But while the week supplanted the Nundina, the Christian appellation of the week-days gave way grad- nally, at least m the Western countries, to the pagan planetary names. The change was, however, not ef- fected without considerable resistance. Philastrius (about 887) counts the use of the planetary names for week-days among the heresies. Ambrose and Greg- ory of Tours (died 694) censure the use of the name Sunday (dies soUs), A bishop of Iceland, in 1107, sup- pressed tile planetary names and substituted for them numbers. The Spaniard Campanella made an at- tempt to introduce, in the place of pagan names of the week-days, the names of the seven sacraments, and in place of the usual names of months those of the twelve apostles. In the Eastern churches the planetary names never came into general use. The Slavi, Lithuanians, and Finns count the days of the week, calling Monday the first day (after the Sabbath).
The months of the Christians (except among the Copts and Abyssinians, who still use the old Alexan- drine months) are still those of the Julian Calendar. The names of the Roman months have also in most Christian countries come into general use. In the Byzantine empire, the Syro-Macedonian names of the months maintained themselves by the side of the Ro- man until late in the Middle Ages, and among the Germanic and Slavic nations efforts were made to in- troduce native names, but the Roman names always prevailed. The Armenian, Syrian, Coptic, and Abys- sinian Christians still use the national names of months exclusively. The " Society of Friends" (Quakers) re- ject both the planetary names of days and the Rcmian names of months, and simply count both (as " first day," instead of Sunday, and "first month,*' instead of January).
With the names of the Roman months also the Ro- man way of dating was extensively used. In the Latin Church it remained in use until the establish- ment of the modem languages (in Germany until the 14th century). Isolated instances of the 'present way of counting the days are found in a ftagment of a Gothic Calendar in the 4th century; in an Anglo- Saxon Calendar of the lOth century ; in the works of Pope Gregory the Great (594-604), and elsewhere. The designation of the days of the months by the names of saints came into use early in the Middle Ages. In the Byzantine Church the Roman way of dating seems to have been supplanted in the 7th cen- tury by the present way of counting the days. In Asia, the Roman way of dating was used only by way of comparison with the national method.
The beginning of the year in the Christian coun- tries has remained, as it was fixed in the Julian Calen- dar, on the 1st of January. Dionysius Exiguus, in order to give the beginning of the year a Christian character, called it the ** day of circumcision*' (dies dr- cumcigionii). Several attempts were made to substi- tute for the Ist of January another beginning of the year, relating to some prominent event in the history of Christianity. Thus several popes began to use for that purpose the first day of March, probably on the ground that March was the usual month of the Pass- over, and Venice used in its public documents this day until the down&ll of the republic. Another Roman new-year's day was the 26th of March (the festival of the Annunciation), and this was used in Pisa and Florence until 1749. But the most common was Christmas (a NatimUUe Damiin)^ which was even call-
ed mosj or sHba curim RomauB. It was not nntil Pope Innocent XII (1691) that this habit was altogether abandoned. In Germany, the calendarium of Charie- magne has the 1st of January ; the 25th of March was in frequent use until the 11th century, when it gave way to Christmas, which maintained itself until the peace of Westphalia. France, under the Meroringians, used the 1st of March; under Uie Carlovingians, Christ- mas ; under the Capetingians, until the 16th centniy, Easter; the latter was also for a long time in use is Holland and in Cologne. Spain and Portugal long used the 26th of March, and from the 14ih to the l&h century, Christmas. The Anglo-Saxcms, according to Bede, began the year on Christmas ; but gradnallj three different years were dbtinguished — ^the histor- ical, legal or civil, and ecclesiastical. The beginning of the first has long been on the 1st of January ; that of the second was the 26th of December nntil the ISth century, after that the 26th of March until 1762, when it was fixed at the 1st of January. In the Byzan- tine empire the Ist of January was in the 5th centuiy supplanted by the 1st of September (the epoch of tiw Indictions), which the Russians abandoned for the 1st of January in 1700, and the kingdom of Greece in 1821. The Chaldaeans have adopted the 1st of Sep- tember, while the Nestorians and Jacobites stick to the Ist of Tiahri. The Copts and Abyssinians BtUl adhere tothelstofThoth.
Of a special church year there are no traces until the time of Constantine the Great. I^ beginning seems at first to have been made with the ann-monlli corresponding to the Jewish Nisan. Thus ihe Apof^ tolic Constitutions designate December as the ninth, January as the tenth, and *^ Xanthicus" (which is usn- ally identified with Nisan) as the first month. Epi- phanius follows the same calculation ; and Yictoriw, Dionysius, and Beda speak of the Easter month as the first. The epoch of the first Sunday of Advent orij:- inated with the Nestorians, and is first found in ibe Respontoriale of Gregory the Great, but seems to have been general in the Latin churches as early as the 7th century. The Greek Church has retained the Ist of September as the beginning of the church year. Se« Herzog, Real-Encyldopddie s. v. Zeitreckntmg (which we have chiefiy followed in the above article). See also JEra; Chubch-tkab; Cyclb.