PUBLIC LIBRARY 232117 ASTOR, LENOX AND COPYRIGHT, 1896, BY REV. L. S. F. PINAUD. PREFACE. While I was studying for the holy ministry, there seemed a probability that I might be sent as a missionary to the north shore of the St. Lawrence. This is a territory where mails were formerly received only when navigation was open. And the waters are often unnavigable, on account of the ice, until late in the spring. There was, then, a probability that the "ordo" could not reach me in due season. I therefore devoted much time to the study of the Gregorian Calendar, in order to be able to make my own, and thus be independent, for the offices of the Church, of the locked up waters of the north. I was not assigned to this mission, and in the press of other duties, I laid aside my little work for several years. Greater leisure, in attending my duties as convent chaplain, brought to my mind the idea of taking up again the study of an interesting science, to complete the work once laid aside, and, by placing it before the public, to popularize the science and put it within the reach of every one. The way it has so far been treated by different authors, leaves the whole matter incomprehensible to many. For instance, the International Cyclopaedia, speaking of Easter and of the Gregorian Calendar, says: "The method on which this calendar is constructed is too complex for description here." Vol. V, page 230. And the "Encyclopaedia for Everyday Use," speaking of the celebration of Easter as being fixed in such a way as to avoid the concurrence with the Jews, says: "The determination of Easter is an affair of considerable complication." Page 207. And when it comes to the Dominical Letters, instead of giving the rules, the above-mentioned cyclopaedia, Vol. V, page 59, says: "Rules and tables for finding them are given in prayer-books, Breviaries, etc." opinion, very few laymen will incur the expense of from $5.00 to $15.00 for a set of Breviaries, for the mere pleasure of knowing the rules about the Epact, the Golden Number, the In my |