Heortology : $b A history of the Christian festivals from their origin to the present dayKellner, K. A. Heinrich (Karl Adam Heinrich)
Religion
Heortology : $b A history of the Christian festivals from their origin to the present day
Kellner, K. A. Heinrich (Karl Adam Heinrich)
Church year; Fasts and feasts
A remarkable alteration now took place, doubtless caused by another view
being taken of the meaning of the feast. When the words _Cathedra Petri_
were no longer taken as referring to the bestowal of the Primacy or
the episcopal and teaching office in general, but as referring to some
definite episcopal See, then the question was asked, Is Antioch meant or
Rome? For although the official lists reckon Evodius, and not St Peter,
as first bishop of Antioch, still there were writers of antiquity, such
as Origen, who represent St Peter’s residence in Antioch (Gal. ii. 11) as
his Antiochene episcopate. This view led to the division of the feast
into a Roman and an Antiochene Feast of St Peter’s Chair; for reasons
which are unknown, the 18th January was chosen for the former, while the
latter continued to be celebrated on the 22nd February.
The martyrology of the Venerable Bede marks the date at which this
division of the feast came into existence. In the original recension,
given by the Bollandists, the feast of the 18th January does not
appear, but the feast of the 22nd February has the note attached, “At
Antioch.” It is possible that Bede considered the feast commemorated
the commencement of a particular episcopate, and since, according to
his idea, the Antiochene episcopate of St Peter preceded his Roman, and
Antioch must have been the first See occupied by the apostle, he added
the words, “At Antioch, where the disciples were first named Christians.”
The separation is complete in Ado and Usuardus, and appears in the oldest
editions of the _Hieronymianum_, and, in defect of further information,
the compiler of this document may be regarded as the originator of the
separation.[659] There thus arose a threefold practice—either both feasts
were kept, or neither, or that of the 22nd February; the last was the
case in only a few dioceses. The Cologne Calendar of the fourteenth
century had only one feast, but the more ancient calendar belonging to
the ninth century had both.[660]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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