This document holds the summary of notes needed for A2 5 CCEA Celtic exam; specifically on the Paschal Controversy and the events leading up to the Synod of Whitby.
Controversy and authority
The Pascal Controversy
Easter is of primary importance in the Christian church because it celebrates
the very lynchpin of the Christian church – the resurrection of Christ.
Debate concerning the correct method of dating Easter had been ongoing in
the Christian church for some centuries. In the 2nd century the Quatrodeciman
heretics were excommunicated in part because they celebrated Easter on
Jewish Passover.
The church wanted all Christians worldwide to celebrate Easter at the same
time. This was difficult to achieve.
1. In 314 the Council of Arles in southern France met and declared that
Easter must be celebrated on the same day throughout the world, but
this was unsuccessful.
2. In 325, the Council of Nice had decreed that Easter be celebrated on the
same Sunday throughout the Christian world. Despite this, there were
still divergences.
The problem
The dates of Passover are based on lunar months, rather than solar months.
Passover is always on the 14th day of the month of Nisan (a month of 30 days,
usually falling between March and April). The 14th day of Nisan is the 1st day
on which there is a full moon, in the 1st lunar month after the spring equinox
(days getting longer).
The Christian church began to look for methods that would reconcile the lunar
calendar with the solar calendar. The most popular of these were Paschal
Tables. Paschal Tables are used to work out cycles of years which would repeat
indefinitely and so enable the church to be aware of the date on which Easter
would fall in advance.
This rivalry led various Christian communities to each develop their own
Paschal Tables for calculating the date of Easter.
1. The Paschal cycles of the Alexandrian churches were based on a cycle of
19 years.
, 2. The Church in the west devised tables based on a cycle of 84 years.
These were used for some time until inaccuracies emerged in this
method in 444 and again in 455.
3. Victorius of Aquitaine was commissioned to draw up a new Paschal
Table. His table was based on a cycle of 532 years.
achieved until the introduction of the Dionysiae cycle around 525.
The 84-year-cycle was the one that was probably brought to Ireland by both
Palladius and Patrick aka the ‘Celtic 84’.
The collapse of Roman Empire made contact between the churches very
difficult, and meant that Ireland probably did not hear of further changes made
in the use of tables.
In 577, Victorius table calculated Easter as filling on 18 April; the Alexandrian
calendar determined that Easter was on 25 April; and the Spanish church
computed an Easter date of 21 March
It is clear then that divergence of practice and confusion over the date of
Easter was not unique to the Celtic Church
The irregularity does not seem to have caused any controversy until the late 6th
and 7th century. It was during that time that the greatest difference emerged
between the Celtic date for Easter and that on which Easter fell elsewhere.
Meeting with Augustine
In Britain, conflict over the dates for Easter only arose with the convergence of
the mission of the Celts and the Roman mission of Augustine.
The Irish believed that Easter could fall between the 14th and the 20th of the
lunar month. This meant that if Easter Sunday happened to fall on the 14th of
the lunar month, Nisan, then it would coincide with Passover. This was exactly
what the church was trying to avoid. Such diversity of Easter dates was also a
constant reminder of division an the church.
Continued diversity was interpreted as an “outward sign of refusal to accept
the rulings of Rome and her claim to authority over the Western Churches"
(Colgrave and Mynors).
In the late 6th century, Augustine had been sent from Rome to Britain to bring
the Christian faith to the Anglo-Saxons. Bede says he held a conference with
the “the bishops and teachers of the English people” at a place known as to
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