Quartodecimans

QUARTODECIMANS. - This name designates the followers of the ancient Hebrew computation, which placed the feast of Easter on 14 Nisan (the lunar month of March), whatever day of the week it might fall on. This custom, confined almost exclusively to the proconsular province of Asia, was contrary to the practice of Rome, which ever since the time of Pope Sixtus assigned the Sunday following the aforesaid celebration.

From this arose the so-called "Easter controversy," which concerned not only the date of Easter but also the duration of the fast and the principal meaning of the solemnity: while the faithful of Asia intended above all to commemorate the death of the Lord, elsewhere, especially at Rome, greater emphasis was given to the resurrection. Pope Victor (180-99) decided to settle the question, and at his request councils gathered throughout the Church. Eusebius had before him the replies sent by the Councils of the provinces of Palestine, Pontus and distant Osroene (Edessa), as well as the letters written on this occasion by Bacchillus of Corinth and Irenaeus of Lyons. All these replies favored the Roman date, except those of the Councils of Asia, where Polycrates, bishop of Ephesus, urged resistance, writing to the Pope: "It is we who celebrate the true and genuine day (of Easter), without adding or taking away anything... in conformity with the Gospel, without changing anything, loyal to the rule of faith... I have lived sixty-five years in the Lord; I have been in contact with the brethren of the whole world, I have read all of Scripture and I am not frightened by threats, because men greater than I have said: we must obey God rather than men" (Eusebius, Hist. eccl., V, ch. 24). Then Victor took the grave decision to cut off from ecclesiastical communion, as heretics ὡς ἐτεροδοξοῦντας, the Churches of Asia. But Irenaeus, judging this measure excessive, wrote the Pontiff a letter in which he respectfully exhorted him to the gentleness shown by his predecessors: "Among the presbyters (the bishops of Rome) who before Soter were at the head of the Church now governed by you, namely Anicetus, Pius, Hyginus, Telesphorus, Sixtus, none practiced the Asiatic observances nor permitted his own subjects to carry them out; yet despite this they were at peace with those who came from the Churches of Asia" (Eusebius, loc. cit.). What the Pontiff resolved is unknown, but it is certain that the Asiatic Churches accepted the Roman usage and practiced it from the beginning of the 4th century.

These events strongly attest the primacy of the bishop of Rome.

Emanuele Chietini