Should we change the year 2006 to 2010?

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In 525 AD Dionysius Exiguus created what is now universally known as the Gregorian calendar. He dated from the then-assumed birth of Jesus Christ which was estimated to be what is now "1 BC". Specifically, it is traditionally believed that Christ's birth is 25 December, 1 BC. Years after 1 BC are labeled 1 AD, 2 AD, etcetera. This is the year 2006 AD (anno Domini, which is Latin for in the year of the Lord), and supposedly dates from the incarnation of Jesus. It has recently, however, been proven that Jesus could not have been born during 1 BC or even 1 AD, and that his likely year of birth determined among scientists is 5 BC. With such information, would it not be sufficient that we alter our current calendar to have so that Jesus is rather traditionally born 25 December, 5 BC, thus changing the current calendar BACK 4 years? Meaning its now 2010 AD not 2006 AD? I know it's confusing but wouldn't it be cool to skip from 31 December, 2006 to 1 January, 2011? we could back all dates up so as that, for instance, the 9/11 attacks actually occured on 11 September, 2005 and World War II would have ended in 1949. To add, I "should" have been born in 1992! Lol.

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Yea. Yea we should do that. Of course, it would screw up computers all over the world, crate havoc and possibly destroy the world but we DO need to be accurate!

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I think we should restart the calendar using the year Bobbles was born in.

All Hail, Bobbles!!

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The Gregorian Calendar was named for Pope Gregory XIII, and was adopted in 1582, six years after the death in 1576 of Aloysius Lilius, the Italian doctor and philosopher who had first proposed that rectification of the Julian Calendar.

When your basic thesis relies upon false information, it is an uninteresting prospect to debate an issue with you.

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Setanta wrote:

The Gregorian Calendar was named for Pope Gregory XIII, and was adopted in 1582, six years after the death in 1576 of Aloysius Lilius, the Italian doctor and philosopher who had first proposed that rectification of the Julian Calendar.

When your basic thesis relies upon false information, it is an uninteresting prospect to debate an issue with you.

Look here, genius, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anno_Domini.. I was referring to the entire AD/BC (Anno Domini) system, not when it was formally called "Gregorian calendar" and adopted as such. Exiguus created the concept in the 6th century AD.

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Yeah, well, the Julian calendar remained in effect for Christendom until 1582, so your attempt to make a point is bootless.

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Um, Setanta, here's pretty much how it was taught at my school:Source

Using the year of Christ's birth as a method of dating was not originated by Bede (that honour can be claimed by a monk resident in Rome, Dionysius Exiguus, c.525), but his adoption of the system ensured its popularity. It is widely (though not universally) accepted that, in his 'Ecclesiastical History' (since he was dealing with documents using an earlier form of reckoning), Bede chose to begin each year in September (preceding the 1st of January which would now define the beginning of the year), and acceptance of this convention does remove some, though not all, chronological inconsistencies within the work. At any rate, not unreasonably, the use of Christmas Day as the starting point for the year was soon in vogue. However, from a theological point of view, it was thought that the 'Feast of the Annunciation' (25th March) would be more correct, and, in England for instance, by the late 12th century, the succeeding 25th March (even though logic would dictate that it should be the preceding March - as indeed was espoused elsewhere) was in common use as the beginning of the year. Different conventions were adopted across Europe. R.L. Poole writes:

"If we suppose a traveller to set out from Venice on 1 March 1245, the first day of the Venetian year, he would find himself in 1244 when he reached Florence: and if after a short stay he went on to Pisa, the year 1246 would already have begun there. Continuing his journey westward, he would find himself again in 1245 when he entered Provence, and on arriving in France before Easter (16 April) he would be once more in 1244."
Following the reforms of the calendar authorised by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582, there began the process of adopting 1st January as the beginning of the year. Scotland fell into line on 1st January 1600, but in England, Wales and Ireland, the change was not effected until 1st January 1752.

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Setanta wrote:

Yeah, well, the Julian calendar remained in effect for Christendom until 1582, so your attempt to make a point is bootless.

In the opening thesis I stated : "In 525 AD Dionysius Exiguus created what is now universally known as the Gregorian calendar". This is completely accurate, considering any usage of the Julian calendar is limited across the world, mainly to Eastern orthodox religion. What I intended was to state that the Gregorian calendar's origin is 525 AD, which is completely accurate, thank you.

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Bobbles wrote:

Setanta wrote:
Yeah, well, the Julian calendar remained in effect for Christendom until 1582, so your attempt to make a point is bootless.
In the opening thesis I stated : "In 525 AD Dionysius Exiguus created what is now universally known as the Gregorian calendar". This is completely accurate, considering any usage of the Julian calendar is limited across the world, mainly to Eastern orthodox religion. What I intended was to state that the Gregorian calendar's origin is 525 AD, which is completely accurate, thank you.

No, it's not accurate at all. The Gregorian calendar was named for Pope Gregory XIII, who was born Ugo Boncompagni in the year 1502. You posted this to the history forum, and you've got your historical information completely wrong. Your statement that Dionysius Exiguus created the calendar in 525 CE is wrong both because Pope Gregory was not born for nearly a thousand more years, and because for whatever similarity to the reformation proposed by Lilius in the 1570's, no one acted upon the recommendation of Exiguus, so he is irrelevant to the issue. The Julian Calendar continued to be used in the Christian world for a thousand years more, until 1582, at which time it (the Gregorian calendar) was adopted in some, but not all parts of Christian Europe.

If you post crap in the History forum, you can expect someone to come along and point out that you have posted crap.

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Joe, Exiguus' calculations to establish the date of the birth of the putative Christ and Lilius' reforms which resulted in the Gregorian calendar represent apples to oranges. This member has posted a false statement in the history forum. You know about how long i would be likely to ignore that.

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Setanta wrote:

Bobbles wrote:
Setanta wrote:
Yeah, well, the Julian calendar remained in effect for Christendom until 1582, so your attempt to make a point is bootless.
In the opening thesis I stated : "In 525 AD Dionysius Exiguus created what is now universally known as the Gregorian calendar". This is completely accurate, considering any usage of the Julian calendar is limited across the world, mainly to Eastern orthodox religion. What I intended was to state that the Gregorian calendar's origin is 525 AD, which is completely accurate, thank you.

No, it's not accurate at all. The Gregorian calendar was named for Pope Gregory XIII, who was born Ugo Boncompagni in the year 1502. You posted this to the history forum, and you've got your historical information completely wrong. Your statement that Dionysius Exiguus created the calendar in 525 CE is wrong both because Pope Gregory was not born for nearly a thousand more years, and because for whatever similarity to the reformation proposed by Lilius in the 1570's, no one acted upon the recommendation of Exiguus, so he is irrelevant to the issue. The Julian Calendar continued to be used in the Christian world for a thousand years more, until 1582, at which time it (the Gregorian calendar) was adopted in some, but not all parts of Christian Europe.

If you post crap in the History forum, you can expect someone to come along and point out that you have posted crap.

Your quote:
"Your statement that Dionysius Exiguus created the calendar in 525 CE is wrong"

I did NOT state that "Exiguus created the Gregorian calendar" at ALL. I stated that Exiguus created a system that is now WELL KNOWN as the Gregorian calendar. Read closer and try not to mouth off before you realize that your comments are simply evidence of your ill-intelligence.

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Bobbles wrote:

Your quote: "Your statement that Dionysius Exiguus created the calendar in 525 CE is wrong"

I did NOT state that "Exiguus created the Gregorian calendar" at ALL. I stated that Exiguus created a system that is now WELL KNOWN as the Gregorian calendar. Read closer and try not to mouth off before you realize that your comments are simply evidence of your ill-intelligence.

Your original post reads, in the first sentence:

Bobbles wrote:

In 525 AD Dionysius Exiguus created what is now universally known as the Gregorian calendar.

Which is a false statement. Exiguus was concerned with the calculation of the year in which the putative Christ was born, and not in the accuracy of the calendar as compared to the solar year, which is what distinguishes the Julian from the Gregorian calendar. Therefore, according to the Catholic Encyclopedia:

Quote:

Foremost among these is that which is now adopted by all civilized peoples and known as the Christian, Vulgar, or Common Era, in the twentieth century of which we are now living. This was introduced about the year 527 by Dionysius Exiguus, a Scythian monk resident at Rome, who fixed its starting point in the year 753 from the foundation of Rome, in which year, according to his calculation, the birth of Christ occurred. Making this the year 1 of his era, he counted the years which followed in regular course from it, calling them years "of the Lord", and we now designate such a date A.D. (i.e. Anno Domini). The year preceding A.D. 1 is called Ante Christum (A.C.) or Before Christ (B.C.). It is to be noted that there is no year O intervening, as some have imagined, between B.C. and A.D. It is supposed by many that the calculation of Dionysius was incorrect, and that the birth of Christ really occurred three years earlier than he placed it, or in the year of Rome 753 which he styles 3 B.C. This, however, is immaterial for the purposes of chronology, the first year of the Christian Era being that fixed, rightly or wrongly, by Dionysius. His system was adopted but gradually, first in Italy, then in other parts of Christendom. England would appear to have been among the earliest regions to have made use of it, under the influence of the Roman missioners, as it is found in Saxon charters of the seventh century. In Gaul it made its appearance only in the eighth, and its use did not become general in Europe until after A.D. 1000; accordingly in French the term millésime was frequently used to signify a date A.D. In Spain, although not unknown as early as the seventh century, the use of the Christian Era, as will presently be shown, did not become general until after the middle of the fourteenth century.

Exiguus' work had nothing to do with the Gregorian calendar, nor did he develop the calculations necessary to make the calendar consonate with the sidereal, solar year--which is what Lilius did in the 1570's, his calculations eventually replacing the Julian calendar with the Gregorian calendar. It is completely false that the calculations of Exiguus were the basis of the Gregorian calendar.

So now you hurling personal insults at me. Tell me something, are you a native speaker of English? I've never seen the construction "ill-intelligence" before, and frankly consider it to be awkward and uncharacteristic of the English language.

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RE:Sentanta
Your comments are simply inaccurate. You say:

Sentanta wrote:

Exiguus' work had nothing to do with the Gregorian calendar

You therefore state that the work of Exiguus, which was the creation of the Anno Domini system, is in no way affiliated with the Gregorian calendar. Once again you are malinformed.

A quote from Wikipedia, the most trusted encyclopedia online:

Quote:

(Gregorian calendar) years are numbered from the anno Domini era, beginning with the traditionally accepted year of Jesus' birth.

This is clearly evidence pointing to the contrary of your statements, given the fact that the Gregorian calendar would not exist without the Anno Domini system of dating. How can you honestly go about saying that the Gregorian calendar is unassociated with Exiguus' anno Domini?

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Setanta, O venerable one, cut the kid some slack and relax a little.

Every nun I ever know taught that Exiguus figured out when Christ was born, the Venerable Bede popularized the use of the date to date the years and that it was formalized by Pope Gregory in 15whatever. Your own quotation from the Catholic Encyclopedia doesn't even MENTION Lilius, but goes on and on about Exiguus. They even make reference to it's use as a system of dating in use throughout Europe after 1000AD. So your dismissal of the early work as having nothing to do with the Gregorian Calendar is well, wrong. Lilius did not start from scratch, he had a thousand years of the influence and work of Dionysius Exiguus to work from. It's a straight line from one to other, historically and mathematically.

I always thought that his calculations were pretty good for someone working in 525 AD, he was only off plus or minus two years or so.

Joe(I miss my kids birthdates by more than that.)Nation

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Give up, Setanta? Admitting you're wrong is the first step in controlling your unnecessary, and inaccurate, outbursts. Distressing how someone here since 2002 can be so immature and unwelcoming to new members, and in addition be outsmarted by them. Sad

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Should we change the year 2006 to 2010?

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