❧ A declaration of the meaning of these Verses.

BY these Verses which héere are written with letters and figures, directly placed ouer euery word. You may knowe Easter for euer, whether it wilbe hye or lowe, you may al­so know the Dominicall Letter, the leape yéere and the Prime for euery yéere, for ouer euery word you shall finde the Prime, and vnder the Prime the Dominicall Letter, and when you finde two letters together ouer one word, that signifieth the leape yéere, and the latter Letter is the Dominicall Letter for that yéere.

These Uerses, may bee called the Cicle of Pascha or of Easter, containing in it selfe 532 yéeres. At the ende whereof Easter hath his re­course to the first, & so orderly kéepeth to the ende of these Uerses againe making hisreuolution in the said 532. yéeres.

And in this great Cicle of Pascha, may bée numbered contained and multiplied 19. com­men Cicles of the Sunne, of the which euery Cicle containeth 28 yéeres, likewise in this great Cicle of Pascha may bee contained num­bred. [Page] and multiplied 28. common Cicles of the Moone, euery Cicle containing 19, yéeres. And therefore I haue thought good to call it the great Cicle of Pascha for when these Verses are en­ded and 532. yéeres past and spent. Then must you returne and beginne againe with the first Verse Grande, Bonum, Tribus, &c. and with the same number of the Prime and with the same Letter and so foorth as you did before.

Nowe to vnderstand it more perfectly you must note that, the wordes of them selues signifie nothing, but the first and last letters of euery word are onely to be obserued, for the first letter signifieth the day of the moneth. And the last letter signifieth the moneth. Euery woord ending in M. noteth the moneth of March. All other wordes wherein soeuer they ende, doo re­present the moneth of Aprill, the first letter of euery woord sheweth the day of eache moneth, And because that Easter kéepeth his course from the 22. of March vnto the 25. of Aprill and pas­seth not those two dayes, therefore you must reckon the dayes by letters thus beginninge with. a bed. &c.

For example, when you haue any woord that representeth Aprill (which you must knowe by the last letter of the woord not béeing M. as I haue shewed) then the first letter of that word if it be A as Amans signifieth the first day of [Page] Aprill, if it be B. as Benefactis. it is the second day of Aprill, if it be C. as Cuius. it is the thyrd of Aprill, if it be T. as Tunc, then it noteth the 19. of Aprill. vppon which day Easter day wilbe the next yéere, 1584.

And because we haue 25. dayes in Aprill to reckon vpon, for that Easter day falleth some­time vpon euery of them. I am constrained to faine wordes beginning with K. as Karitas, Ka­rolus, and also with Y. as Ysus. Therefore if you finde Y. or the Gréeke v. to bee the first letter of the woord, it signifieth the 22. day of Aprill, or if it be Z. it is alwayes the 23. day of Aprill.

Furthermore when you finde &. by it selfe thus written &. and 2. by it selfe so written, as I was constrained to take them for letters to make vp my number of 25. So must you take them for wordes, &. signifying the 24. of Aprill, and 2. signifying the 25. of Aprill. And there­fore before you, I haue set downe my rowe of letters 25. in number,, with the dayes of Aprill ouer their heades according as each letter dooth note in the verses going before.

As thus you perceiue the letters of the Alpha­bet [Page] reckoning them for Aprill, to goe forward: So contrary wise for March, you must reckon them backward, where wée are to reckon but 10. lettters to serue for 10. dayes of March, that is from the 22. to the 31.

So that when you finde a word signifying March, and that is when it endeth in M. Then if the word begin with A. as Aurum, it noteth the 31. day of March on which day Easter day was this present yaere 1583. if it begin with B. as Bonum, that noteth the 30. day of March, if it begin with C. as Coelum, that sheweth the 29. day of March. As this rowe of letters with the number of the daies of March ouer their heades according as they signifie in the Verses, shall declare.

Remember alwaies that the word must ende in M to represent March, as is shewed you be­fore.

Nowe the numbers and letters ouer euery word, doo shewe the Prime and the Dominicall letter, for euery yéere, like as euery word inclu­deth a seuerall yeere, to shewe Easter day.

Furthermore, when you are come to this per­fection by learning, and considering these ver­ses, that you can shewe from yéere to yéere, vpon [Page] what day of the moneth Easter will fall, and then would be desirous to tell also without booke what is the Dominicall letter any yéere. I haue added héere two verses in Lattin and two in English (either will serue your turne) to helpe your memory, to shewe what letter standeth vpon the first day of euery moneth, so that recko­ning from the first day of the moneth vnto the day vpon which you finde Easter day to fall, you haue the Dominicall letter. And so may yée call to minde, what was the Dominicall letter ma­ny yéeres past, to saue the labour that I haue knowen some men to take, trudging vp and downe for Almanackes of 20. or 30. yéeres past, onely to knowe what was the Dominicall let­ter such yéeres past.

In each two verses you haue 12. wordes for the 12. monethes as they are marked ouer the word, nowe euery woord beginneth with the [Page] same letter that standeth first in the moneth, as Ianuary beginneth with A. therefore I haue said in the verse Alta. So February with D. as Didit, and therefore in this Table you sée it more plainely.

To prooue the vse of this rule, I finde in my former verses that the next yéere 1584. Easter day wilbe vpon the 19. of Aprill, which I finde by this word Tunc the first word in the second verse, standing for the yeere. 1584. now I wold learne what shalbe the Dominicall letter that yeere, which I knowe standeth vpon the 19. of Aprill, seeing it will be Easter day.

To know this I call my verse to my remem­braunce shewing mee the first letter in Aprill, which beeing the fourth in number, is represen­ted by the fourth woord in my verse which is Gratis, so that G. is the first letter, then from the first I reckon to the eight day and so to the 15. for looke what letter is the first day, the same let­ter is the 8. and 15. and 22. and 29. on which daies I finde G. then from the 15. to the 19. day I rec­ken [Page] A. for the 19. B. for the 17. and C. for the 18. day, then D. standing for the 19. day is the Do­minicall letter because it is Easter day.

And the vse heereof is further. As I haue pro­mised to bee in Yorke the 17. day of May next comming in Anno. 1584. I would fainde knowe what day of the weeke it is, either Son­day or Munday, &c. To knowe this I recken from Ianuary to May, which as I finde to bee the first moneth in number or in order, so I finde in like order in my verses that the first word Be­nedicit, beginneth with B. which sheweth that B. standeth in the Kalender for the first of may, then recken to the 15. and there B. standeth, so that the 16. day is C. and the 17. day is D. which wilbe on Sunday, because my former rule hath proued it by finding out Easter day the 19. of A­prill, where D. also standeth.

And as thus you may knowe what letter standeth vpon any day of any moneth: so may you knowe what day euery letter dooth stande for, &c.