Question

When the British Empire finally adopted the Gregorian calendar in September 1752, the transition was met with significant domestic resistance, famously culminating in the purported 'Calendar Riots.' While modern historians debate the actual scale of these riots, the anxieties that fueled them are well-documented in contemporary pamphlets and administrative records. Much of the opposition was rooted in religious apprehension; many Anglican parishioners feared that shifting the calendar would invalidate the sanctity of fixed holy days, viewing the reform as an insidious encroachment of Catholic Papal authority over the Church of England. Furthermore, financial and legal systems faced genuine administrative chaos. Landlords and tenants argued bitterly over rent calculations for the shortened month, while tax collectors struggled with the sudden displacement of traditional quarterly payment dates. Additionally, a deeply ingrained popular superstition circulated among the lower classes, suggesting that the removal of eleven days from the calendar would literally subtract eleven days from a person’s divinely allotted lifespan. Interestingly, despite these widespread societal and economic concerns, agricultural workers—who constituted the majority of the population—remained largely indifferent to the change, as their planting and harvesting schedules were dictated by ecological indicators and weather patterns rather than the formal civil calendar.

According to the passage, the resistance to the adoption of the Gregorian calendar in 1752 was fueled by all of the following EXCEPT: