ferved by The churches of Afia kept their Eafter upon the fame Part I. day on which the Jews celebrated their paffover, viz. upon the fourteenth day of their first month Nifan (which month Eafter difbegan at the new moon next to the vernal equinox); and ferently ob this they did upon what day of the week foever it fell; and different were from thence called Quartodecimans, or fuch as keep Churches. Eafter upon the fourteenth day after the Paris, or appearance of the moon: whereas the other churches, especially thofe of the Weft, did not follow this cuftom, but kept their Eafter on the Sunday following the Jewish paffover; partly the more to honour the day, and partly to diftinguish between Jews and Chriftians. Both fides pleaded apoftolical tradition: thefe latter pretending to derive their practice from St. Peter and St. Paul: whilft the others, viz. the Afiatics, faid they imitated the example of St. John3. where ob This difference for a confiderable time continued with a Ordered to great deal of chriftian charity and forbearance; but at be every length became the occafion of great buftles in the church; ferved on which grew to fuch a height at laft, that Conftantine the fame thought it time to ufe his intereft and authority to allay day by the the heat of the oppofite parties, and to bring them to a Nice. uniformity of practice. To which end he got a canon to be paffed in the great general council of Nice, "That every where the great feaft of Eafter fhould be obferved "upon one and the fame day; and that not on the day of "the Jewish paffover, but, as had been generally obferved, "upon the Sunday afterwards." And that this difpute might never arife again, thefe pafchal canons were then alfo eftablished, viz. Council of 1. "That the twenty-first day of March shall be ac-The Pafchal "counted the vernal equinox. 2. "That the full moon happening upon or next after "the twenty-firft day of March shall be taken for the full "moon of Nifan. 3. "That the Lord's day next following that full moon "be Eafter-day. 4. "But if the full moon happen upon a Sunday, Eafter"day fhall be the Sunday after." canons paffed in the Council of Nice. §. 3. Agreeable to thefe is the rule for finding Eafter, The Moons which we are now difcourfing of. But here we must ob- to be found serve, that the Fathers of the next century ordered the out by the new and full moons to be found out by the cycle of the Number. 2 Jofeph. Antiq. Judaic. 1. 3. c. 1o. 3 Eufeb. Hift. Eccl. 5. c. 23, 24. p. 193, &c. Vide et 1. 4. c. 14. D3 4 Eufeb. in Vita Conftant.l. 3. c. 18. Golden Chap. I. moon, confifting of nineteen years, invented by Meton the Athenian, and from its great usefulness in afcertaining the moon's age, as it was thought for ever, was called the Golden Number; and was for fome time ufually written in letters of gold. By this cycle, I fay, the Fathers of the next century ordered the moon's age to be found out; which they thought a certain way, fince at the end of nineteen years the moon returns to have her changes on the fame day of the folar year and month, whereon they happened nineteen years before. For which reafon the cycle was fome time afterwards placed in the calendar, in the first column of every month, in fuch manner as that every number of the cycle fhould ftand against those days in each month, on which the new moons fhould happen in that year of the cycle. But now it is to be noted, that though at the end of every nineteen years the moon changes on the very fame days of the folar months, on which it changed nineteen years before; yet the change happens about an hour and a half fooner every nineteen years than in the former; which, in the time that the Golden Number ftood in the calendar, had made an alteration of about five days. er and the rule rect. Eafter was §. 4. By this means it happened that Eafter was kept kept fome- fometimes fooner and fometimes later than the rule feemed times foon- to direct, and the Fathers of the Nicene council intended. fometimes For it is very manifeft that they defigned that the first full later than moon after the vernal equinox fhould be the pafchal full feems to di- moon (for otherwife they knew that the refurrection of our bleffed Lord could not be commemorated at the time it happened): but then, for want of better skill in aftronomy in thofe times, they confined the equinox to the twenty-firft of March; whereas it hath fince been discovered not only that the moon's cycle of nineteen years complete was too long, but also that the Julian folar year, which they reckoned by, exceeds the true folar one by about eleven minutes every year; which had brought the equinoxes forward eleven or twelve days from the time of the Nicene council. Hence it muft often have happened, that the first full moon after the twenty-firft of March hath been different from the first full moon after the vernal equinox; and that they who have obferved Eafter according to the letter of the Nicene canons, and the rule for finding the paschal full moon by the Golden Number 5 Blondel's Roman Calendar, Part I. lib. 2. c. 5. as The Pafchal Limits as placed foon after in the calendar, have not always ob- Golden The Pafchal I April 5. March 25. 3 45678 April 13. 8 March 30. 9 ΙΟ April 7. II 12 13 April 15. 14 April 12. According to this table was Eafter obferved from the year of Chrift 534, or thereabouts, till the year 1582: at which time Pope Gregory XIII. reformed the calendar, and brought back the vernal equinox to the twenty-firft of March. So that the Roman church keeping their Eafter from that time on the first Sunday after the first full moon next after the twenty-firft of March, obferved it exactly according to the ufe of the primitive church. And in the year 1752, the like reformation was made in our calendar, by ordering the third day of September in that year to be called the fourteenth, thereby fuppreffing eleven intermediate days, and bringing back the vernal equinox to the twenty-firft of March, as it was at the time of the Nicene council. A SECT. II. Of the Tables for finding Eafter. Part I. FTER the Rule for finding Eafter is inferted an account when the rest of the moveable feafts and boly-days begin; and after that follow certain tables relating to the Chap. I. feafts and vigils that are to be obferved in the Church of England, and other days of falling or abftinence, with an account of certain folemn days for which particular fervices are appointed. But these, and every thing relating to them, I fhall have a more convenient opportunity to treat of hereafter; and therefore fhall pafs on now to the Tables for finding Eafter. The Bishop dria was at firft ap of Eafter 6 When the Nicene council had fettled the true time for of Alexan- keeping Easter in the method fet down in the first section of this chapter, the Bishop of Alexandria (for the Egyppointed to tians at that time excelled in the knowledge of aftronomy) give notice was appointed to give notice of Eafter-day to the Pope day to other and other Patriarchs, to be notified by them to the MetroChurches, politans, and by them again to all other Bishops. But this injunction could be but temporary: for length of time muft needs make fuch alteration in the ftate of affairs, as muft render any fuch method of notifying the time of Easter impracticable. And therefore this was obferved no longer than till a Cycle or courfe of all the variations which might happen in regard to Eafter-day might be fettled. Cycles afterwards drawn up. The Cycle of 84 years. §. 2. Hereupon the computifts applied themselves to frame fuch a Cycle: and the vernal equinox being fixed by the council of Nice, and Eafter-day by them alfo appointed to be always the first Sunday after the firft full moon next after the vernal equinox; they had nothing to do, but to calculate all the revolutions of the moon and of the days of the week, and enquire, whether, after a certain number of years, the new moons, and confequently the full moons, did not fall out, not only on the fame days of the folar year, (for that they do after every nineteen years) but also on the fame days of the week on which they happened before, and in the fame ordinary courfe. Because, by calculating a table for fuch a number of years, they might find Eafter for ever; viz. by beginning again at the end of the last year, and going round as it were in a circle. And firft a Cycle was framed at Rome for eighty-four years, and generally received in the Western church; it being thought that in that space of time the changes of the moon would return to the fame days both of the week and year in fuch manner as they had done before?. During the time that Eafter was kept according to this Cycle, Britain was feparated from the Roman Empire, and the 6 See Pope Leo's Epifle to the Emperor Marcianus, epift. 64. 7 See the Bishop of Worcester's. Hiftorical Account of Church-government, p. 67. and Bede Hift. 1. 5. c. 22. in fin. British British churches for fome time after that feparation conti- Part I. nued to keep their Eafter by this table of eighty-four years. But foon after that feparation, the church of Rome and feveral others difcovered great deficiencies in this account, and therefore left it for another, which was more perfect not but that alfo had its defects, though it has been continued ever fince in the Greek church, and fome others; and till very lately in our own. -The Cycle I mean was drawn up about the year 457, The Cycle by Victorius, or Victorinus, a native of Aquitain, an emi- of 532 nent mathematician: who, obferving that the Cycle of the Victorian Sunday letter confifted of twenty-eight years, and confe- Period. quently that the days of the week have a complete revolution, and begin and go on again every twenty-eight years, juft in the fame order that they did twenty-eight years before, and that the Cycle of the Moon returned to have her changes on the fame days of the folar year and month, whereon they happened nineteen years before, but not on the fame days of the week: Victorius, I fay, having obferved this, and endeavouring to compofe a Cycle, which fhould contain all the changes of the days of the week, and of the moon alfo (which was neceflary to find Eafter for ever); he multiplied these two Cycles of nineteen and twenty-eight together, and from thence compofed his period of five hundred and thirty-two years, from him ever after called the Victorian Period. And in this time he fuppofed the new moons would fall out on the fame days both of the month and week, on which they happened before, and in the fame orderly courfe. So that this day (be it what day it will) is the fame day of the year, month, moon, and week, that it was five hundred and thirty-two years ago, or will be five hundred and thirty-two years hence; i. e. if this calculation has no defect in it, as it was then thought to have none, or fo little as would make -no confiderable variation. And when the first full moon after the vernal equinox, or March 21, happens on the fame day both of the month and week, it did any year 8 This alteration of the cycle to find Eafter was the cause that the Britons, who kept to the old account, differed from the Romans in the time of celebrating this feftival. For though both kept it on a Sunday, according to the Rule of the Council of Nice; yet they differed as to the particular Sunday. This upon the coming in of Auguftin the Monk, firft before; |