The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1914-04-11

of Asia Minor, including many Juda-
lied Christians, kept their paschal
feast on the same day that the Jews
kept their Passover, the 14th of Nissan,
the Jewish month corresponding to
our March or April. But the churches
of the West, remembering that the
Lords Resurrection took place on a
Sunday, kept their festival on the
Sunday following the 14th of Nissan.
BY so doing they hoped not only to
commemorate the Resurrection on the
day of the week on which it actually
occurred, but also distinguish them
selves more effectually from the Jews.
For time this difference was borne
with mutual forbearance and charity.
And when disputes began to arise,
Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, went on
a visit to Rome, and conferred with
Anicetas, Bishop of that city, upon the
question. Polycarp pleaded while An
icetas adduced the practice of st. Pc
ter and st. Paul. Concessions were
made by neither side, and so the mat
ter was dropped, or rather held in
allegiance, but the two Bishops con-
tinued in Christian friendship and con-
cord. This was in A. D. 1853.
Toward the end of the century, how
ever, Victor, Bishop of Rome, resolved
to compel the eastern churches to
conform to the western practice, and
wrote an imperious letter to the
prelates of Asia, commanding them to
keep the festival of Easter at the time
observed by the western churches.
They naturally resented this, and de-
clared that they would keep the day
at the time they had been accustomed
to observe it. From this point the dis
pute gathered strength, and became
the source of much bitterness.
At the commencement of the fourth
century matters had gone to such a
length that the Emperor Constantine
thought it his duty to take steps to
stop the controversy and to insure
uniformity of practice. For this pur-
pose he had canon passed in the
great ecumenical council at Nice, A. D.
325, THAT everywhere the great feast
of Easter should be observed upon one
and the same day, and that not the
day of the Jewish Passover, but, as
had been generally observed, upon the
Sunday following"
And, to prevent all further disputes
as to time, the following rules were
laid down: That Marchs Fl shall be
accounted the verpal equinox. That
the full moon happening upon or next
after the 21st of March shall be taken
for the full moon of Nissan. That the
Lords day next following that full
moon be Easter day. But if the full
moon happen upon Sunday, Easter
day shall be the Sunday after.
AS the Egyptians at that time ex-
celled in astronomy, the Bishop of
Alexandria was appointed to give no
tice of Easter day to the pope and
patriarchs. But it soon became evil
dent that this arrangement could not
endure. It was too inconvenient and
liable to Interruptions. The fathers
Of the next age began, therefore, to
adopt the golden numbers of the Me-
tonic cycle, and to place them in the
calendar against those days in each
month on which the new moons should
fall during that year of the cycle. The
Metonic cycle was period of 10 years.
1t had been observed by Melton, an
Athenian philosopher, that the moon
returns to have it's changes on the
same month and day of the month in
the solar year, after lapse of 10
years, and SO, as it were, to run
cycle. He published his discovery at
the Olympic games, B. C. 433, and the
cycle has ever since borne his name.
But though the new moon really
happened on the same day of the year
after space of 10 years as it did
before, it fell an hour earlier on that
day, which in the course Of time, as
will be seen, created a serious error
that had to be reckoned with and
caused much confusion.
A cycle was then framed at Rome
for "a years, and generally received
by the western church, for it was then
thought that in this space of time the
moons changes would return, not only
to the same day of the month, but of
the week as we'll.
During the time that Easter was
kept according to this cycle Britain
was separated from the Roman en-
pire, and the British churches for
time after the separation continued to
keep Easter according to this table of
"a years. British and Irish churches
adopted the Alexandrian rule, accord
ing to which the Easter festival could
not begin before March 8. About 100
years later the English churches con-
formed to the Roman rule. The Roman
system now prevails the world over,
and Easter is celebrated on the same