5.14. Of our accompt of time & hir parts. Chap. 14.

Of our accompt of time & hir parts. Chap. 14.

Compare 1577 edition: 1 _AS Libra is As or Assis to the Romans for their weight, and the foot in standard mea|sure: so in our accompt of the parts of time, we take the daie consisting of foure and twentie houres, to be the greatest of the least, and least of the greatest, whereby we keepe our reckoning: for of the houre (to saie the truth) the most ancient Romans, Greeks, nor Hebrues had anie vse; sith they reckoned by watches: and whereof also Censo|rinus cap. 19. sheweth a reason wherefore they were neglected. For my part I doo not sée anie great diffe|rence vsed in the obseruation of time & hir parts, be|twéene our owne & any other forren nation, wherfore I shall not néed to stand long on this matter. How|beit to the end our exact order herein shall appéere vn|to all men, I will set downe some short rehearsall thereof, and that in so briefe manner as vnto me is possible. As for our astronomicall practises, I meane not to meddle with them, sith their course is vniformelie obserued ouer all. Our common order therefore is to begin at the minut, which conteineth part of an houre, as at the smallest part of time knowne vnto the people, notwithstanding that in most places they descend no lower than the halfe quarter or quarter of the houre; and from whence they proceed vnto the houre, to wit, the foure and twentith part of that which we call the common and naturall daie, which dooth begin at midnight, and is obserued continuallie by clockes, dialles, and astro|nomicall instruments of all sorts. The artificiall varietie of which kind of ware is so great here in England, as no place else (in mine opinion) can be comparable therein to this Ile. I will not speake of the cost bestowed vpon them in perle and stone, neither of the valure of mettall, whereof they haue béene made, as gold, siluer, &c: and almost no ab|beie or religious house without some of them. This onelie shall suffice to note here (as by the waie) that as antiquitie hath delighted in these things, so in our time pompe and excesse spendeth all, and nothing is regarded that bringeth in no bread. Of vnequall or temporall houres or daies, our nation hath no re|gard, and therefore to shew their quantities, differen|ces, and diuisions, into the greater and the lesser, (whereof the later conteineth one vnequall houre, or the rising of halfe a signe, the other of a whole signe, which is in two houres space, wherof Marke seemeth to speake cap. 15 c 25, as the rest of the euangelists (yea and he also ibid. vers. 33) doo of the other, Matth. 27 e 45 Luke 23 e 44, Iohn 19 b 14) it should be but in vaine. In like sort, wheras the elder Aegyptians, Italians, Bohemians, latter Atheniens, and Iews begin their daie at the sun set ouer night; the Per|sians, Babylonians, Grecians, and Noribergians, at the sun rising (ech of them accompting their daies and nights by vnequall houres) also the elder Athe|niens, Arabians, Dutchmen, Umbers, Hetruri|ans, and Astronomers at high noone, and so reckon from noone to noone: we after Hipparchus and the latter Aegyptians, or to speake more properlie, imi|tating the Roman maner vsed in the church there of long time, choose the verie point of midnight; from whence we accompt twelue equall houres vnto mid|daie insuing, and other twelue againe vnto the a|foresaid point, according to these verses;

Manè diem Graeca gens incipit astrasequentes

In medio lucis Iudaeis vespere sancta,

Inchoat ecclesia media sua tempora nocte.

Compare 1577 edition: 1 2 And this is our generall order for the naturall daie. Of the artificiall we make so farre accompt, as that we reckon it daie when the sun is vp, and night when the sun leaueth our horizon. Otherwise also we di|uide it into two parts, that is to saie, fore noone and after noone, not regarding the ruddie, shining, bur|ning and warming seasons (of thrée vnequall houres a péece, which others séeme to diuide into spring time, summer, autumne, and winter, in like curious manner) and whereof I read these verses:

Solis equi lucis dicuntur quatuor horae,

Haec rubet, haec splendet, haec calet, illa tepet.

Compare 1577 edition: 1 2 Indéed our physicians haue another partition of the daie, as men of no lesse learning no doubt than the best of forren countries, if we could so conceiue of them. And herein they concurre also with those of other nations, who for distinction in regiment of our humors, diuide the artificiall daie and night in such wise as these verses doo import, and are indéed a ge|nerall rule which ech of them doth follow:

Tres lucis primas, noctis tres sanguinis imas,

Vis cholerae medias lucis sex vendicat horas.

Dátque melam primas noctis, tres lucis & imas,

Centrales ponas sex noctis phlegmatis horas.

Compare 1577 edition: 1 2 Or thus, as Tansteter hath giuen them foorth in his prelections:

A nona noctis donec sit terita lucis,

Est dominus sanguis, sex inde sequentibus horis

Est dominans cholera, dum lucis nona sit hora

Post niger humid inest donec sit tertia noctis,

Posthaec phlegma venit, donec sit nona quietis.

Compare 1577 edition: 1 2 In English thus in effect:

Three houres yer sun doo rise, and so manie after, blud,

From nine to three at after noone, hot choler beares the swaie,

Euen so to nine at night, swart choler hath to rule,

As phlegme from thence to three at morne: six houres ech one I saie.

Compare 1577 edition: 1 EEBO page image 242 In like sort for the night we haue none other parts than the twilight,Night. darkenight, midnight, and cocks crowing: wheras the Latins diuide the same into 7 parts, as Vesper Vesper. or Vesperugo, as Plautus cal|leth it, as Virgil vseth the word Hesper the euening, which is immediatlie after the setting of the sun. Cre|pusculum Crepusculum. the twilight (which some call Prima fax, be|cause men begin then to light candles) when it is be|twéene daie and night, light and darkenesse, or pro|perlie neither daie nor night. Concubium Concubium. the still of the night, when ech one is laid to rest. Intempestum, Intempestum. the dull or dead of the night, which is midnight, when men be in their first or dead sléepe. Gallicinium, Gallicinium. the cocks crowing. Conticinium, Conticinium. when the cocks haue left crowing. Matutinum, Matutinum. the breach of the daie, and Diluculum Diluculum. siue aurora, the ruddie, orenge, golden or shi|ning colour, séene immediatlie before the rising of the sun, and is opposite to the euening, as Matutinum is to the twilight.

Compare 1577 edition: 1 Other there are which doo reckon by watches, diui|ding the night after sun setting into foure equall parts.Watches. Of which the first beginneth at euening cal|led the first watch, and continueth by thrée vnequall houres, and so foorth vntill the end of the ninth houre, whereat the fourth watch entreth, which is called the morning watch, bicause it concurreth partlie with the darke night, and partlie with the morning and breach of the daie before the rising of the sun.

Compare 1577 edition: 1 As for the originall of the word houre, it is verie ancient;Houre. but yet not so old as that of the watch, wher|of we shall read abundantlie in the scriptures, which was deuised first among souldiors for their better safegard and change of watchmen in their camps; the like whereof is almost vsed among our seafaring men, which they call clearing of the glasse, and perfor|med from time to time with great héed and some so|lemnitie. Here vnto the word Hora among the Gre|cians signified so well the foure quarters of the yéere, as the foure and twentith part of the daie, and limits of anie forme. But what stand I vpon these things to let my purpose staie? To procéed therefore.

Compare 1577 edition: 1 Of naturall daies is the wéeke compacted,weeke. which consisteth of seauen of them, the fridaie being com|monlie called among the vulgar sort either king or worling, bicause it is either the fairest or foulest of the seauen: albeit that I cannot ghesse of anie rea|son whie they should so imagine. The first of these entreth with mondaie, whereby it commeth to passe, that we rest vpon the sundaie, which is the seauenth in number, as almightie God hath commanded in his word. The Iews begin their wéeke vpon our sa|turdaie at the setting of the sun: and the Turks in these daies with the saturdaie, whereby it commeth to passe, that as the Iews make our last daie the first of their wéeke, so the Turks make the Iewish sa|baoth the beginning of their Hebdoma: bicause Ma|homet their prophet (as they saie) was borne and dead vpon the fridaie, and so he was indéed, except their Alcharon deceiue them. The Iews doo reckon their daies by their distance from their sabaoth, so that the first daie of their wéeke is the first daie of the saba|oth, and so foorth vnto the sixt. The Latins and Ae|gyptians accompted their daies after the seauen pla|nets, choosing the same for the denominator of the daie, that entreth his regiment with the first vne|quall houre of the same after the sun be risen. How|beit, as this order is not wholie reteined with vs, so the vse of the same is not yet altogither abolished, as may appéere by our sunday, mondaie, and saturdaie. The rest were changed by the Saxons, who in re|membrance of Theut sometime their prince, called the second day of the wéek Theutsdach, the third Wo|den, Othin, Othon, or Edon, or Wodensdach. Also of Thor they named the fourth daie Thorsdach, and of Frea wife to Woden the fift was called Freadach. Albeit there are (and not amisse as I thinke) that suppose them to meane by Thor, Iupiter, by Woden, Mercurie, by Frea (or Frigga as Saxo calleth hir) Uenus, and finallie by Theut, Mars: which if it be so, then it is an easie matter to find out the german Mars, Uenus, Mercurie, and Iupiter, whereof you may read more hereafter in my chronologie. The truth is, that Frea albeit that Saxo giueth hir scant a good report, for that she loued one of hir husbands men better than himselfe, had seauen sonnes by Woden; the first, father to Wecca, of whome des|cended those that were afterwards kings of Kent. Fethelgeta was the second, and of him came the kings of Mercia. Baldaie the third, father to the kings of the west Saxons. Beldagius the fourth, pa|rent to the kings of Brenicia or Northumberland. Weogodach the fift, author of the kings of Deira. Caser the sixt race of the east Angle race, & Nascad o|riginall burgeant of the kings of Essex. As for the kings of Sussex, although they were of the same people, yet were they not of the same streine, as our old monuments doo expresse. But to procéed.

As certeine of our daies suffered this alteration by the Saxons, so in our churches we reteined for a long time the number of daies or of Ferias. sabaoth, after the manner of the Iews, I meane vn|still the seruice after the Romane vse was abolished, which custome was first receiued (as some thinke) by pope Syluester, though other saie by Constantine; albeit another sort doo affirme, that Syluester cau|sed the sundaie onelie to be called the Lords day, and dealt not with the rest.

Compare 1577 edition: 1 In like maner of wéekes our moneths are made, which are so called of the moone,Moneth. each one conteining eight and twentie daies, or foure wéekes, without a|nie further curiositie. For we reckon not our time by the yeare of the moone, as the Iews, Grecians, or Romans did at the first; or as the Turks, Ara|bians and Persians doo now: neither anie parcell thereof by the said planet, as in some part of the west Indies, where they haue neither weeke, moneth, nor yéere, but onlie a generall accompt of hundreds and thousands of moones. Wherefore if we saie or write a moneth, it is to be expounded of eight and twentie daies, or foure wéeks onelie, and not of hir vsuall period of nine and twentie daies and one and thirtie minuts. Or (if you take it at large) for a moneth of the common calender,Triuethus in Antartico. which neuerthelesse in plées and sutes is nothing at all allowed of, sith the moone maketh hir full reuolution in eight and twen|tie daies or foure weeks, that is, vnto the place where she left the sun: notwithstanding that he be now gone, and at hir returne not to be found verie often in that signe wherin she before had left him. Plutarch writeth of diuers barbarous nations which reckoned a more or lesse number of these moneths for whole yeares: and that of these some accompted but thrée, as the Archadians did foure, the Acarnans six, and the Aegyptians but one for a whole yeare, which causeth them to make such a large accompt of their antiquitie and originall. But forsomuch as we are not troubled with anie such disorder, it shall suffice that I haue generallie said of moneths and their quantities at this time. Now a word or two of the ancient Romane calender.

Compare 1577 edition: 1 In old time each moneth of the Romane calen|der was reckoned after the course of the moone, and their enterances were vncerteine, as were also the changes of that planet: whereby it came to passe, that the daie of the change was the first of the mo|neth, howsoeuer it fell out. But after Iulius Cesar had once corrected the same, the seuerall beginnings of euerie one of them did not onelie remaine fixed, EEBO page image 243 but also the old order in the diuision of their parts continued still vnaltered: so that the moneth is yet diuided as before, into calends, ides and nones, albeit that in my daies, the vse of the same bée but small, and their order reteined onelie in our calen|ders, for the better vnderstanding of such times, as the historiographers and old authors doo remember. The reckoning also of each of these goeth (as you sée) after a preposterous order, whereby the Romans did rather note how many daies were to the next change from the precedent, than contrariwise, as by perusall of the same you shall more easilie perceiue.

Compare 1577 edition: 1 The daies also of the change of the moneth of the moone, are called Calendae, which in time of paganisme were consecrated to Iuno, and sacrifice made to that goddesse on the same. On these daies also, and on the ides and nones they would not marie. Likewise the morow after each of them were called Dies atri, blacke daies, as were also diuerse other, and those either by reason of some notable ouerthrow or mis|hap that befell vnto the Romans vpon those daies, or in respect of some superstitious imagination concei|ued of euill successe likelie to fall out vpon the same. Of some they were called Dies Aegyptiaci. Wherby it appeareth that this peeuish estimation of these daies came from that nation. And as we doo note our holie and festiuall daies with red letters in our calenders, so did the Romans their principall feasts & circle of the moone, either in red or golden letters, and their victories in white, in their publike or consularie ta|bles. This also is more to be added, that if anie good successe happened afterward vpon such day as was alreadie blacke in their calender, they would so|lemnlie enter it in white letters by racing out of the blacke, whereby the blacke daie was turned into white, and wherein they not a little reioised.

Compare 1577 edition: 1 The word Calendae (in Gréeke Neomenia) is deriued of Calo, to call: for vpon the first day of euerie mo|neth, the priest vsed to call the people of the citie and countrie togither in Calabria, for so the place was called where they met, and shew them by a custome how manie daies were from the said calends to the nones, & what feasts were to be celebrated betwéene that and the next change. Their order is retrograde, because that after the moneth was halfe expired, or the moone past the full, they reckoned by the daies to come vntill the next change, as seuentéene daies, sixtéene daies, fourtéene daies, &c: as the Gréekes did in the latter decad onelie, for they had no vse of calends. The verie day therefore of the change is cal|led Calendae, dedicated to Iuno, who thereof was also called Calendaris. At the first also the fasts or feast daies were knowne by none other meanes vnto the people but by the denunciation of the priests (as I said) vpon this daie, till Flauius Scriba caused them to be written: published in their common calenders, contrarie to the will and meaning of the senat, for the ease and benefit of the people, as he pretended.

Compare 1577 edition: 1 The nones commonlie are not aboue foure or six in euerie moneth: and so long as the nones lasted, so long did the markets continue, and therefore they were called Nonae quasi Nundinae. In them also were neither holiedaies more than is at this present (ex|cept the day of the purification of our ladie) no sacri|fice offered to the gods, but each one applied his busi|nesse, and kept his market, reckoning the first day af|ter the calends or change, to be the fourth or sixt daie before the faire ended. Some thinke that they were called Nonae, of the word Non, quia in ijsdem dij non colun|tur. For as Ouid saith, Nonarum tutelae deo caret, or for that the nones were alwaies on the ninth daie before the ides: other because Nundina dea was honored the ninth day before the ides, albeit I suppose rather that Nundina dea (a goddesse far yoonger than the name of Nonae) tooke hir name of the nones, whereon it was a custome among the Romans, Lustrare infantes ac no|mina maribus imponere, as they did with their maid chil|dren vpon the eight: but howsoeuer this be, sure it is that they were the mart daies of euerie moneth, wherin the people bought, sold, exchanged or battered, and did nothing else.

Compare 1577 edition: 1 The ides are so named of the Hethruscan word, Iduare, to diuide: and before that Cesar altered the calender, they diuided the moneth commonlie by the middest. But afterward when he had added certeine daies the reto, therby to make it agrée to the yéere of the sunne (which he intruded about the end of euerie moneth, bicause he would not alter the celebration of their vsuall feasts, whereof the chiefe were holden al|waies vpon the day of the ides) then came they short of the middest, sometime by two or thrée daies. In these therefore (which alwaies are eight) the mer|chants had leisure to packe vp and conueie their mer|chandize, to pay their creditors, and make merie with their friends.

Compare 1577 edition: 1 2 After the ides doo the calends follow, but in a de|creasing order (as I noted) as the moone dooth in light when she is past the full. But herein lieth all the my|sterie, if you can say so manie daies before the next change or new moone, as the number there expressed dooth betoken, as for 16 calends so manie daies be|fore the next coniunction, &c: (as is aboue remem|bred.) Of these calends, I meane touching their num|ber in euerie moneth, I find these verses insuing:

Ianus & Augustus denas nouém December,

Iunius Aprilis September & ipse Nouémber

Ter senas retinent, Februs bis octo calendas,

Iulius October Mars Maius epta decém.

Compare 1577 edition: 1 In English thus.

December Iune and August month full nineteene calends haue,

Septemb Aprill Nouemb and Iune twise nine they doo desire,

Sixteene foule Februarie hath, no more can he well craue,

October Maie and Iulie hot but seuenteene door require.

Compare 1577 edition: 1 2 3 4 In like maner doo the nones and ides.

Sex Maius nonas, October, Iulius, & Mars,

Quatuor at reliqui, dabit idus quilibet octo.

To Iulie, Mars, October, Maie, six nones I hight,

The rest but foure, and as for ides they keepe still eight.

Againe touching the number of daies in euerie mo|neth:

Iunius, Aprilis, Septém Nouém, tricenos,

Vnumplus reliqui, Februs tenet octo vicenos,

At si bissextus fuerit superadditur vnus.

Thirtie daies hath Nouember,

Aprill, Iune, and September,

Twentie and eight hath Februarie alone, and all the rest thirtie and one, but in the leape you must ad one.

Compare 1577 edition: 1 Our yeare is counted after the course of the sunne, and although the church hath some vse of that of the moone for obseruation of certeine mooueable feasts, yet it is reducible to that of the sunne, which in our ciuill dealings is chieflie had in vse. Herein onelie I find a scruple, that the beginning thereof is not vni|forme and certeine, for most of our records beare date the 25 of March, and our calenders she first of Ianuarie; so that with vs Christ is borne before he be conceiued. Our sundrie officers also haue sundrie entrances into their charges of custome, which brée|deth great confusion, whereas if all these might be re|ferred to one originall (and that to be the first of I|nuarie) I doo not thinke but that there would be more EEBO page image 244 certeintie, and lesse trouble for our historiographers, notaries, & other officers in their account of the yere. In old time the Atheniens began their yeare with the change of the moone that fell néerest to the ente|rance of the sunne into the crab, the Latines at the winter solstice, or his going into the goat, the Iewes in ciuill case at the latter equinoctiall, and in ecclesi|asticall with the first. They of Calecute begin their yeare somewhere in September, but vpon no daie certeine, sith they first consult with their wisards, who pronounce one day or other thereof to be most happie (as the yeare goeth about) and therewith they make their entrance, as Osorius dooth remember, who addeth that vpon the eleuenth calends of Sep|tember, they haue solemne plaies, much like to the idoll games, & that they write in leaues of tree with a pencill, in stead of paper, which is not found among them. Some of the old Grecians began their yere al|so in September: but sith we seeke herein but for the custome of our countrie onelie, it shall be enought to affirme that we make our account from the calends or first of Ianuarie, and from the middest of the night which is Limes betwéene that and the last of Decem|ber, whereof this maie suffice. I might speake of the Cynike yeare also in this place (for the ease of our English readers) sometime in vse amongst the E|gyptians, which conteineth 1460 common yeares, whose beginning is alwaies reckoned from the ri|sing of the lesser dog. The first vse thereof entered the selfe yeare wherin the Olimpiads were restored. And forsomuch as this nation hath no vse of intercala|tion, at the end of euerie 1460 yeares, they added an whole yeare of intercalation, because there are 365 leape yeers in the period, so that 1460 Iulian yéers doo conteine 1461 after the Egyptians account, wherby their common yeare is found to be lese than ours. Furthermore, wheras our intercalation for the leape yere is somewhat too much by certeine minuts, which in 115 yeares amount vnto about an whole day, if one intercalation in so manie were omitted, our calender would be the more perfect: and I would wish that the same yeare wherein the said intercala|tion trulie found out should be ourpassed, might be obserued and called Annus magnus Elizabethae, in per|petuall remembrance of our noble and souereigne princesse now reigning amongst vs.

I might here saie somewhat also of the prime and hir alteration, which is risen higher by fiue daies in our common calender than it was placed by Iulius Caesar: and in seauen thousand yeares some writer would grow to an error of an whole, if the world should last so long. But forsomuch as in some calen|ders of ours it is reduced againe to the daie of eue|rie change, it shall suffice to saie no more therof. The pope also hath made a generall correction of the ca|lender, wherein he hath reduced it to the same that it was or should haue beene at the councell of Nice. Howbeit as he hath abolished the vse of the golden number, so hath he continued the epact, applieng it vnto such generall vse, as dooth now serue both the turnes, whose reformation had also yer this time béene admitted into England, if it had not procéeded from him, against whom and all whose ordinances we haue so faithfullie sworne and set our hands.

Compare 1577 edition: 1 Certes the next omission is to be performed if all princes would agrée thereto in the leape yeare that shall be about the yeare of Grace 1668: if it shall please God that the world may last so long, and then may our calender also stand without anie alteration as it dooth alreadie. By this also it appeareth how the defect of our calender may be supplied from the crea|tion, wherein the first equinoctiall is seene higher to|ward the beginning of March than Caesars calender now extant dooth yéeld vnto by seauen daies. For as in Caesars time the true equinoctiall was pointed out to happen (as Stadius also noteth) either vpon or about the sixtéenth or seauentéenth of March, albe|it the manifest apperance thereof was not found vn|till the fiue and twentith of that moneth in their dials or by eie-sight: so at the beginning of the world the said entrance of the sunne into the ram, must néeds fall out to be about the twentith or one & twentith of Aprill, as the calender now standeth, if I faile not in my numbers. Aboue the yeare we haue no more parts of time, that carie anie seuerall names with them, e [...]cept you will affirme the word age to be one, which is taken for a hundred yeares, and signifieth in English so much as Seculum or Aeuum dooth in La|tine; neither is it néedfull to remember that some of my countrimen doo reckon their times not by years but by summers and winters, which is verie com|mon among vs. Wherefore to shut vp this chapiter withall, you shall haue a table of the names of the daies of the wéeke, after the old Saxon and Scotish maner, which I haue borowed from amongst our ancient writers, as I haue perused their volumes.

The present names.

Compare 1577 edition: 1
• Monday.
• Tuesday.
• Wednesday.
• Thursday.
• Fridaie.
• Saturdaie.
• Sunday, or the Lords daie.

The old Saxon names.

Compare 1577 edition: 1
• Monendeg.
• Tuesdeg.
• Wodnesdeg.
• Thunresdeg.
• Frigesdeg.
• Saterdeg.
• Sunnan|deg.

The Scotish vsage.

Compare 1577 edition: 1
• Diu Luna.
• Diu Mart.
• Diu Yath.
• Diu Ethamon.
• Diu Friach.
• Diu Satur.
• Diu Se|roll.