Thank you for using Google Answers:
I was interested in this question in 1999, when I did research
regarding the noncoming of the "new millennium" in 2000.
As you might know, the current calendar in use by most countries in
the world is the Gregorian calendar, first put into use in 1582. It
is a more accurate version than the Julian calendar, which was in use
since Julius Caesar's time.
The origins of using the expression Anno Domini (The Year of Our Lord)
is connected with an obscure sixth century monk named Dionysius
Exiguus (Dennis the Short). He began his career in Constantinoble
working for Pope Gelasius, translating work from Greek into Latin.
Under Pope John I, he worked on Easter tables. Under the current
calendaring system, dates were difficult to calculate (they were using
Anno Diocletani, year before the Roman emperor Diocletian). He wanted
to devise a way to glorify Christ, so he decided to make a calendar
that is based on the date of Christ' birth. Working with the primitive
tools that was available to him then, he decided that Christ was born
on the 25th of December in the year 753 A.U.C. (since the founding of
Rome). He then restarts the calendar to year 1 seven days after
Jesus' birth.
So to answer your question, Dennis the Short devised the A.D. system
in the year 248 Anno Diocletiani or 532 Anno Domini. In doing that,
he made two errors:
1) His calculation of Jesus' birth day is off by at least 4 years.
Most modern historians agree that Jesus' birth day before 4 B.C.
2) Since the concept of "0" has not reached Constantinoble, the modern
calendar starts at year 1 (there's no year 0), thus 2001 is the start
of the 21st century, not 200 as many think.
His calendar was not very successful at first. It took about 200 more
years before it caught on. Charlemagne may have been the first ruler
to use it, and the Venerable Bede popularized it in 731 in his book
The Ecclesiastical History of the English people, recommending it as a
common calendar. He also extended it to include the years before 1
A.D. to be called B.C. (Before Christ - notice English words and not
Latin). Before Bede, the years before Jesus' birth was called A.C.
(Ante Christum).
Nowadays many refer to A.D. and B.C. as C.E. and B.C.E.
(Common/Christian Era & Before Common/Christian Era, respectively) to
remove the religious reference.
Search strategy:
I had prior knowledge of this. So I searched Google for "Dennis the
Short" to confirm my information.
Sources:
http://www.amarillonet.com/stories/051198/opi_short.shtml
http://www.ianchadwick.com/essays/madness.html
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