Bede's Ecclesiastical History of EnglandBede, the Venerable, Saint
History
Bede's Ecclesiastical History of England
Bede, the Venerable, Saint
England -- Church history -- 449-1066
“Thus it is plain, that you, Colman, neither follow the example of John,
as you imagine, nor that of Peter, whose tradition you oppose with full
knowledge, and that you neither agree with the Law nor the Gospel in the
keeping of your Easter. For John, keeping the Paschal time according to
the decree of the Mosaic Law, had no regard to the first day of the week,
which you do not practise, seeing that you celebrate Easter only on the
first day after the Sabbath. Peter celebrated Easter Sunday between the
fifteenth and the twenty-first moon, which you do not practise, seeing
that you observe Easter Sunday from the fourteenth to the twentieth moon;
so that you often begin Easter on the thirteenth moon in the evening,
whereof neither the Law made any mention, nor did our Lord, the Author and
Giver of the Gospel, on that day either eat the old passover in the
evening, or deliver the Sacraments of the New Testament, to be celebrated
by the Church, in memory of His Passion, but on the fourteenth. Besides,
in your celebration of Easter, you utterly exclude the twenty-first moon,
which the Law ordered to be specially observed. Thus, as I have said
before, you agree neither with John nor Peter, nor with the Law, nor the
Gospel, in the celebration of the greatest festival.”
To this Colman rejoined: “Did the holy Anatolius,(474) much commended in
the history of the Church, judge contrary to the Law and the Gospel, when
he wrote, that Easter was to be celebrated from the fourteenth to the
twentieth moon? Is it to be believed that our most reverend Father Columba
and his successors, men beloved by God, who kept Easter after the same
manner, judged or acted contrary to the Divine writings? Whereas there
were many among them, whose sanctity was attested by heavenly signs and
miracles which they wrought; whom I, for my part, doubt not to be saints,
and whose life, customs, and discipline I never cease to follow.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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