INDICTION
INDI’CTION, a period or cycle of fifteen years, the origin of which is involved in obscurity. Connecting the original meaning of the word, viz., ‘the imposition of a tax,’ with its signification in chronology, several writers have propounded theories explanatory of its origin, none of which, however, are supported by a tittle of evidence. It began to be used in reckoning time, chiefly by ecclesiastical historians, during the life of Athanasius; it was afterwards adopted by the popes, who still continue to use it, and through whose influence it came to be so generally employed during the middle ages, that the dates of charters and public deeds of this era are expressed in indictions as well as in years of the Christian era. The time from which reckoning by indictions commenced is, according to some, the 15th September 312; according to the Greeks of the Lower Empire, 1st September 312; but when this method was adopted by the popes, it was ordered to be reckoned as commencing 1st January 313. The latter, which is now alone used, is called the Papal Indiction. If we reckon backwards to the commencement of the Christian era, it will be seen that 1 a.d. does not correspond to the 1st, but to the fourth year of an indiction—hence if to any given year of the Christian era 3 be added, and the sum divided by 15, the remainder will give the position of that year in an indiction—e. g., 1880 A.D. was the 8th year of an indiction.