Quartodecimanism

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Quartodecimanism (from the Vulgate Latin quarta decima in Leviticus 23:5,^[1] meaning fourteen) refers to the custom of some early Christians celebrating Pasch (related to modern Easter) beginning with the eve of the 14th day of Nisan (or Aviv in the Hebrew Bible calendar), which at dusk is Biblically the "LORD's passover".

The modern Jewish Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread is seven days, starting with the sunset at the beginning of Nisan 15. Judaism reckons the beginning of each day at sunset, not at midnight as is common in Western reckoning. The Biblical law regarding Passover is said to be a "perpetual ordinance" (Exodus 12:14), also applicable to Proselytes, but what it means to observe Biblical law in Christianity is disputed.

The Gospel of John (e.g., 19:14, 19:31, 19:42) implies that Nisan 14 was the day that Jesus was executed in Jerusalem. The Synoptic Gospels place the execution on the first day of Unleavened Bread (Matthew 26:17), usually understood as Nisan 15 given a seven-day feast (Leviticus 23:6), leading to holdings of contradictory chronology.

Background

Very early in the life of the Church, disputes arose as to which date Pasch or Easter (called "Pascha" in Greek and Latin) should be celebrated. Disputes of this kind came to be known as Paschal/Easter controversies. The first recorded such controversy came to be known as the Quartodeciman controversy.

In the early period, Easter was always held on a date near the middle of the Jewish month of Nisan. In the mid–second century A.D., the practice in the Roman province of Asia was for the pre-Easter fast to end on the eve of the 14th day of Nisan, the day on which the Passover sacrifice had been made when the Second Temple stood, and "the day when the people put away the leaven"^[2] (such as Jews, Jewish proselytes, and Jewish Christians). Nisan 14 itself was commonly, if somewhat confusingly, also called Passover; technically it is Preparation Day for the seven-day Feast of Unleavened Bread that begins on Nisan 15, now also called Passover. The Asian custom became known as "Quartodecimanism" among the Latins. Melito of Sardis (d. c.180) was a notable Quartodeciman.

The practice elsewhere was to continue the fast until the eve of the Sunday following; the objection to the Quartodeciman practice was that the 14th of Nisan could fall on any day of the week. Outside of Roman Asia, Christians wished to associate Easter with Sunday, the day on which Jesus rose from the dead according to all the Gospels, and which had long been a Christian holy day.^[3] According to the writings of Irenaeus (d. c. 202), the Roman church had celebrated Easter on a Sunday at least since the time of Bishop Xystus (Sixtus I, 115–125).^[4]

Irenaeus, who followed the Sunday custom, also stated, however, that bishop Polycarp of Smyrna (c.69-c.155) in Asia Minor (a disciple of John the Apostle) was Quartodeciman, celebrating on Nisan 14. Shortly after Anicetus became bishop of Rome in about 155, Polycarp had visited Rome, and among the topics discussed was this divergence of custom. But, Irenaeus noted,

Anicetus could not persuade Polycarp to forgo the [Quartodeciman] observance inasmuch as these things had been always observed by John the disciple of the Lord, and by other apostles with whom he had been conversant; nor did Polycarp persuade Anicetus to keep it: Anicetus said that he must hold to the way of the elders before him.

Neither Polycarp nor Anicetus was able to persuade the other to his position, but neither did they consider the matter of sufficient importance to justify a schism. Indeed, Irenaeus also noted that "Anicetus conceded to Polycarp in the Church the celebration of the Eucharist, by way of showing him respect"; Anicetus and Polycarp parted in peace leaving the question unsettled.^[4]^[5]

Late–second century controversy

The difference in practice was turned into an ecclesiastical controversy when bishop Victor of Rome attempted to declare the Nisan 14 practice heretical and excommunicate all who followed it.^[6] On this occasion Irenaeus and Polycrates of Ephesus wrote to Victor, Irenaeus reminding Victor of his predecessor Anicetus's more tolerant attitude, and Polycrates defending the Asian practice.

Polycrates (c. 190) emphatically notes that he was following the tradition passed down to him:

As for us, then, we scrupulously observe the exact day, neither adding nor taking away. For in Asia great luminaries have gone to their rest who will rise again on the day of the coming of the Lord .... These all kept the 14th day of the month as the beginning of the Paschal feast, in accordance with the Gospel .... Seven of my relatives were bishops, and I am the eighth, and my relatives always observed the day when the people put away the leaven.^[2]

According to Eusebius, a number of synods were convened to deal with the controversy, which he regarded as all ruling in support of Easter on Sunday.

Synods and conferences of bishops were convened, and without a dissenting voice, drew up a decree of the Church, in the form of letters addressed to Christians everywhere, that never on any day other than the Lord's Day should the mystery of the Lord's resurrection from the dead be celebrated, and on that day alone we should observe the end of the Paschal fast.^[7]

A Palestinian synod, under the direction of bishops Narcissus and Theophilus, issued "a lengthy review of the tradition about the Easter festival [beginning Sunday eve] which had come down to them without a break from the apostles", concluding:

Endeavor also to send abroad copies of our epistle among all the churches, so that those who easily deceive their own souls may not be able to lay the blame on us. We would have you know, too, that in Alexandria also they observe the festival on the same day as ourselves. For the Paschal letters are sent from us to them, and from them to us — so that we observe the holy day in unison and together.^[8]

Victor's excommunication of the Asians was apparently rescinded, and the two sides reconciled as a result of the intervention of Irenaeus and other bishops:

Victor, head of the Roman church, attempted at one stroke to cut off from the common unity all the Asian dioceses .... But this was not to the taste of all the bishops: They replied with a request that he would turn his mind to the things that make for peace and for unity and love towards his neighbors. We still possess the words of these men, who very sternly rebuked Victor."^[6]

In the end, a uniform method of computing the date of Easter was not formally addressed until the First Council of Nicaea in 325, and even today, the date still varies between West and East.

Legacy

Table of dates of Easter - 2001–2020 In Gregorian dates

It is not known how long the Nisan 14 practice lasted. The church historian Socrates knew of Quartodecimans who were deprived of their churches by John Chrysostom,^[9] and harassed in unspecified ways by Nestorius,^[10] both bishops of Constantinople. This indicates that the Nisan 14 practice, or a practice that was called by the same name, lingered into the fourth century.

Because this was the first-recorded Easter controversy, it has had a strong influence on the minds of some subsequent generations. Wilfrid, the seventh-century bishop of York in Northumbria, styled his opponents in the Easter controversy of his day "quartodecimans",^[11] though they celebrated Easter on Sunday. Many scholars of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries thought that the dispute over Easter that was discussed at Nicaea was between the Nisan 14 practice and Sunday observance.^[12] A new translation of Eusebius' Life of Constantine suggests that this view is no longer widely accepted;^[13] its view is that the dispute at Nicaea was between two schools of Sunday observance: those who followed the traditional practice of relying on Jewish informants to determine the lunar month in which Easter would fall, and those who wished to set it using Christian computations.

References

1. "New Vulgate (Old Testament)". http://www.vatican.va/archive/bible/nova_vulgata/documents/nova-vulgata_vt_leviticus_lt.html#23. "Mense primo, quarta decima die mensis, ad vesperum Pascha Domini est."
2. Polycrates, bishop of Ephesus, letter to Victor, bishop of Rome, quoted in Eusebius. "Church History". p. 5.24. http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf201.iii.x.xxv.html.
3. Revelation 1:10 and Acts 20:7 may suggest a custom of assembling on Sunday, though the passages do not explicitly so state. In the early– to mid–second century, the custom of Sunday assembly is mentioned in the Didache and by Justin Martyr.
4. Irenaeus, letter to Victor (bishop of Rome), quoted in Eusebius. "Church History". p. 5.24.14, 5.24.17. http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf201.iii.x.xxv.html.
5. "A List Worthy of Study, Given by the Historian, of Customs among Different Nations and Churches". http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf202.iii.xii.xix.html.
6. Eusebius. "Church History". p. 5.24. http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf201.iii.x.xxv.html.
7. Eusebius. "Church History". p. 5.23. http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf201.iii.x.xxiv.html.
8. Narcissus of Jerusalem, Theophilus of Caesarea, Cassius of Tyre, Clarus of Ptolemais, et al., quoted in Eusebius. "Church History". p. 5.25. http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf201.iii.x.xxvi.html.
9. Socrates. "Church History". 6.11. In The Ecclesiastical History of Socrates, Bell and Sons, London, 1874, p. 318.
10. Socrates. "Church History". 7.29.
11. Eddius Stephanus. "Life of Wilfrid". 12. In Farmer, D. F., ed., The Age of Bede, Penguin, London, 1988, pp. 117-118.
12. Jones, Charles W., Bedae Opera de Tempribus, Medieval Academy of America, Cambridge, 1943, p. 18.
13. Cameron, Averil, and Hall, Stuart G., eds., Eusebius: Life of Constantine, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1999, p. 260.

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