Easter controversy

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For the various systems used to calculate dates for Easter, see Date of 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

Main article: Quartodecimanism

schisms, one headed by Blastus in Rome and one headed by Polycrates in the East.[5]

First Council of Nicaea in 325

Main article: First Council of Nicaea § Separation of Easter computation from Jewish calendar

In 325 an

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

See also: Synod of Whitby

The Roman missionaries coming to Britain in the time of

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

Main article: Reform of the date of Easter

After 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

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

Notes

  1. ^ Leviticus 23:5: "Mense primo, quarta decima die mensis, ad vesperum Pascha Domini est."
  2. ^ IshYoBoy.com (2018-03-30). "When Heresy was Orthodox: Quartodecimanism as a Brief Case Study | CSCO". Retrieved 2022-05-06.
  3. ^ "The Passover-Easter-Quartodeciman Controversy". Grace Communion International. Retrieved 2022-05-06.
  4. ^ "CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Easter Controversy". www.newadvent.org. Retrieved 2022-05-06.
  5. ^ Schaff, Philip; Wace, Henry (1890). A Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, Second Series. Parker.
  6. ISBN 0-8028-8129-7
  7. ^ Charles Jones, Bedae Opera de temporibus, (Cambridge, Mediaeval Academy of America), 1943, p. 25.
  8. ^ 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.
  9. ^ 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.
  10. ^ David Ewing Duncan, "The Calendar", 1998, p.105.
  11. ^ 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.
  12. ^ Cummian, Letter on the Easter Controversy, PL 87.969.
  13. ^ Bede, Church History, 3.25.
  14. ^ Bede, Church History, 5.22.
  15. ^ "World Council of Churches". Archived from the original on 2008-12-05. Retrieved 2006-08-14.

References

External links
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