The Paschal Controversy and the road to Whitby

Overview

Paschal Controversy and difference in lunar limits between the two reckonings.

What you need to know

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Questions from this subtopic

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1. 1

   What was the Paschal Controversy?

   Model answer

   The Paschal Controversy was the long dispute in the western church over how the date of Easter should be calculated, which set the reckoning kept in Ireland and at Iona against the reckoning used at Rome.

2. 2

   Which Easter cycle did the Irish churches and Iona use?

   Model answer

   The Irish churches and Iona used an 84-year cycle, known to scholars as the latercus, inherited from an older Roman table that Rome itself had abandoned.

3. 3

   Which cycle had Rome adopted by the seventh century?

   Model answer

   Rome had adopted the Alexandrian 19-year cycle, transmitted to the West in the tables of Dionysius Exiguus.

4. 4

   Explain the difference in lunar limits between the two reckonings.

   Model answer

   The Irish reckoning allowed Easter on the Sunday falling between the fourteenth and twentieth days of the lunar month, while the Roman reckoning used the fifteenth to the twenty-first, so only the Irish could keep Easter on the fourteenth day.

5. 5

   Why is it unfair to call the Irish Quartodecimans?

   Model answer

   Quartodecimans kept Easter on the fourteenth day of the lunar month whatever the weekday, whereas the Irish always kept Easter on a Sunday and differed only in the lunar limits they permitted.

6. 6

   Why was the disagreement more than a technical question of computation?

   Model answer

   Easter governed the whole penitential and liturgical year, so two reckonings in one kingdom meant one community feasting while the other was still fasting, and each side's practice implied a judgement on the other's obedience.

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