Easter

=== Controversies over the date ===
{{Main|Easter controversy}}
[[File:5part-icon.jpeg|thumb|A five-part [[Russian Orthodox]] icon depicting the Easter story. [[Eastern Orthodoxy|Eastern Orthodox]] Christians use a different computation for the date of Easter from the Western churches.]]

The precise date of Easter has at times been a matter of contention. By the later 2nd century, it was widely accepted that the celebration of the holiday was a practice of the [[Disciple (Christianity)|disciples]] and an undisputed tradition. The [[Quartodecimanism|Quartodeciman]] controversy, the first of several [[Easter controversy|Easter controversies]], arose concerning the date on which the holiday should be celebrated.<ref name="NEW ADVENT 1909">{{cite encyclopedia |last=Thurston|first=Herbert| title=Easter Controversy | encyclopedia =The Catholic Encyclopedia | date=1909-05-01 | url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05228a.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230423124325/https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05228a.htm|archive-date=April 23, 2023| access-date=2023-04-23 |publisher=New York: Robert Appleton Company|volume=5|via=New Advent}}</ref>

The term "Quartodeciman" refers to the practice of ending the Lenten fast on [[Nisan]] 14 of the [[Hebrew calendar]], "the {{LORD}}'s passover".<ref>{{bibleverse|Leviticus|23:5|ESV}}</ref> According to the church historian [[Eusebius of Caesarea|Eusebius]], the Quartodeciman [[Polycarp]] (bishop of [[Smyrna]], by tradition a disciple of [[John the Apostle]]) debated the question with [[Pope Anicetus|Anicetus]] (bishop of Rome). The [[Asia (Roman province)|Roman province of Asia]] was Quartodeciman, while the Roman and Alexandrian churches continued the fast until the Sunday following (the Sunday of Unleavened Bread), wishing to associate Easter with Sunday. Neither Polycarp nor Anicetus persuaded the other, but they did not consider the matter [[schism (religion)|schismatic]] either, parting in peace and leaving the question unsettled.<ref name="Christian Classics Ethereal Library 2">{{cite web |first1=Philip|last1=Schaff|first2=Tim|last2=Perrine|title= NPNF2-01. Eusebius Pamphilius: Church History, Life of Constantine, Oration in Praise of Constantine|via= Christian Classics Ethereal Library| url=https://ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf201/npnf201.ii.html | access-date=2023-04-23|series=Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220730023344/https://ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf201/npnf201.i.html|archive-date=July 30, 2022}}</ref>

Controversy arose when [[Pope Victor I|Victor]], bishop of Rome a generation after Anicetus, attempted to [[excommunication|excommunicate]] [[Polycrates of Ephesus]] and all other bishops of Asia for their Quartodecimanism. 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.<ref>Eusebius, Church History 5.23.</ref> Polycrates ({{circa|190}}), however, wrote to Victor defending the antiquity of Asian Quartodecimanism. Victor's attempted excommunication was apparently rescinded, and the two sides reconciled upon the intervention of bishop [[Irenaeus]] and others, who reminded Victor of the tolerant precedent of Anicetus.<ref name="Kelly 1978 p. ">{{cite book | last=Kelly | first=J. N. D. | title=Early Christian doctrines | publication-place=San Francisco | date=1978 | isbn=0-06-064334-X | oclc=3753468 | publisher=Harper & Row | page=}}</ref><ref name="Grace Communion International 2018">{{cite web | title=The Passover-Easter-Quartodeciman Controversy | website=Grace Communion International | date=2018-11-22 | url=https://www.gci.org/articles/the-passover-easter-quartodeciman-controversy/ | access-date=2023-04-23}}</ref>

Quartodecimanism seems to have lingered into the 4th century, when [[Socrates of Constantinople]] recorded that some Quartodecimans were deprived of their churches by [[John Chrysostom]]<ref>Socrates, ''Church History'', 6.11, at {{cite web| last = Schaff| first = Philip| title = Of Severian and Antiochus: their Disagreement from John.| work = Socrates and Sozomenus Ecclesiastical Histories| publisher = Calvin College Christian Classics Ethereal Library| date = 13 July 2005| url = http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf202.ii.ix.xii.html| access-date = 28 March 2009| archive-date = 13 October 2010| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20101013152952/http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf202.ii.ix.xii.html| url-status = live}}</ref> and that some were harassed by [[Nestorius]].<ref>Socrates, ''Church History'' 7.29, at {{cite web| last = Schaff| first = Philip| title = Nestorius of Antioch promoted to the See of Constantinople. His Persecution of the Heretics.| work = Socrates and Sozomenus Ecclesiastical Histories| publisher = Calvin College Christian Classics Ethereal Library| date = 13 July 2005| url = http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf202.ii.x.xxix.html| access-date = 28 March 2009| archive-date = 13 October 2010| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20101013184700/http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf202.ii.x.xxix.html| url-status = live}}</ref>

It is not known how long the Nisan 14 practice continued. But both those who followed the Nisan 14 custom, and those who set Easter to the following Sunday, had in common the custom of consulting their Jewish neighbors to learn when the month of Nisan would fall, and setting their festival accordingly. By the later 3rd century, however, some Christians began to express dissatisfaction with the custom of relying on the Jewish community to determine the date of Easter. The chief complaint was that the Jewish communities sometimes erred in setting Passover to fall before the [[Northern Hemisphere]] spring equinox.<ref>Eusebius, ''Church History'', 7.32.</ref><ref>Peter of Alexandria, quoted in the [[Chronicon Paschale]]. In Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson, eds., ''Ante-Nicene Christian Library, Volume 14: The Writings of Methodius, Alexander of Lycopolis, Peter of Alexandria, And Several Fragments'', Edinburgh, 1869, p. 326, at {{cite web| last = Donaldson| first = Alexander| title = That Up to the Time of the Destruction of Jerusalem, the Jews Rightly Appointed the Fourteenth Day of the First Lunar Month.| work = Gregory Thaumaturgus, Dionysius the Great, Julius Africanus, Anatolius and Minor Writers, Methodius, Arnobius| publisher = Calvin College Christian Classics Ethereal Library| date = 1 June 2005| url = http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf06.ix.vi.v.html| access-date = 28 March 2009| archive-date = 15 April 2009| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090415004506/http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf06.ix.vi.v.html| url-status = live}}</ref> The [[Sardica paschal table]]<ref>MS Verona, Biblioteca Capitolare LX(58) folios 79v–80v.</ref> confirms these complaints, for it indicates that the Jews of some eastern Mediterranean city (possibly [[Antioch]]) fixed Nisan 14 on dates well before the spring equinox on multiple occasions.<ref>Sacha Stern, ''Calendar and Community: A History of the Jewish Calendar Second Century BCE – Tenth Century CE,'' Oxford, 2001, pp. 124–132.</ref>

Because of this dissatisfaction with reliance on the Jewish calendar, some Christians began to experiment with independent computations.{{refn|Eusebius reports that Dionysius, Bishop of Alexandria, proposed an 8-year Easter cycle, and quotes a letter from Anatolius, Bishop of Laodicea, that refers to a 19-year cycle.<ref>Eusebius, ''Church History'', 7.20, 7.31.</ref> An 8-year cycle has been found inscribed on a statue unearthed in Rome in the 17th century, and since dated to the 3rd century.<ref>Allen Brent, ''Hippolytus and the Roman Church in the Third Century'', Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1995.</ref>|group=nb}} Others, however, believed that the customary practice of consulting Jews should continue, even if the Jewish computations were in error.<ref name="NEW ADVENT (Church Fathers)">{{cite encyclopedia| title=Church History, Book II (Eusebius) |series=Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, second series|volume=1|publisher=Christian Literature Publishing Co.|date=January 1, 1890|url=https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/250102.htm | via=New Advent|translator=Arthur Cushman McGiffert| access-date=2023-04-23|editor1=Philip Schaff|editor2=Henry Wace}}</ref>