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The Easter controversy is a series of controversies about the proper date to celebrate Easter. To date, there are four distinct phases of the dispute. Image File history File links Portal. ... This article is about the Christian festival. ...

First phase

Main article: Quartodecimanism

This was mainly concerned with whether Christians should follow Old Testament practices, see also Old Testament#Christian view of the Law. Eusebius of Caesarea (Hist. Eccl., V, xxiii) wrote: Quartodecimanism (derived from the Vulgate Latin: quarta decima[1], meaning fourteen) refers to the custom of Christians celebrating Passover on the 14th day of Nisan in the Old Testaments Hebrew Calendar (Lev 23:5). ... Topics in Christianity Movements · Denominations · Other religions Ecumenism · Preaching · Prayer Music · Liturgy · Calendar Symbols · Art · Criticism Important figures Apostle Paul · Church Fathers Constantine · Athanasius · Augustine Anselm · Aquinas · Palamas · Luther Calvin · Wesley Arius · Marcion of Sinope Archbishop of Canterbury · Catholic Pope Coptic Pope · Ecumenical Patriarch Christianity Portal This box:      Note: Judaism... Topics in Christianity Movements · Denominations · Other religions Ecumenism · Preaching · Prayer Music · Liturgy · Calendar Symbols · Art · Criticism Important figures Apostle Paul · Church Fathers Constantine · Athanasius · Augustine Anselm · Aquinas · Palamas · Luther Calvin · Wesley Arius · Marcion of Sinope Archbishop of Canterbury · Catholic Pope Coptic Pope · Ecumenical Patriarch Christianity Portal This box:      Note: Judaism... Eusebius of Caesarea Eusebius of Caesarea (c. ...

"A question of no small importance arose at that time [i.e. the time of Pope Victor I, about A.D. 190]. The dioceses of all Asia [the Eastern Mediterranean], as from an older tradition, held that the fourteenth day of the moon, on which day the Jews were commanded to sacrifice the lamb, should always be observed as the feast of the life-giving pasch [epi tes tou soteriou Pascha heortes], contending that the fast ought to end on that day, whatever day of the week it might happen to be. However it was not the custom of the churches in the rest of the world to end it at this point, as they observed the practice, which from Apostolic tradition has prevailed to the present time, of terminating the fast on no other day than on that of the Resurrection of our Saviour."

Quartodecimanism ("fourteenism", derived from Latin) refers to the practice of fixing the celebration of Passover for Christians on the fourteenth day of Nisan in the Old Testament's Hebrew Calendar (for example Lev 23:5, in Latin "quarta decima"). This was the original method of fixing the date of the Passover, which is to be a "perpetual ordinance"^[1]. According to the Gospel of John (for example John 19:14), this was the Friday that Jesus was crucified in Jerusalem, the Synoptic Gospels place the Friday on 15 Nisan. Pope Saint Victor I was an African Bishop of Rome (controversially called Pope) from 189 to 199 (the Vatican cites 186 or 189 to 197 or 201). ... For other uses, see Latin (disambiguation). ... This article is about a holiday celebrated by a small number of Christians. ... Nisan (Hebrew: נִיסָן, Standard Nisan Tiberian Nîsān ; from Akkadian , from Sumerian nisag First fruits) is the first month of the civil year and the seventh month (eighth, in leap year) of the ecclesiastical year on the Hebrew calendar. ... Topics in Christianity Movements · Denominations · Other religions Ecumenism · Preaching · Prayer Music · Liturgy · Calendar Symbols · Art · Criticism Important figures Apostle Paul · Church Fathers Constantine · Athanasius · Augustine Anselm · Aquinas · Palamas · Luther Calvin · Wesley Arius · Marcion of Sinope Archbishop of Canterbury · Catholic Pope Coptic Pope · Ecumenical Patriarch Christianity Portal This box:      Note: Judaism... The Hebrew calendar (‎) or Jewish calendar is the calendar used by Jews for religious purposes. ... For other uses, see Gospel of John (disambiguation). ... Good Friday is the Friday before Easter (Easter always falls on a Sunday). ... This article is about Jesus of Nazareth. ... For other uses, see Crucifixion (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Jerusalem (disambiguation). ... In the New Testament of the Christian Bible, gospels Matthew, Mark, and Luke are so similar that they are called the synoptic gospels (from Greek, συν, syn, together, and οψις, opsis, seeing). ...

A letter of St. Irenaeus shows that the diversity of practice regarding Easter had existed at least from the time of Pope Sixtus I (c. 120). Further, Irenaeus states that St. Polycarp, who like the other Eastern Christians, kept Easter on the fourteenth day of the moon, whatever day of the week that might be, following therein the tradition which he claimed to have derived from St. John the Apostle. Irenaeus (Greek: Εἰρηναῖος), (b. ... Sixtus I was a second-century pope for about ten years, succeeding Pope Alexander I. In the oldest documents, Xystus is the spelling used for the first three popes of that name. ... For other uses, see Polycarp (disambiguation). ... John the Apostle (Greek Ιωάννης, see names of John) was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus. ...

About 195, Pope Victor I excommunicated the Quartodecimans. Though this was regarded as immoderate — the Philosophumena^[2] seems to regard them as a mere handful of wrong-headed nonconformists — the practice was forced underground. Pope Saint Victor I was an African Bishop of Rome (controversially called Pope) from 189 to 199 (the Vatican cites 186 or 189 to 197 or 201). ... The Refutation of All Heresies is a compendious Christian polemical work of the early third century, now generally attributed to Hippolytus of Rome. ...

Second phase

Main article: First Council of Nicaea#Separation of Easter from the Jewish Passover

The second stage in the Easter controversy centres round the First Council of Nicaea (A.D. 325). Granted that the great Easter festival was always to be held on a Sunday, and was not to coincide with a particular phase of the moon, which might occur on any day of the week, a new dispute arose as to the determination of the Sunday itself. The First Council of Nicaea, held in Nicaea in Bithynia (present-day Iznik in Turkey), convoked by the Roman Emperor Constantine I in 325, was the first Ecumenical council[1] of the early Christian Church, and most significantly resulted in the first uniform Christian doctrine, called the Nicene Creed. ... The First Council of Nicaea, held in Nicaea in Bithynia (present-day Iznik in Turkey), convoked by the Roman Emperor Constantine I in 325, was the first Ecumenical council[1] of the early Christian Church, and most significantly resulted in the first uniform Christian doctrine, called the Nicene Creed. ...

The Syrian Christians always held their Easter festival on the Sunday after the Jews kept their Pesach. On the other hand at Alexandria, and seemingly throughout the rest of the Roman Empire, the Christians calculated the time of Easter for themselves, paying no attention to the Jews. In this way the date of Easter as kept at Alexandria and Antioch did not always agree; for the Jews, upon whom Antioch depended, adopted very arbitrary methods of intercalating embolismic months (see CALENDAR, Bol. II, p. 158) before they celebrated Nisan, the first spring month, on the fourteenth day of which the paschal lamb was killed. In particular we learn that they had become neglectful (or at least the Christians of Rome and Alexandria declared they were neglectful^[3]) of the law that the fourteenth of Nisan must never precede the equinox. The Alexandrians, on the other hand, accepted it as a first principle that the Sunday to be kept as Easter Day must necessarily occur after the vernal equinox, then identified with 21 March of the Julian calendar. Topics in Christianity Movements · Denominations Ecumenism · Preaching · Prayer Music · Liturgy · Calendar Symbols · Art · Criticism Important figures Apostle Paul · Church Fathers Constantine · Athanasius · Augustine Anselm · Aquinas · Palamas · Luther Calvin · Wesley Arius · Marcion of Sinope Pope · Archbishop of Canterbury Patriarch of Constantinople Christianity Portal This box:      Syriac Christianity is a culturally and... Passover, also known as Pesach or Pesah (פסח pesaḥ), is a Jewish holiday (lasting seven days in Israel and among some liberal Diaspora Jews, and eight days among other Diaspora Jews) that commemorates the exodus and freedom of the Israelites from Egypt; it is also observed by... This article is about the city in Egypt. ... For other uses, see Roman Empire (disambiguation). ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Antakya. ... Nisan (Hebrew: נִיסָן, Standard Nisan Tiberian Nîsān ; from Akkadian , from Sumerian nisag First fruits) is the first month of the civil year and the seventh month (eighth, in leap year) of the ecclesiastical year on the Hebrew calendar. ... is the 80th day of the year (81st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... The Julian calendar was a reform of the Roman calendar which was introduced by Julius Caesar in 46 BC and came into force in 45 BC (709 ab urbe condita). ...

The Council of Nicaea, however, did not declare the Alexandrian or Roman calculations as normative. Instead, the council gave the Bishop of Alexandria the privilege of announcing annually the date of Christian Passover to the Roman curia. Although the synod undertook the regulation of the dating of Christian Passover, it contented itself with communicating its decision to the different dioceses, instead of establishing a canon. Its exact words were not preserved, but from scattered notices the council ruled: Christ - Coptic Art Coptic Orthodox Christianity is the indigenous form of Egypt in the middle of the 1st century AD (approximately AD 60). ... The Roman Curia — usually called the Vatican — is the administrative apparatus of the Holy See, coordinating and providing the necessary organisation for the correct functioning of the Catholic Church and the achievement of its goals. ...

• that Easter must be celebrated by all throughout the world on the same Sunday;
• that this Sunday must follow the fourteenth day of the paschal moon;
• that that moon was to be accounted the paschal moon whose fourteenth day followed the spring equinox;
• that some provision should be made, probably by the Church of Alexandria as best skilled in astronomical calculations, for determining the proper date of Easter and communicating it to the rest of the world

Third phase

Main article: Synod of Whitby

The Roman missionaries coming to England in the time of St. Gregory the Great found the British Christians, the representatives of that Christianity which had been introduced into Britain during the period of the Roman occupation, still adhering to an ancient system of Easter computation which Rome itself had laid aside. The British and Irish Christians were not Quartodecimans, for they kept the Easter festival upon a Sunday. They are supposed (e.g. by Krusch) to have observed an eighty-four year cycle and not the five-hundred and thirty-two year cycle of Victorius which was adopted in Gaul, but the most recent investigator of the question (Schwartz, p. 103) declares it to be impossible to determine what system they followed and himself inclines to the opinion that they derived their rule for the determining of Easter direct from Asia Minor. The Synod of Whitby was an important synod which eventually led to the unification of the church in Britain. ... “Saint Gregory” redirects here. ... Victorius of Aquitaine, a countryman of Prosper of Aquitaine and also working in Rome, produced in 457 an Easter Cycle, which was based on the consular list provided by Prospers Chronicle. ... Gaul (Latin: ) was the name given, in ancient times, to the region of Western Europe comprising present-day northern Italy, France, Belgium, western Switzerland and the parts of the Netherlands and Germany on the west bank of the Rhine river. ... Anatolia (Greek: ανατολη anatole, rising of the sun or East; compare Orient and Levant, by popular etymology Turkish Anadolu to ana mother and dolu filled), also called by the Latin name of Asia Minor, is a region of Southwest Asia which corresponds today to...

Fourth phase

Main article: Reform of the date of Easter

The World Council of Churches proposed a reform of the method of determining the date of Easter at a summit in Aleppo, Syria, in 1997: 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 reform has not yet been implemented. The current system for determining the date of Easter has two problems: (1) its date varies from year to year (not considered a problem by many Christians), and (2) Eastern and Western churches use different methods of determining its date, and hence in most years it is celebrated on a... The World Council of Churches (WCC) is an international Christian ecumenical organization. ... Location of the governorate of Aleppo within Syria Aleppo (Arabic: [ḥalab], ) is a city in northern Syria, capital of the Aleppo Governorate. ... For other uses, see Astronomy (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Full Moon. ... Illumination of Earth by Sun on the day of equinox The vernal equinox (or spring equinox) marks the beginning of astronomical spring. ... On the earth, a meridian is a north-south line between the North Pole and the South Pole. ... For other uses, see Jerusalem (disambiguation). ...

See also

Computus Computus (Latin for computation) is the calculation of the date of Easter in the Christian calendar. ...

References

1. ^ Exodus 12:14 NRSV
2. ^ VIII, xviii.
3. ^ H.H. Ben-Sasson, A History of the Jewish People, Harvard University Press, 1976, ISBN 0674397312, page 350: "In an attempt to disrupt the order of the Jewish festivals and to prevent those Christians who wished to do so from celebrating Easter on the first day of Passover, the imperial authorities prevented the rabbis from meeting to proclaim New Moons and leap-years and from sending messengers to the Diaspora communities to inform them of their decisions."

External links

• Catholic Encyclopedia: "Easter Controversy"
• Philip Schaff's History of the Christian Church, volume 3, section 79: "The Time of the Easter Festival"