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9.1.4.5
Adoption and Complication |
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Because the Gregorian reform occurred in a historical period when hostility between Protestants and Catholics was at a peak, the papal reform was not immediately accepted outside strongly Catholic areas. |
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In general, there are several major periods of conversion: |
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The year 1582 and immediately after, by Spain, Portugal, the bulk of the Italian states, France, and Rome itself. This period covers the areas of Catholic Europe and its possessions in South America. |
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The year 1700. Following a hiatus of about 100 years, the German Protestant states, Denmark (including Norway, Iceland, and the Faeroe Islands), the Protestant parts of Switzerland, and the Netherlands. This period covers most of the remaining Protestant areas in northern Europe. |
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About 1750. The British Empire and its possessions in 1752, Sweden (including Finland) in 1753, and Florence and Pisa in Italy in 1750. This period brings most of Western Europe and the Americas into the fold. |
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About 1920. Most of the areas of southern and eastern Europe convert. Russia, Turkey, and China convert. The Gregorian calendar is, for all practical purposes, a global calendar. |
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The oversimplified treatment often accorded the reform has the form of a list of countries and years of adoption. In actual practice, the adoption of the Gregorian reform did not occur on the basis of country in many cases. When implemented, the reform suffered a variety of fates incorrect implementation, partial implementation, or implementation which was ignored in practice. In the case of Sweden, the reform was rejected and the Julian calendar was temporarily restored. |
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The reform is definitely a situation for which the devil is in the details. An application that treats actual historical dates in the period following 4 October 1582 until the date of actual and final acceptance of the complete Gregorian reform for the geographical or political entity in question must implement a local filter for the date conversions that interconverts actual dates to Julian Day numbers or calendar dates. |
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In the following discussion, I will examine two important examples. The details for the Swedish calendar were kindly provided by Toke Norby of Denmark. |
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1.) Sweden. Although a Protestant state in 1582, Sweden's King John III implemented the reform, which did not survive. |
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In 1696, Sweden decreed that the next leap year would occur in 1744. This change would have produced a calendar neither Julian nor Gregorian, but it was not implemented. |
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In 1700, Sweden omitted leap day in February, by the Gregorian rule. Leap days were inserted in 1704 and 1708. In 1712, Sweden reverted to the Julian calendar, and in an effort to restore the day omitted in 1700, a second intercalary day was added to February, producing a February of 30 days. |
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