stemming the flood of calendar reform in the name of anti-papism
WILLES, John. The Julian and Gregorian Year: Or, the Difference Betwixt the Old and New-Stile. Shewing, That the Reformed Churches should not Alter their Old-Stile, but That the Romanists should Return to It London, printed for Richard Sare, at Grays-Inn Gate, Holborne, 1700.
Small 4to. 19th century vellum over boards, spine lettered in ink; pp. iv[4], 26, [2, advertisement leaf]; vellum a bit rubbed and dusted, evenly lightly browned, due to paper stock, tiny hole to p. 21/2, contemporary annotations and pagination, referring to a contemporary sammelband this pamphlet was bound in.
Very rare first edition of a refutation of the Gregorian Calendar Reform, which successfully re-aligned the astronomical year with the calendar, since 1582. Protestant England, otherwise pragmatic, had to wait another 51 years until double-dating correspondence with most of Europe was made superfluous. John Willes of Oxford argues on theological and shifty grounds, and cites the fact, that the Reformation occurred before 1582, as a major argument against the Popish calendar reform. In order to demonstrate the Papal absurdity, he reprints a page of the first Gregorian calendar, that for the month of October, where the days lept from the 4th to the 15th.
Wing W2808; ESTC R8290.
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