(3) The ordinary Sundays, which exclude all but doubles of the first or
second class, feasts of our Lord, and their octave days.

The date of Easter is the pivot of Calendar construction. Before Easter
come the Sundays of Lent and Quinquagesima, Sexagesima, Septuagesima
Sundays. Septuagesima cannot fall earlier than the eighteenth day of
January, nor later than the twenty-second day of February. Hence, in
some years there are fewer "Sundays after the Epiphany" than in others,
owing to the dates of Easter and Septuagesima. The smaller the number of
Sundays after Epiphany the greater is the number of Sundays after
Pentecost. If the number of Sundays after Pentecost be twenty-five, the
twenty-fourth Sunday will have the office of the sixth Sunday after
Epiphany. If there be twenty-six Sundays after Pentecost, the
twenty-fourth Sunday will have the office of the fifth after Epiphany,
and the twenty-fifth will have that of the fifth Sunday; the
twenty-sixth will be the sixth Sunday's office. It should be remembered
that the Sunday called the twenty-fourth after Pentecost is _always_
celebrated immediately before the first Sunday of Advent, even though it
should not be even the twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost.




TITLE V.--FERIAL OFFICE.

_Etymology and different signification_ of the word _Feria_. The word is
derived probably from the Latin _feriari_ (to rest). Among the Romans,
the idea of a day of rest and a holy day was intimately united and
received the name of _feria_. But it was amongst the Hebrews that the