EXCURSUS V EASTER HE proper time for the observance of Easter has been a source of because two uses had come to be observed probably because the converts 5 were of two different classes. Some of the earliest Christians were Jews, while others were Gentiles. The former would probably, as we know from Scripture that St Paul actually did, observe Jewish feasts at the Jewish times. To such converts the passover-night would still be observed at the usual date, though connected now in their minds with 10 the death of Jesus. To the Gentile converts who knew nothing of the Paschal feast the fact that Jesus rose on the first day of the week fixed the Sunday as the proper day on which the festival of the resurrection should be observed, while by the Jewish converts the day of the week was disregarded. The Jewish Christians influenced the Asiatic church, 15 and by them the calculation of Easter was made after the Jewish rule for finding the paschal moon. The day which they observed was the 14th of the moon (Nisan) and in after times those who followed this rule obtained the name Quartadecimans. The western church kept Easter always on the first day of the week, nearest to the same 14th day of the 20 moon, only taking care that the day should not precede the vernal equinox. For an account of the controversies which agitated the whole of Christendom on this subject, first in the time of St Polycarp about 160 AD, then at Laodicea about fifteen years later, and then between Victor and Polycrates 190 AD, the reader is referred to the article 25 Easter in DCA. At the council of Nicaea the western use received the sanction of the assembled fathers, and thus the party who still adhered to the Jewish EXC V] EASTER. 427 mode of reckoning the time of the Easter festival came to be regarded as heretics. one. But the Easter question of which so much is said in Beda's history was not a dispute between Eastern and Western churches, but between 5 two branches of the Western church which had been in earlier times at In the letter of the emperor Constantine sent forth to the churches after the council of Nicea it is stated (Socr he 1 9), that in Britain there was the same unanimity of sentiment at that time concerning the observance of Easter which prevailed in the rest of the Western church. 10 But the history of Beda shews that there had arisen before his day a serious diversity between the British use and that of the church of Rome, and we are told by him of an occasion on which king Oswy who followed the British calculation was keeping his Easter and had concluded the Lenten fast, while his queen who had been trained in the 15 Roman use was still fasting and keeping Palm Sunday. This difference is of quite another character from that which disturbed the harmony of the Eastern and Western churches, and as Beda observes (h e III 4) had arisen because Britain lay too far away to be made aware of the synodic decrees issued from time to time by the Roman church for the 20 proper fixing of Easter. Both the British and Romish Christians kept the festival on the first day of the week. At the time of the Nicene council the festival was calculated according to the S4 years cycle, called after Sulpicius Severus but in use a long time before his date, and this made Easter-day to be the Sunday which fell next after the equinox be25 tween the 14th and 20th days of the moon inclusive. To this cycle the British church still adhered (see p 275). But the cycle of 84 years bad been supplanted at Rome first by the cycle of 532 years of Victor of Aquitaine and then by that of 19 years of Dionysius Exiguus. According to this latter method of reckoning, Easter day was to be the 30 Sunday next after the equinox between the 15th and 21st days of the moon. From this variation adopted in the mode of calculating Easter by the Roman church and from her by nearly all the West we can see at once how, if the 14th day of the moon fell on Sunday, that would be Easter day to Oswy and the Britons, while to those who followed the 35 Roman use the 21st day of the moon would be Easter day. But we learn from this that the controversy of which Beda says so much was a very different matter from the Quartadeciman dispute between the Eastern and Western churches of old. The British church 428 EASTER. [EXC V had never held the Eastern view, and our church was not Eastern, as has been said, but Western in her origin. For much valuable information on both these Easter controversies the student may read with advantage the article in DCA already alluded to, and the appendix D pp 152 seqq vol 1 Haddan-Stubbs. Also 5 for authorities on each matter connected with the Easter controversy see the various notes on bk III 25. ΙΟ ADDITIONAL NOTES. P 95 2 OVINI. An interesting memorial of Ovini was discovered at the end of the last century in the village of Haddenham near Ely, and was by the advice of the late Canon Bentham removed to the Cathedral 5 at Ely, where it is now preserved. It is a stone which appears to have formed the base of a cross, and on one of its sides is the following inscription. + LVCEM. TVAM. OVINO The letter wherever it occurs is of the Old Saxon form, and gives evidence of the antiquity of the inscription. For a full account of the stone see Bentham's Hist and Antiq of the Convent Ch at Ely, p 51 (ed 1812). The Dean of Ely (Dr Merivale) suggests that the words 15 are meant for a pentameter line, the m in lucem being elided eyen before a consonant. I am also indebted to Dean Merivale for pointing out a similar instance of elision in a sepulchral inscription given in Platner's Beschreibung der Stadt Rom Band II p 88. Constantinus Aug et Helena Augusta Hanc domum regalis simili 20 fulgore coruscans Aula circumdat &c. 25 And that a like elision from Ennius is given in Wordsworth's Fragments and Specimens of Early Latin p 583. P 2. And in a British inscription in Hubner's Inscr Brit Additamenta Other instances in medieval Latin are not very rare. 430* ADDITIONAL NOTES. P 345 1 13 (note on p 127 1 10) VOWS OF CONTINENCE Hier ep 71 3 (ad Lucinium) habes tecum prius in carne, nunc in spiritu sociam; de coniuge germanam, de femina uirum, de subiecta parem: quae sub eodem iugo ad caelestia simul regna festinat. ib 7 ego insignia paupertatis et cotidianae symbola paenitentiae tibi et sorori tuae misi. id 5 ep 75 2 (to Theodora widow of Lucinius) obsecro te,...ut Lucinium tuum desideres quidem ut fratrem, sed gaudeas regnare cum Christo... ille iam securus et victor te aspicit de excelso et fauet laboranti et iuxta se locum praeparat, eodem amore et eadem caritate, qua oblitus officii coniugalis in terra quoque sororem te habere coeperat, immo fratrem; 10 quia casta coniunctio sexum non habet nuptialem. P 347 1 13 (note on P 128 1 3) TO GO WOOLWARD Hier ep 66 5 pr vestes sericae et aurum in fila lentescens in mollia lanarum vestimenta mutata sunt, quibus repellatur frigus, non quibus nudetur ambitio. Durham rites (Surtees society) 84 'stammyne, otherwise called lyncye 15 wonncye for sheets and for shirts for the novices and monks to wear, for they did never wear any linen'. P 348 1 32 (note on P 128 1 4) RARO IN CALIDIS BALNEIS Hier uit Hilarion 10 saccum, quo semel fuerat indutus, numquam lauans et superfluum esse dicens munditias in cilicio quaerere. id ep 20 77 2 dicam appetitas sordes? 79 1 (499) aliis nihil prodest corporis illuuies.... interdum gloriosis tumemus sordibus. P 349 1 20 (note on P 128 1 7 8) LOTIS PRIVS CETERIS FAMVLIS CHRISTI regula Pachomii 51 (ib II 63ab) quando ad ostium monasterii aliqui venerint, si clerici fuerint aut monachi, maiori honore suscipian- 25 tur; lauabuntque pedes eorum iuxta euangelii praeceptum et deducent ad locum xenodochii. P 357 1 25 (note on P 1311 2) VINCVLA SOLVTA Eur Bacch 447-8 (where see Joddrell and Sandys) αὐτόματα δ' αὐταῖς δεσμα διελύθη ποδῶν | κλῃδές τ ̓ ἀνῆκαν θύρετρ ̓ ἄνευ θνητῆς χερός. Philostr Apoll vir 38 § 1. 30 Damis asked Apollonius when he would be set free. 'As far as it rests with the judge, to-day; as far as I am concerned, this instant'. § 2 On which he withdrew his leg from its fetter and again replaced it. cf VIII 13 § 2. 30 § 2. P 361 1 35 (note on P 137 1 24) OMNIBVS ESSENT OMNIA COM- 35 MVNIA Hier uit Malchi 7 fin (11 46b) coepi taedere captiuitatis et monasterii cellulas quaerere ac formicarum illarum desiderare similitudinem, ubi laboratur in medium, cumque nihil cuiusquam proprium sit, omnium omnia sunt. |