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 ENTHUSIASTS

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EPACT

slightest juridical importance (see Bishop). (5) The enthronization of the pope in the Chair of St. Peter, Catht'dni Petri, was formerly a very important cere- mony, which took place at St. Peter's in Rome, or, exceptionally, in the church of St. Peter ad Vincuhi, where there was also a Cathedra Petri. This ceremony was performed immediately after the election, if the latter had taken place in the church of St. Peter, or before the coronation. Its object was to proclaim to the Christian world that the newly elected pope was the lawful successor of St. Peter. Before this cere- mony had taken place, he was forbidden to take part in the administration of the Church. In 1059 Pope Nicholas II declared that theomission of the enthroni- zation did not prevent the pope from administering the Church. This custom disappeared in the thir- teenth century, owing to the fact that in that period the popes seldom resided in Rome. Equivalent to enthronization is the adoratio of the pope by the car- dinals, which is performed in St. Peter's after the elec- tion of the pontiff. It is a simple ceremony and does not confer the slightest right. (6) The Roman Pontif- ical mentions enthronement amongst the ceremonies which accompany the solemn consecration of a king. It is still practised in the Anglican Episcopal Church at the coronation of the King of England (see Corona- tion).

Bingham, Origiries sive antiquitates ecdesiasticw (Halle. 1724), Bk. II, ch. xi. §10; Kraus, Heal-Encyklopadie der christlichen AUirlUiimer (Freiburg, 18S2-1SS6). I, 423; Kredtzwald in Kirchenli'x., s. v. Inlhronisation; Thalhofer in Kirchenlex. (Freiburg, 1SS6), IV, 183 (on the inthronizatio matrimonii); ZopFFEL, Die Papstwahlen vom XI. bis zum XIV. Jahrhundert (Giittinften, 1871), 235-265; WnBJi, Die Papstwahl (Cologne, 1902), 125-26.

A. Vak Hove. Enthusiasts. See Messalians.

Eoghan, Saints. — (1) Eogh.\n of Ardstraw was a native of Leinster, and, after presiding over the Abbey of Kilnamanagh (Co. Wicklow) for fifteen years, set- tled in the valley of Mourne (Co. Tyrone), his mother's country, about the year 576. He was followed by many disciples including St. Kevin of Glendalough, who completed his studies under this saint. As a boy he had been carried off to Britain, and subsequently he was taken captive to Brittany, together with St. Tighernach, wlio is best known as the founder of the Abbey of Clones, Co. Monaghan. So great was the fame of the sanctity and learning of St. Eoghan, at Mourne. that he was consecrated first Bishop of Ard- straw about the year 581. It is difficult to give his chronology with any degree of exactness, but the Irish annalists give the date of his death as 23 Aug., 618. Ilis name is generally latinized as Eugenius, but the Irish form is Eoghan (Owen), hence Tir Eoghain, or Tyrone.

Ardstraw continued as an episcopal see until 1150, when it was translated to Rathlure and subsequently to Maghera, but in 1254 it was definitely removed to Derry. In all these changes St. Eoghan was regarded as the clan patron, and hence he is the tutelary guar- dian of the See of Derry to this day. His feast is cele- brated on 23 August.

O'Hanlon, iu.r.! of the Irish Saints (Dublin, s. d.), VIII; Lanigav, Ecd. /{ill. of Ireland (Dublin, 1829); Shearmvn, Loca Palriciana (Dublin, 1882); Ada Sand. Hib. ex Cod. Sal. (London, 1888); O'Doherty, Derriana (Dublin, 1902).

(2) Eoghan of Cloncullen, Co. Tipperary, has been identified with Eoghan, son of Saran of Cloncul- len, for whom St. ,\ilbe of Emly composed a rule. He is entered in the Martyrologies of Tallaght and Done- gal, and is venerated on 15 March.

(3) EocnAN, Bishop, is commemorated in the Mar- tyrology of Tallaght on 18 April, and is included by the Boliandists under that date, but the particulars of his life are scanty in the extreme.

(4) Eoghan the Sage (Sapiens) finds a place in the

Irish martyrologies, and he is also included in the " Acta Sanctorum", but no reliable data as to his life is forthcoming. His feast is celebrated on 2S May.

(5) EoGH.\N OP Cranfield (Co. Antrim) has been described as Abbot of Moville, but there is reason to believe that he is to be identified with the preceding saint of the same name, especially as the Boliandists style him Episcopus et Sapietis de-Magh-cremhcaille. A St. Ernan of Cremhcaille (Cranfield) is honoured on 31 May, but this is also the feast day of St. Eoghan. However, "Ernan" may be a scribal error for "Eo- ghan", and this would account for the seeming mis- take of name in regard to the patron of Cranfield.

There are other Irish saints of this name, but their history is somewhat obscure, and it is not easy to reconcile their chronology.

Ada Sand. Hib. (Louvain, 1645); Todd and Reeves, Mar- iyrologn of Donegal (Dublin. 1S64); O'Hanlon, Lives of the Irish Saints (Dublin, s. d.); O'Laverty, Down and Conner (Dublin, 1884), III.

W. H. Grattan-Flood.

Epact (Gr. eiraKTai 7]ix{pai\ Lat. dies adjccti), the surplus days of the solar over the lunar year; hence, more freely, the number of days in the age of the moon on 1 January of any given year. Tlie whole system of epacts is based on the Metonic Lunar Cycle (otherwise known as the Cycle of Golden Numbers), and serves to indicate the days of the year on which the new moons occur.

The Church Lunar Calendar. — It is generally held that the Last Supper took place on the Jewish Feast of the Passover, which was always kept on the fourteenth day of the first month of the old Jewish calendar. Consequently, since this month always be- gan with that new moon of which the fourteenth day oc- curretl on or next after the vernal equinox. Christ arose from the dead on Sunday, the seventeenth day of the so-called paschal moon. It is evident, then, that an exact anniversary of Easter is impossible except in years in which the seventeenth day of the paschal moon falls on Sunday. In the early days of Christian- ity there existed a difference of opinion between the Eastern and Western Churches as to the day on which Easter ought to be kept, tlie former keeping it on the fourteenth day and the latter on the Sunday following. To secure uniformity of practice, the Council of Nicaea (325) decreed that the A\'estern method of keeping Easter on the Sunday after the fourteenth day of the moon should be adopted throughout the Cliurch, be- lieving no doubt that this mode fitted in better with the historical facts and wishing to give a lasting proof that the Jewish Passover was not, as the Quartodeci- man heretics believed, an ordinance of Christianity.

As in the Julian calendar the months had lost all their original reference to the moon, the early Chris- tians were compelled to use the Metonic Lunar Cycle of the Greeks to find the fourteenth day of the paschal moon. This cycle in its original form continued to be used until 1582, when it was revised and embodied in the Gregorian calendar. The Church claims no astro- nomical exactness for her lunar calendar; we shall show presently the confu.sii)n which would necessarily result from an extreme adherence to precise astro- nomical data in determining the date of Easter. She wishes merely to ensure that the fourteenth day of the calendar moon shall fall on or shortly after the real fourteenth day but never before it, since it would be chronologically absurd to keep Easter on or before the Passover. Otherwise, as Clavius plainly states (Ro- mani Calendarii a Gregorio XIII P.M. restituti ex- plicatio, cap. V, § 13, p. 85), she regards with in- difference the occurrence of the moons on the day before or after their proper seats and cares much more for peace and uniformity than for the equino.x and the new moon. It may be mentioned here that Clavius's estimate of the accuracy of the calendar, in the compilation of which he took such a leading