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I don't understand why they didn't instead drop the next few leap days. How impatient can you be when cathedrals may take centuries to build?

Spreading the change over 40 years ran the risk of having a new pope reversing the decision. Sweden tried to do it this way and failed.[1]

I would also suspect that vanity played some role. If you start the slow transition you don't get a new calendar named after you.