For the various systems used to calculate dates for Easter, see
Date of Easter
.
Controversy over the correct date for Easter
The
controversy over the correct date for Easter
began in
Early Christianity
as early as the 2nd century AD. Discussion and disagreement over the best method of
computing the date of Easter Sunday
has been ongoing ever since and remains unresolved. Different
Christian denominations
continue to celebrate Easter on different dates, with
Eastern
and
Western
Christian churches being a notable example.
Quartodecimanism
[
edit
]
Quartodecimanism
(from the
Vulgate
Latin
quarta decima
in
Leviticus
23:5,
[1]
meaning fourteenth) is the practice of celebrating
Easter
on the 14th of
Nisan
at the same time as the
Jewish Passover
.
[2]
[3]
[4]
Quartodecimanism caused two
schisms
, one headed by
Blastus
in Rome and one headed by
Polycrates
in the East.
[5]
First Council of Nicaea in 325
[
edit
]
In 325 an
ecumenical council
, the
First Council of Nicaea
, established two rules: independence from the
Jewish calendar
, and worldwide uniformity. However, it did not provide any explicit rules to determine that date, writing only “all our brethren in the East who formerly followed the custom of the Jews are henceforth to celebrate the said most sacred feast of Easter at the same time with the Romans and yourselves [the Church of Alexandria] and all those who have observed Easter from the beginning.”
[6]
Shortly before the Nicean Council, in 314, the Provincial
Council of Arles
in
Gaul
had maintained that the Lord's
Pasch
should be observed on the same day throughout the world and that each year the Bishop of Rome should send out letters setting the date of Easter.
[7]
Synod of Whitby in 664
[
edit
]
The Roman missionaries coming to Britain in the time of
Pope Gregory I
(590?604) found the British Christians adhering to a different system of Easter computation from that used in the
Mediterranean basin
. This system, on the evidence of
Bede
, fixed Easter to the Sunday falling in the seven-day period from the 14th to the 20th of its lunar month, according to an 84-year cycle.
[8]
The limits of Nisan 14 ? Nisan 20 are corroborated by
Columbanus
.
[9]
The method used by the Roman Church was Nisan 15 ? Nisan 21.
[10]
The 84-year cycle, the lunar limits, and an equinox of March 25 also receive support from McCarthy's analysis of Padua, Biblioteca Antoniana, MS I.27.
[11]
Any of these features alone could have led to occasional discrepancies from the date of Easter as computed by the Alexandrian method.
This 84-year cycle (called the
latercus
) gave way to the Alexandrian computus in stages. The Alexandrian computus may have been adopted in parts of the south of Ireland in the first half of the 7th century.
[12]
Among the northern English, the use of the Alexandrian computus over the Britanno-Irish cycle was decided at the Synod of Whitby in 664.
[13]
The Alexandrian computus was finally adopted by the Irish colonies in northern Britain in the early 8th century.
[14]
Modern calls for a reform of the date of Easter
[
edit
]
After the
Gregorian reform of the calendar
by promulgation in 1582, the
Catholic Church
continued to follow the same method for computing the date of Easter but the resulting date differed from that computed using the
Julian Calendar
due to the difference in time regarding when the
vernal equinox
was deemed to occur and when the relevant full moon fell. The
Protestant
churches of the
Christian West
all eventually adopted the
Gregorian Calendar
at various later stages. The
Eastern Orthodox Church
and the majority of the
Christian East
continue the older practice aligned to the
Julian calendar
.
Several attempts have sought to achieve a common method for computing the date of Easter.
In 1997 the
World Council of Churches
proposed a reform of the method of determining the date of Easter
[15]
at a summit in
Aleppo
,
Syria
: Easter would be defined as the first Sunday following the first
astronomical
full moon
following the astronomical
vernal equinox
, as determined from the
meridian
of
Jerusalem
. The reform would have been implemented starting in 2001, since in that year the Eastern and Western dates of Easter would coincide. This proposal, however, was never implemented.
See also
[
edit
]
Notes
[
edit
]
- ^
Leviticus 23:5
: "Mense primo, quarta decima die mensis, ad vesperum Pascha Domini est."
- ^
IshYoBoy.com (2018-03-30).
"When Heresy was Orthodox: Quartodecimanism as a Brief Case Study | CSCO"
. Retrieved
2022-05-06
.
- ^
"The Passover-Easter-Quartodeciman Controversy"
.
Grace Communion International
. Retrieved
2022-05-06
.
- ^
"CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Easter Controversy"
.
www.newadvent.org
. Retrieved
2022-05-06
.
- ^
Schaff, Philip; Wace, Henry (1890).
A Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, Second Series
. Parker.
- ^
Schaff, Philip; Wace, Henry, eds. (1890),
The Synodal Letter
, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Second Series, vol. 14, The Seven Ecumenical Councils,
Grand Rapids, Michigan
, U.S.: Eerdmans Pub Co., pp. 112?114,
ISBN
0-8028-8129-7
- ^
Charles Jones,
Bedae Opera de temporibus
, (Cambridge, Mediaeval Academy of America), 1943, p. 25.
- ^
Bede,
Church History of the English People
, 2.2, in J.E. King, tr.,
Bede: Historical Works, Vol. 1
, Loeb Classical Library, Cambridge, 1930, p. 205.
- ^
Columbanus, Letter to Pope Gregory, in
A Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church
, Second Series, Volume 13, p. 40.
- ^
David Ewing Duncan, "The Calendar", 1998, p.105.
- ^
Easter principles and a fifth-century lunar cycle used in the British Isles
Daniel McCarthy,
Journal for the History of Astronomy
Volume
24
(3), issue 76, August 1993, pages 204-224.
- ^
Cummian,
Letter on the Easter Controversy
, PL 87.969.
- ^
Bede,
Church History
, 3.25.
- ^
Bede,
Church History
, 5.22.
- ^
"World Council of Churches"
. Archived from
the original
on 2008-12-05
. Retrieved
2006-08-14
.
References
[
edit
]
- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the
public domain
:
Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913).
"Easter Controversy"
.
Catholic Encyclopedia
. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
- Jones, Charles W.
Bedae Opera de Temporibus
. Cambridge: Mediaeval Academy of America, 1943. pp. 3?104.
- McCarthy, Daniel (1994). "The Origin of the
Latercus
Paschal Cycle of the Insular Celtic Churches".
Cambrian Medieval Celtic Studies
.
28
: 25?49.
- McCarthy, Daniel and
O Croinin, Daibhi
.
"The 'Lost' Irish 84-year Easter Table Rediscovered"
,
Peritia
, 6?7 (1987?88): pp. 227?242.
- Mosshammer, Alden A.
The Easter Computus and the Origins of the Christian Era
. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.
ISBN
0-19-954312-7
.
- Walsh, Maura and O Croinin, Daibhi.
Cummian's Letter
De controversia paschali
and the
De ratione conputandi. Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies, 1988.
- Wallis, Faith.
Bede: The Reckoning of Time
. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2004. pp. xxxiv?lxiii.
External links
[
edit
]
|
---|
Lent
| |
---|
Holy Week
| |
---|
Easter
| Day
| |
---|
Season
| |
---|
Traditions
| |
---|
Music
| | Liturgical
| |
---|
Cantatas
|
- Bleib bei uns, denn es will Abend werden
, BWV 6
- Christ lag in Todes Banden
, BWV 4
- Der Friede sei mit dir
, BWV 158
- Der Himmel lacht! Die Erde jubilieret
, BWV 31
- Ein Herz, das seinen Jesum lebend weiß
, BWV 134
- Erfreut euch, ihr Herzen
, BWV 66
- Ich lebe, mein Herze, zu deinem Ergotzen
, BWV 145
|
---|
Hymns
| |
---|
Choral music
| |
---|
|
---|
Film and TV
| |
---|
|
---|
Pentecost
| |
---|