Insula Sanctorum et Doctorum; Or, Ireland's Ancient Schools and ScholarsHealy, John
History
Insula Sanctorum et Doctorum; Or, Ireland's Ancient Schools and Scholars
Healy, John
Education -- Ireland -- History
Then the Nicene Synod intervened in A.D. 325 and commanded all the Eastern
Churches "which heretofore used to celebrate the Pasch with the
Jews,"[196] to celebrate it in future at the same time with the Romans and
with us--so say the prelates of the Synod in their circular letter to the
Egyptian Churches. Constantine, the Emperor, in his own circular says that
the Synod agrees that all should celebrate the Pasch on the same day, but
that it should never be on the same day with the Jews; and Cyril of
Alexandria states, and Leo the Great confirms the statement, that the
Alexandrian Church was to calculate the dates, and then notify them to the
Roman Church, which was to convey the information to the other Churches.
This was virtually adopting the Alexandrian cycle of nineteen years--which
was very different from the Roman cycle. Then at Alexandria the equinox
was rightly fixed on the 21st March, at Rome it was the 18th; at
Alexandria they celebrated Easter on the 15th day of the moon, _when the
14th was a Saturday_; at Rome they did not celebrate Easter in any
circumstances before the 16th day of the moon--assuming that as the 14th
day represented Good Friday, the Pasch of the Passion, Easter Sunday, the
Pasch of the Resurrection, could not rightly take place before the 16th.
It is curious that Cummian in his Epistle supports this opinion, although
Bede makes the 15th of the moon a possible Easter Sunday, and such is
still the usage. A diversity of practice, therefore, between Rome and
Alexandria still continued for many years. However, the Alexandrian usage
ultimately prevailed, but was finally accepted in the Western World only
about A.D. 530, when explained and developed by Dionysius Exiguus.
This, the correct system, therefore, lays down three principles. First,
Easter Day must be always a Sunday, never on, but _next after_ the 14th
day of the moon. Secondly, that 14th day, or the full moon, should be that
on or next after the vernal equinox; and thirdly, the equinox itself was
invariably assigned to the 21st of March.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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