HumanitiesWeb.org - Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation, Book III (Chapter XXV) by Venerable Bede
Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation, Book III Chapter XXV
by Venerable Bede
HOW THE CONTROVERSY AROSE ABOUT THE DUE TIME OF KEEPING EASTER, WITH THOSE THAT CAME
OUT OF SCOTLAND. [A.D. 652.]
IN the meantime, Bishop Aidan being dead, Finan, who was ordained and sent by the
Scots, succeeded him in the bishopric, and built a church in the Isle of Lindisfarne, the
episcopal see; nevertheless, after the manner of the Scots, he made it, not of stone, hut
of hewn oak, and covered it with reeds; and the same was afterwards dedicated in honor of
St. Peter the Apostle, by the reverend Archbishop Theodore. Eadbert, also bishop of that
place, took off the thatch, and covered it, both roof and walls, with plates of lead.
At this time, a great and frequent controversy happened about the observance of Easter;
those that came from Kent or France affirming, that the Scots kept Easter Sunday contrary
to the custom of the universal church. Among them was a most zealous defender of the true
Easter, whose name was Ronan, a Scot by nation, but instructed in ecclesiastical truth,
either in France or Italy, who, disputing with Finan, convinced many, or at least induced
them to make a more strict inquiry after the truth; yet he could not prevail upon Finan,
but, on the contrary, made him the more inveterate by reproof, and a professed opposer of
the truth, being of a hot and violent temper. James, formerly the deacon of the venerable
Archbishop Paulinus, as has been said above, kept the true and Catholic Easter, with all
those that he could persuade to adopt the right way. Queen Eanfleda and her followers also
observed the same as she had seen practiced in Kent, having with her a Kentish priest that
followed the Catholic mode, whose name was Romanus. Thus it is said to have happened in
those times that Easter was twice kept in one year; and that when the king having ended
the time of fasting, kept his Easter, the queen and her followers were still fasting, and
celebrating Palm Sunday. This difference about the observance of Easter, whilst Aidan
lived, was patiently tolerated by all men, as being sensible, that though he could not
keep Easter contrary to the custom of those who had sent him, yet he industriously labored
to practice all works of faith, piety, and love, according to the custom of all holy men;
for which reason he was deservedly beloved by all; even by those who differed in opinion
concerning Easter, and was held in veneration, not only by indifferent persons, but even
by the bishops, Hononus of Canterbury, and Felix of the East Angles.
But after the death of Finan, who succeeded him, when Colman, who was also sent out of
Scotland, came to be bishop, a greater controversy arose about the observance of Easter,
and the rules of ecclesiastical life. Whereupon this dispute began naturally to influence
the thoughts and hearts of many, who feared, lest having received the name of Christians,
they might happen to run, or to have run, in vain. This reached the ears of King Oswy and
his son Alfrid; for Oswy, having been instructed and baptized by the Scots, and being very
perfectly skilled in their language, thought nothing better than what they taught. But
Alfrid, having been instructed in Christianity by Wilfrid, a most learned man, who had
first gone to Rome to learn the ecclesiastical doctrine, and spent much time at Lyons with
Dalfin, archbishop of France, from whom also he had received the ecclesiastical tonsure,
rightly thought this man's doctrine ought to be preferred before all the traditions of the
Scots. For this reason he had also given him a monastery of forty families, at a place
called Rhypum; which place, not long before, he had given to those that followed the
system of the Scots for a monastery; but forasmuch as they afterwards, being left to their
choice, prepared to quit the place rather than alter their opinion, he gave the place to
him, whose life and doctrine were worthy of it.
Agilbert, bishop of the West Saxons, above-mentioned, a friend to King Alfrid and to
Abbot Wufrid, had at that time come into the province of the Northumbrians, and was making
some stay among them; at the request of Alfrid, made Wilfrid a priest in his monastery. He
had in his company a priest, whose name was Agatho. The controversy being there started,
concerning Easter, or the tonsure, or other ecclesiastical affairs, it was agreed, that a
synod should be held in the monastery of Streaneshaich, which signifies the Bay of the
Lighthouse, where the Abbess Hilda, a woman devoted to God, then presided; and that there
this controversy should be decided. The kings, both father and son, came thither, Bishop
Colman With his Scottish clerks, and Agilbert with the priests Agatho and Wilfrid, James
and Romanus were on their side; but the Abbess Hilda and her followers were for the Scots,
as was also the venerable Bishop Cedd, long before ordained by the Scots, as has been said
above, and he was in that council a most careful interpreter for both parties.
King Oswy first observed, that it behooved those who served one God to observe the same
rule of life; and as they all expected the same kingdom in heaven, so they ought not to
differ in the celebration of the Divine mysteries; but rather to inquire which was the
truest tradition, that the same might be followed by all; he then commanded his bishop,
Colman, first to declare what the custom was which he observed, and whence it derived its
origin. Then Colman said, "The Easter which I keep, I received from my elders, who
sent me bishop hither; all our forefathers, men beloved of God, are known to have kept it
after the same manner; and that the same may not seem to any contemptible or worthy to be
rejected, it is the same which St. John the Evangelist, the disciple beloved of our Lord,
with all the churches over which he presided, is recorded to have observed." Having
said thus much, and more to the like effect, the king commanded Agilbert to show whence
his custom of keeping Easter was derived, or on what authority it was grounded. Agilbert
answered, "I desire that my disciple, the priest Wufrid, may speak in my stead;
because we both concur with the other followers of the ecclesiastical tradition that are
here present, and he can better explain our opinion in the English language, than I can by
an interpreter."
Then Wilfrid, being ordered by the king to speak, delivered himself thus :- "The
Easter which we observe, we saw celebrated by all at Rome, where the blessed apostles,
Peter and Paul, lived, taught, suffered, and were buried; we saw the same done in Italy
and in France, when we traveled through those countries for pilgrimage and prayer. We
found the same practiced in Africa, Asia, Egypt, Greece, and all the world, wherever the
church of Christ is spread abroad, through several nations and tongues, at one and the
same time; except only these and their accomplices in obstinacy, I mean the Picts and the
Britons, who foolishly, in these two remote islands of the world, and only in part even of
them, oppose all the rest of the universe. When he had so said, Colman answered, "It
is strange that you will call our labors foolish, wherein we follow the example of so
great an apostle, who was thought worthy to lay his head on our Lord's bosom, when all the
world knows him to have lived most wisely." Wilfrid replied, "Far be it from us
to charge John with folly, for he literally observed the precepts of the Jewish law,
whilst the church still Judaized in many points, and the apostles were not able at once to
cast off all the observances of the law which had been instituted by God. In which way it
is necessary that all who come to the faith should forsake the idols which were invented
by devils, that they might not give scandal to the Jews that were among the Gentiles. For
this reason it was, that Paul circumcised Timothy, that he offered sacrifice in the
temple, that he shaved his head with Aquila and Priscilla at Corinth; for no other
advantage than to avoid giving scandal to the Jews. Hence it was, that James said, to the
same Paul, 'You see, brother, how many thousands of the Jews have believed; and they are
all zealous for the law. And yet, at this time, the Gospel spreading throughout the world,
it is needless, nay, it is not lawful, for the faithful either to be circumcised, or to
offer up to God sacrifices of flesh.' So John, pursuant to the custom of the law, began
the celebration of the feast of Easter, on the fourteenth day of the first month, in the
evening, not regarding whether the same happened on a Saturday, or any other day. But when
Peter preached at Rome, being mindful that our Lord arose from the dead, and gave the
world the hopes of resurrection, on the first day after the Sabbath, he understood that
Easter ought to be observed, so as always to stay till the rising of the moon on the
fourteenth day of the first moon, in the evening, according to the custom and precepts of
the law, even as John did. And when that came, if the Lord's day, then called the first
day after the Sabbath, was the next day, he began that very evening to keep Easter, as we
all do at this day. But if the Lord's day did not fall the next morning after the
fourteenth moon, but on the sixteenth, or the seventeenth, or any other moon till the
twenty-first, he waited for that, and on the Saturday before, in the evening, began to
observe the holy solemnity of Easter. Thus it came to pass, that Easter Sunday was only
kept from the fifteenth moon to the twenty-first. Nor does this evangelical and apostolic
tradition abolish the law, but rather fulfil it; the command being to keep the Passover
from the fourteenth moon of the first month in the evening to the twenty-first moon of the
same month in the evening; which observance all the successors of St. John in Asia, since
his death, and all the church throughout the world, have since followed; and that this is
the true Easter, and the only one to be kept by the faithful, was not newly decreed by the
council of Nice, but only confirmed afresh; as the Church History informs us.
Thus it appears, that you, Colman, neither follow the example of John, as you imagine,
nor that of Peter, whose traditions you knowingly contradict; 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 after the
Sabbath, which you do not practice, who celebrate Easter only on the first day after the
Sabbath. Peter kept Easter Sunday between the fifteenth and the twenty-first moon, which
you do not, but keep 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, but on the
fourteenth, 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. Besides, in your
celebration of Easter, you utterly exclude the twenty-first moon, which the law ordered to
be principally observed. Thus, as I 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 Anatolius, a holy man, and much commended in church
history, act contrary to the law and the Gospel, when he wrote, that Easter was to be
celebrated from the fourteenth to the twentieth? 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, thought or acted contrary to the Divine writings? Whereas there were many
among them, whose sanctity is testified by heavenly signs and the working of miracles,
whose life, customs, and discipline I never cease to follow, not questioning their being
saints in heaven."
"It is evident," said Wufrid, "that Anatolius was a most holy, learned,
and commendable man; but what have you to do with him, since you do not observe his
decrees? For he, following the rule of truth in his Easter, appointed a revolution of
nineteen years, which either you are ignorant of, or if you know it, though it is kept by
the whole church of Christ, yet you despise it. He so computed the fourteenth moon in the
Easter of our Lord, that according to the custom of the Egyptians, he acknowledged it to
be the fifteenth moon in the evening; so in like manner he assigned the twentieth to
Easter-Sunday, as believing that to be the twenty-first moon, when the sun had set, which
rule and distinction of his it appears you are ignorant of, in that you sometimes keep
Easter before the full of the moon, that is, on the thirteenth day. Concerning your Father
Columba and his followers, whose sanctity you say you imitate, and whose rules and
precepts you observe, which have been confirmed by signs from heaven, I may answer, that
when many, on the day of judgment, shall say to our Lord, 'That in his name they
prophesied, and cast out devils, and wrought many wonders,' our Lord will reply, 'That He
never knew them.' But far be it from me, that I say so of your fathers, because it is much
more just to believe what is good, than what is evil, of persons whom one does not know.
Wherefore I do not deny those to have been God's servants, and beloved by Him, who with
rustic simplicity, but pious intentions, have themselves loved Him. Nor do I think that
such keeping of Easter was very prejudicial to them, as long as none came to show them a
more perfect rule; and yet I do believe that they, if any catholic adviser had come among
them, would have as readily followed his admonitions, as they are known to have kept those
commandments of God, which they had learned and knew.
"But as for you and your companions, you certainly sin, if, having heard the
decrees of the Apostolic See, and of the universal church, and that the same is confirmed
by holy writ, you refuse to follow them; for, though your fathers were holy, do you think
that their small number, in a corner of the remotest island, is to be preferred before the
universal church of Christ throughout the world? And if that Columba of yours (and, I may
say, ours also, if he was Christ's servant), was a holy man and powerful in miracles, yet
could he be preferred before the most blessed prince of the apostles, to whom our Lord
said, 'Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell
shall not prevail against it, and to thee I will give the keys of the kingdom of
heaven?'"
When Wufrid had spoken thus, the king said, "Is it true, Colman, that these words
were spoken to Peter by our Lord?" He answered, "It is true, O king " Then
says he, "Can you show any such power given to your Columba?" Colman answered,
"None." Then added the king, "Do you both agree that these words were
principally directed to Peter, and that the keys of heaven were given to him by our
Lord?" They both answered, "We do." Then the king concluded, "And I
also say unto you, that he is the door-keeper, whom I will not contradict, but will, as
far as I know and am able, in all things obey his decrees, lest, when I come to the gates
of the kingdom of heaven, there should be none to open them, he being my adversary who is
proved to have the keys." The king having said this, all present, both great and
small, gave their assent, and renouncing the more imperfect institution, resolved to
conform to that which they found to be of better.
