they that are also skilled in the Latin tongue may moreover consult the other

two.

In the annals, I have made use of no other era, but that of the years before Christ, reckoning it backward from the vulgar era of Christ's incarnation, and not from the true time of it. For learned men are not all agreed in the fixing of the true time of Christ's incarnation, some placing it two years, and some four years, before the vulgar era. But where the vulgar era begins, all know that use it; and therefore the reckoning of the years before Christ backward from thence, makes it a fixed and certain era. The difference that is between the true year of our Saviour's incarnation, and that of the vulgar era of it, proceeded from hence, that it was not till the five hundred and twenty-seventh year of that era, that it was first brought into use. *Dionysius Exiguus, a Scythian by birth, and then a Roman abbot, was the first author of it; and Beda, our countryman, taking it from him, used it in all his writings; and the recommendation which he gave it thereby, hath made it of common use among Christians ever since, especially in these western parts. Had all Christians calculated their time by it from the beginning of the church of Christ (as it could be wished they had,) there could then have been no mistake in it. But it being five hundred and twenty-seven years after Christ's incarnation, before this era of it was ever used, no wonder, that after so great a distance of time, a mistake was made in the fixing of the first year of it.

The era from the creation of the world is of very common use in chronology; but this I have rejected, because of the uncertainty of it, most chronologers following different opinions herein, some reckoning the time of the creation sooner, and some later, and scarce any two agreeing in the same year for it.

The Julian period is indeed a certain measure of time, but its certainty depends upon a reckoning backward, in the same manner as that of the era before

2

*See Scaliger, Calvisius, and other chronologers, in those parts of their works, where they write of the vulgar era of Christ. And see also Du Pin's History of Ecclesiastical writers, cent. 6. p. 42. and Dr. Cave's Historia Literaria, p. 405.

Christ. For it being a period of seven thousand nine hundred and eighty Julian years, made out of the three cycles of the sun, moon, and indiction, multiplied into each other; and the first year of it being that in which all these three cycles of the sun, begin together, this first year can be no otherwise fixed, than by computing backward from the present numbers of those cycles through all the different combinations of them, till we come to that year, in which the first year of every one of them meet together; which carries up the reckoning several hundred years before the creation, and fixeth the beginning of the period in an imaginary point of time before time was. And therefore, although from that beginning it computes downward, yet the whole of its certainty is by a backward reckoning from the present years of those cycles: for, according as they are, all must be reckoned upward even to the beginning of the period. So that, although in appearance it reckons downward, yet in reality it is only a backward computation, to tell us how many years since any thing was done from the present year. For in the numbers of the three cycles of the present year, it hath a real and fixed foundation for an upward reckoning, and so in any other year, in which the said numbers are known; whereas it hath none at all for a downward reckoning, but what is in the imagination only. And therefore, this being the true and real use of the Julian period, the era before Christ for the times I treat of, serves all the purposes of chronology altogether as well, if not much better. For, adding the years before Christ, to those since Christ, according to the vulgar era, it immediately tells us, how many years since any action before the time of Christ was done, and the Julian period can do no more; and indeed it cannot do thus much but by reduction, whereas it is done the other way directly, immediately, and at first sight. However, in the tables I have put the Julian period, and have reduced to it not only the years before Christ, but also the years of the princes reigning in Judea, and the neighbouring countries, and all things else that are treated of in this History; and hereby the Synchronisms, or coincident times and transactions of other nations may easily be known.

The year I compute by in the annals is the Julian year, which begins from the first of January; and to this I reduce all the actions I treat of, though they were originally reckoned by other forms. The *Greeks, before the time of Meto; began their year from the winter solstice, and after from that of the summer. The Egyptians, Chaldeans, and ancient Persians, reckoned the first of the month Thoth to be always the first day of their year, which, consisting of 365 days, without a leap year, it begun every fourth year one day sooner than it did before; and so, in the space of 1460 years, its beginning was carried backward through the whole solar year. The Syrians and the Phoenicians begun their year from the antumnal equinox; and so did also the Hebrews, till their coming up out of the land of Egypt. But that happening in the month of Nisan, in commemoration of this deliverance, they afterwards begun their year from the beginning of that month, which usually happened about the time of the vernal equinox: and this form they ever after made use of in the calculating of the times of their fasts and festivals, and all other ecclesiastical times and concerns; but, in all civil matters, as contracts, obligations, and such other affairs, which were of a secular nature, they still made use of the old form, and begun their year as formerly, from the first of Tisri, which happened about the time of the autumnal equinox: and from hence they began all their jubilees and sabbatical years, and all other their computations of civil matters, as they still do the years of the creation of the world, and the years of their era of contracts; which are the only epochasthey now compute past times by. Anciently the form of the year which they made use of was wholly inartificial : for it was not settled by any astronomical rules or calculations, but was made up of lunar months set out by the phasis or appearance of the moon. When they

* Vide Scaligerum, Petavium, aliosque chronologos, in eis locis ubi de anno Græcorum agunt.

So it was in the time of the last Darius; but afterwards the Persians compensated for the loss of the leap year, by adding an intercalary month of 30 days every 13th year.

Exod. xii, 2.

Lev. xxv, 9, 10.

§ Talmud in Tract. Rosh Hasshanah, Maimonides in Kiddush Hachodesh, Selden de Anno Civili veterum Judæorum.

saw the new moon, then they began their months, which sometimes consisted of twenty-nine days, and sometimes of thirty, according as the new moon did sooner or later appear. The reason of this was, because the synodical course of the moon (that is, from new moon to new moon) being twenty-nine days and an half, the half day, which a month of twenty-nine days fell short of, was made up by adding it to the next month, which made it consist of thirty days; so that their months consisted of twenty-nine days and thirty days alternatively. None of them had fewer than twentynine days, and therefore they never looked for the new moon before the night following the twenty-ninth day; and, if they then saw it, the next day was the first day of the following month. Neither had any of their months more than thirty days, and therefore they never looked for the new moon after the night following the thirtieth day; but then, if they saw it not, they concluded, that the appearance was obstructed by the clouds, and made the next day the first of the following month, without expecting any longer; and of twelve of these months their common year consisted. But twelve lunar months falling eleven days short of a solar year, every one of those common years began eleven days sooner than the former; which, in thirtythree years time, would carry back the beginning of the year through all the four seasons to the same point again, and get a whole year from the solar reckoning (as is now done in Turkey, where this sort of year is in use;) for the remedying of which, their usage was sometimes in the third year, and sometimes in the second, to cast in another month, and make their year then consist of thirteen months; whereby they constantly reduced their lunar year, as far as such an intercalation could effect it, to that of the sun, and never suffered the one, for any more than a month, at any time to vary from the other. And this they were forced to do for the sake of their festivals: for their feast of the passover (the first day of which *was always fixed to the middle of their month Nisan) being to be celebrated by their eating the Paschal lamb, and * Exod. xii, 3-20. Lev. xxiii, 4-8. Numb, xxviii, 16, 17.

the offering up of the wave-sheaf, as the first-fruits of their barley-harvest; and their feast of Pentecost, which was *kept the fiftieth day after the sixteenth of Nisan (which was the day in which the wave-sheaf was offered) being to be celebrated by the offering of the two wave-loaves, as the first fruits of their †wheat-harvest; and their feast of tabernacles, which was always begunt on the fifteenth of Tisri, being fixed to the timell of their ingathering of all the fruits of the earth: the passover could not be observed till the lambs were grown fit to be eaten, and the barley fit to be reaped; nor the Pentecost, till the wheat was ripe; nor the feast of tabernacles, till the ingatherings of the vineyard and oliveyard were over: and therefore these festivals being fixed to these set seasons of the year, the making of the intercalation abovementioned was necessary, for the keeping them within a month sooner or later always to them. Their rule for the doing of this was; whenever, according to the course of the common year, the fifteenth day of Nisan (which was the first day of unleavened bread, and the first day of their Paschal solemnity) happened to fall before the day of their vernal equinox, then they intercalated a month, and the Paschal solemnity was thereby carried on a month farther into the year, and all the other festivals with it: for, according as the Paschal festival was fixed, so were all the rest; that is, the Pentecost fifty days after the second day of the Paschal feast (i. e. the sixteenth of Nisan,) on which the wave-sheaf was offered; and the feast of tabernacles six months after the beginning of the said Paschal feast. For as the first day of the Paschal feast was the fifteenth of Nisan (the fourteenth, on the evening of which the solemnity began in the slaying of the Paschal lambs, being but the eve of the passover) so the first day of the feast of tabernacles was on the fifteenth of Tisri, just six months after. To make this the more clear, let it be observed, that the

Lev. xxiii, 15-17. Deut. xvi, 9.

Here it is to be observed, that in Judea the barley-harvest was before the wheat-harvest, and so it was in Egypt; for the barley was in the ear when the wheat and rye were not grown up, Exod. ix, 31, 32.

Lev. xxiii, 34, 39.

Lev. xxiii, 39.

¶ Talmud in Rosh Hasshanah. Maimonides in Kiddush. Hachodesh. Selden de Anno Civili veterum Judæorum.