XXV. How the question arose about the due time of keeping Easter,
with those that came out of Scotland. [664 A.D.]
CHAP. XXV. How the question arose about the due time of keeping Easter, with
those that came out of Scotland. [664 A.D.]
IN the meantime, Bishop Aidan being taken away from this life, Finan, who was
ordained and sent by the Scots, succeeded him in the bishopric, and built a
church in the Isle of Lindisfarne, fit for the episcopal see; nevertheless,
after the manner of the Scots, he made it, not of stone, but entirely of hewn
oak, and covered it with reeds; and it was afterwards dedicated in honour of the
blessed Peter the Apostle, by the most reverend Archbishop Theodore.
Eadbert,also bishop of that place, took off the thatch, and caused it to be
covered entirely, both roof and walls, with plates of lead.
At this time, a great and frequently debated question arose about the observance
of Easter; those that came from Kent or Gaul affirming, that the Scots
celebrated 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 the rule of ecclesiastical truth in Gaul or Italy.
Disputing with Finan, he 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, embittered him the more by reproof, and made him a professed opponent
of the truth, for he was of a violent temper. James,formerly the deacon of the
venerable Archbishop Paulinus, as has been said above, observed the true and
Catholic Easter, with all those that he could instruct in the better way. Queen
Eanfled and her followers also observed it as she had seen it practised in Kent,
having with her a Kentish priest who followed the Catholic observance, whose
name was Romanus. Thus it is said to have sometimes happened in those times that
Easter was twice celebrated in one year; and that when the king, having ended
his fast, was keeping Easter, the queen and her followers were still fasting,
and celebrating Palm Sunday. Whilst Aidan lived, this difference about the
observance of Easter was patiently tolerated by all men, for they well knew,
that though he could not keep Easter contrary to the custom of those who had
sent him, yet he industriously laboured to practise the 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 less important persons, but even
by the bishops, Honorius of Canterbury, and Felix of the East Angles.
But after the death of Finan, who succeeded him, when Colman, who was also sent
from Scotland, came to be bishop, a greater controversy arose about the
observance of Easter, and other rules of ecclesiastical life. Whereupon this
question began naturally to influence the thoughts and hearts of many who
feared, lest haply, having received the name of Christians, they might run, or
have run, in vain. This reached the ears of the rulers, King Oswy and his son
Alchfrid. Now 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 Alchfrid, having for his teacher in Christianity the learned
Wilfrid, who had formerly gone to Rome to study ecclesiastical doctrine, and
spent much time at Lyons with Dalfinus, archbishop of Gaul, from whom also he
had received the crown of ecclesiastical tonsure, rightly thought that 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 Inhrypum; which place, not long before, he had given for a monastery to
those that were followers of the Scots; but forasmuch as they afterwards, being
left to their choice, preferred to quit the place rather than alter their
custom, he gave it to him, whose life and doctrine were worthy of it.
Agilbert, bishop of the West Saxons, above-mentioned, a friend of King Alchfrid
and of Abbot Wilfrid, had at that time come into the province of the
Northumbrians, and was staying some time among them; at the request of Alchfrid,
he made Wilfrid a priest in his aforesaid monastery. He had in his company a
priest, whose name was Agatho. The question being raised there concerning Easter
and the tonsure and other ecclesiastical matters, it was arranged, that a synod
should be held in the monastery of Streanaeshalch,which signifies the Bay of the
Lighthouse, where the Abbess Hilda,a woman devoted to the service of God, then
ruled; and that there this question should be decided. The kings, both father
and son, came thither, and the bishops, 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 acted in that council as a most careful interpreter for both
parties.
King Oswy first made an opening speech, in which he said that it behoved those
who served one God to observe one rule of life; and as they all expected the
same kingdom in heaven, so they ought not to differ in the celebration of the
heavenly mysteries; but rather to inquire which was the truer tradition, that it
might be followed by all in common; 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 hither as bishop; all our forefathers, men beloved of God, are known
to have celebrated it after the same manner; and that it may not seem to any
contemptible and worthy to be rejected, it is the same which the blessed John
the Evangelist, the disciple specially beloved of our Lord, with all the
churches over which he presided, is recorded to have celebrated."’ When he had
said thus much, and more to the like effect, the king commanded Agilbert to make
known the manner of his observance and to show whence it was derived, and on
what authority he followed it. Agilbert answered, "I beseech you, let my
disciple, the priest Wilfrid, speak in my stead; because we both concur with the
other followers of the ecclesiastical tradition that are here present, and he
can better and more clearly explain our opinion in the English language, than I
can by an interpreter."
Then Wilfrid, being ordered by the king to speak, began thus:— "The Easter which
we keep, 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 by all in
Italy and in Gaul, when we travelled through those countries for the purpose of
study and prayer. We found it observed in Africa, Asia, Egypt, Greece, and all
the world, wherever the Church of Christ is spread abroad, among divers nations
and tongues, at one and the same time; save only among these and their
accomplices in obstinacy, I mean the Picts and the Britons, who foolishly, in
these two remote islands of the ocean, and only in part even of them, strive to
oppose all the rest of the world."
When he had so said, Colman answered, "It is strange that you choose to call our
efforts foolish, wherein we follow the example of so great an Apostle, who was
thought worthy to lean 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 Mosaic Law, whilst the
Church was still Jewish in many points, and the Apostles, lest they should give
cause of offence to the Jews who, were among the Gentiles, were not able at once
to cast off all the observances of the Law which had been instituted by God, in
the same way as it is necessary that all who come to the faith should forsake
the idols which were invented by devils. 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 offence to the Jews. Hence it was, that James said to the same Paul,
"Thou seest, brother, how many thousands of Jews there are which believe; and
they are all zealous of the Law." " And yet, at this time, when the light of the
Gospel is 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, according 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 week-day. But
when Peter preached at Rome, being mindful that our Lord arose from the dead,
and gave to the world the hope of resurrection, on the first day of the week, he
perceived that Easter ought to be kept after this manner: he always awaited the
rising of the moon on the fourteenth day of the first month 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 of the week, was the next
day, he began that very evening to celebrate Easter, as we all do at the present
time. 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 the blessed 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 celebrated by the faithful, was not newly
decreed by the council of Nicaea, but only confirmed afresh; as the history of
the Church informs us.
"Thus it is plain, that you, Colman, neither follow the example of John, as you
imagine, nor that of Peter, whose tradition you oppose with full knowledge, 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 of the week, which you do not practise,
seeing that you celebrate Easter only on the first day after the Sabbath. Peter
celebrated Easter Sunday between the fifteenth and the twenty-first moon, which
you do not practise, seeing that you observe 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 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, but on the fourteenth. Besides, in your
celebration of Easter, you utterly exclude the twenty-first moon, which the Law
ordered to be specially observed. Thus, as I have 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 the holy Anatolius, much commended in the history
of the Church, judge contrary to the Law and the Gospel, when he wrote, that
Easter was to be celebrated from the fourteenth to the twentieth moon? 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, judged or acted contrary
to the Divine writings? Whereas there were many among them, whose sanctity was
attested by heavenly signs and miracles which they wrought; whom I, for my part,
doubt not to be saints, and whose life, customs, and discipline I never cease to
follow."
"It is evident," said Wilfrid, "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 undoubtedly, following the rule of truth in his Easter,
appointed a cycle 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 as
a thing of naught. He so computed the fourteenth moon in our Lord’s Paschal
Feast, that according to the custom of the Egyptians, he acknowledged it to be
the fifteenth moon on that same day 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. That you are ignorant of the rule of
this distinction is proved by this, that you sometimes manifestly keep Easter
before the full moon, that is, on the thirteenth day. Concerning your Father
Columba and his followers, whose sanctity you say you imitate, and whose rule
and precepts confirmed by signs from Heaven you say that you follow, I might
answer, then when many, in the day of judgement, shall say to our Lord, that in
His name they have prophesied, and have cast out devils, and done many wonderful
works, our Lord will reply, that He never knew them. But far be it from me to
speak thus of your fathers, for it is much more just to believe good than evil
of those whom we know not. Wherefore I do not deny those also to have been God’s
servants, and beloved of God, who with rude simplicity, but pious intentions,
have themselves loved Him. Nor do I think that such observance of Easter did
them much harm, as long as none came to show them a more perfect rule to follow;
for assuredly I believe that, if any teacher, reckoning after the Catholic
manner, had come among them, they 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, nay, of the universal Church, confirmed, as they
are, by Holy Scripture, you scorn to follow them; for, though your fathers were
holy, do you think that those few men, in a corner of the remotest island, are
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 chief 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 I will give unto thee the .keys of the kingdom of
Heaven?’
When Wilfrid had ended 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 said he, "Can you show any such power given to your Columba?" Colman
answered, "None." Then again the king asked, " Do you both agree in this,
without any controversy, that these words were said above all to Peter, and that
the keys of the kingdom of Heaven were given to him by our Lord?" They both
answered, "Yes." Then the king concluded, "And I also say unto you, that he is
the door-keeper, and I will not gainsay him, but I desire, as far as I know and
am able, in all things to obey his laws, lest haply 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 who were seated
there or standing by, both great and small, gave their assent, and renouncing
the less perfect custom, hastened to conform to that which they had found to be
better.
