If this method be continued 92 years, there would be gained 92 days, to the loss of 92 days in the year 92. If the calendar be now reformed by suppressing 92 days, calling the 1st day of October, 92, the 1st day of January, 93, then October, November and December would disappear from the calendar in the year 92; and if continued 365 years there would be crowded into 364 years, 364 days too much; gained to the 364 years to the total loss of the year 365, passing from 364 to 366; 365 disappearing from the calendar.
An era is a fixed point of time from which a series of years is reckoned. Among the nations of the Earth there are no less than twenty-five different eras; but the most of them are not of enough importance to be mentioned here. Attention is particularly called to the Roman era which commenced with the building of the city of Rome 753 years before Christ.
Also the Mahometan era, or the era of the Hegira, employed in Turkey, Persia and Arabia, which is dated from the flight of Mahomet from Mecca to Medina, which was Thursday night, the 15th of July, A. D., 622, and it commenced on Friday, the day following.
But there is a point from which all computation originally commenced, namely, the creation of man. Such an era is called the Mundane era. Now there are different Mundane eras--the common Mundane era 4,004 B. C., the Grecian Mundane era 5,598 B. C., and the Jewish Mundane era 3,761 B. C. All these commence computation from the same point, but differ in regard to the time which has elapsed since their computation commenced. God's people used the Mundane era, until the Great Creator appeared among us, as one of us, in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ, to accomplish the great work of redemption; then His name was introduced as the turning point of the ages, the starting point of computation.
This was done by Dionysius Exiguus in the year of our Lord about 540, known at that time as the Dionysian, as well as the Christian era, and was first used in historical works by the venerable Bede early in the eighth century. "It was a great thought of the little monk (whether so called from his humility or littleness of stature is unknown), to view Christ as the turning point of the ages, and to introduce this view into chronology."