This week in Christian history: Thomas Goodwin dies, Gregorian calendar adopted, John Chrysostom becomes bishop
Gregorian calendar introduced – Feb. 24, 1582
This week marks the anniversary of when Pope Gregory XIII issued a papal bull titled “Inter Gravissimas,” which called for the implementation of the Gregorian calendar.
Translated to English as “Among our gravest concerns,” Inter Gravissimas called for all Catholic countries to change their calendars from the Julian model that had been used since the first century B.C., to the modified version that all Western countries use in the present day.
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This newer calendar sought to fix the errors of the old Julian calendar, which had miscalculated the length of a solar year by 11 minutes, making dates fall out of line with the seasons.
While the new calendar was quickly adopted by Catholic countries, Protestant and Orthodox nations were slower to make the change due to its ties to the Roman Catholic Church.
“European Protestants, however, largely rejected the change because of its ties to the papacy, fearing it was an attempt to silence their movement,” noted History.com.
“It wasn’t until 1700 that Protestant Germany switched over, and England held out until 1752. Orthodox countries clung to the Julian calendar until even later, and their national churches have never embraced Gregory’s reforms.”
