March 23, 1850.


_Ecclesiastical Year_ (No. 24. p. 381.).--The following note on the
calendar is authority for the statement respecting the beginning of the
ecclesiastical year:--

"Note that the Golden Number and the Dominicall letter doeth
change euery yeere the first day of January. Note also, that the
yeere of our Lord beginneth the xxv. day of March, the same
supposed to be the first day upon which the world was created,
and the day when Christ was conceived in the womb of the Virgin
Mary."

As in the Book of Common Prayer, Lond. 1614, p. 2. Bishop Cosins
remarks, "beginneth the 25th day of March."

"Romani annum suum auspicantur ad calendas Januarias. Idem
faciunt hodierni Romani et qui in aliis regnis papæ authoritatem
agnoseunt. Ecclesia autem Anglicana sequitur suppotationem
antiquam a Dionysio Exiguo inchoatum, anno Christi 532."

Nicholl's Commentary on the Book of Common Prayer, additional notes, p.
10. Fol. Lond. 1712, vid. loe.

In the Book of Common Prayer, Oxford, 1716, the note is,--

"_Note._--The supputation of the year of our Lord in the Church
of England beginneth the five-and-twentieth day of March."