27 MAY 1995, Page 36

Papist Dot

Sir: Mr Ron Farquhar (Letters, 20 May) needn't be so snotty about my obiter dictum regarding the year when we might expect the 6,000th anniversary of the creation of the world, based on Archbishop Ussher's dating of the creation at 4004 BC. I was assuming that Christ was born about 8 BC (a widely shared assumption); Dionysius Exiguus (Mr Farquhar's 'monk') got it wrong.

But because Dionysius put AD 1 directly after 1 BC there can be no doubt that the conventionally dated second millennium is up only after the end of the year 2000. Even so, the Pope is happy to celebrate the mil- lennium in 2000, and that's good enough for me.

Dot Wordsworth

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