FIRST LETTER, WRITTEN IN THE YEAR OF CHRIST 525, IN THE CONSULSHIP OF PROBUS, IN THE FIFTH INDICTION. To the most blessed lord and exceedingly longed-for brother Petronius the bishop; Dionysius Exiguus. The reckoning of the Paschal feast, which the urgent insistence of many has for a long while frequently demanded of us, we have now, aided by your prayers, taken care to set forth: following in all things the absolute and true judgment of this matter held by the venerable three hundred and eighteen pontiffs who assembled at the city of Nicaea in Bithynia against the madness of Arius, who fixed the fourteenth moons of the Paschal observance, recurring ever within their cycle of nineteen years, as stable and immovable;
which, throughout all ages, glide back to the same beginnings from which they are repeated, without any deviation of variation. But the aforesaid Fathers established this rule of the cycle not so much by singular skill as by the illumination of the Holy Spirit, and they are seen to have set it, like a firm and stable anchor, to this reckoning of the lunar measurement; which afterwards certain men, either despising it through arrogance or transgressing it through ignorance, led astray by Jewish fables, handed down a diverse and contrary form of the single festival. And because without the solidity of a foundation no structure can stand, they chose to fix the Lord's Pascha and the computation of the moon far otherwise in certain years, ordering disordered cycles:
which not only present no stability of return, but even a course notable for its error. But the blessed Athanasius, archbishop of the city of Alexandria—who himself was also present at the Council of Nicaea, then deacon of the holy pontiff Alexander and his helper in all things—and thereafter the venerable Theophilus, and Cyril, by no means departed from this venerable constitution of the synod. Rather, carefully retaining the same nineteen-year cycle, which by a Greek word is called the Enneacaidecaeteris, they are shown to have interpolated the Paschal course with no diversities.
Finally, Pope Theophilus, dedicating a course of one hundred years to the elder emperor Theodosius, and the holy Cyril, composing a cycle of times of ninety-five years, observed this tradition of the holy council in all things, for the keeping of the fourteenth Paschal moons. And because, for those who are studious and seek to know what is true, the rule of that same cycle ought to cling more fixedly, we have thought it should be appended after our preface. We have striven to set forth this cycle of ninety-five years with what zeal we could: placing forward in this our work the last cycle of the same blessed Cyril, that is, the fifth, since six years still remained over from it;
and thereafter we profess that we have arranged five others according to the norm of the same pontiff, or rather of the oft-mentioned Council of Nicaea. But because the holy Cyril began his first cycle from the one hundred and fifty-third year of Diocletian, and ended his last in the two hundred and forty-seventh, we, beginning rather from the two hundred and forty-eighth year of that same tyrant rather than emperor, were unwilling to attach to our cycles the memory of an impious man and persecutor; but we chose rather to note down the times of the years from the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ: so that the beginning of our hope might be more known to us, and that the cause of our restoration might shine forth more evidently, that is, the Passion of our Redeemer.
Moreover, we have thought the reader should be admonished of this, that this cycle of ninety-five years which we have made, when, the time being finished, it begins to return upon itself, does not in all respects retain the proposed firmness. For although the years of our Lord Jesus Christ keep their order in a continuous series, and the indictions run their course through fifteen years in the accustomed revolution, and you may find the epacts also, as the Greeks call them, that is, the annual lunar additions of eleven, which return into themselves within a limit of thirty days, noted down by fixed rules, and you may likewise find the nineteen-year recurrence, and the same fourteenth Paschal moons, in the revolution of all the ages:
yet the concurring days of the weeks, and the days of the Lord's Pascha, and the moon of that very Lord's day, cannot keep a similar tenor of constancy. But the reckoning of the concurring weeks, which arises from the course of the sun, is terminated in a continuous circuit of seven years. In this you will take care to count one for each single year; only in that year in which there is a bissextile (leap day) will you add two; which cause also makes it so that this cycle of ninety-five years does not in all respects seem to be in accord with its own recurrence. For although in the other years it does not disagree, in those alone in which the bissextile inserts itself, the Lord's Pascha with its moon meets the reckoning in a variable manner.
But those things which run their course through all the times in a fixed order can, by their stable circuit, direct the movable contingencies without any difficulty. And therefore, after the completion of ninety-five years, when one who is diligent in these matters wishes to return to the beginning, let him run not to the fifth cycle of the holy Cyril, which we have necessarily set before us, but vigilantly to our first; and in the order which we have stated, let him, by means of those things which retain a firm course, sustain the progress of those which seem to waver. That also we have judged should be noted with no less care, lest we be deceived in the recognition of the first month. For from this nearly the whole error of the Paschal discrepancy arises, while the beginning of the time is unknown.
For when the almighty Lord appointed this most sacred solemnity to be celebrated by the children of Israel, who were being freed from Egyptian servitude, he says in the book of Exodus to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt: 'This month shall be the beginning of months; it shall be the first in the months of the year.' And likewise in the same place: 'In the first month,' he says, 'on the fourteenth day of the month at evening, you shall eat unleavened bread, until the twenty-first of the same at evening.' In Deuteronomy too the same lawgiver Moses thus admonishes the people concerning this matter, saying: 'Observe the month of new fruits, and of the first part of the spring season, that you may keep the Pascha to the Lord your God, since in this month the Lord your God brought you out of Egypt by night.'
By so great a divine authority it has become clear that in the first month, on the fourteenth day at evening, until the twenty-first, the Paschal festivity ought to be celebrated. But because it is not there evidently read whence this month takes its beginning, or where it is terminated, the aforesaid three hundred and eighteen pontiffs, more skilfully investigating the observance of ancient custom, handed down thence from holy Moses—as is related in the seventh book of the Ecclesiastical History—said that the new moon arising from the eighth of the Ides of March until the day of the Nones of April makes the beginning of the first month; and that the fourteenth moon is to be more skilfully sought from the twelfth day before the Kalends of April until the fourteenth before the Kalends of May.
And because the moon does not revolve equally with the course of the sun, by the spaces of so many days it follows the occurrence of the vernal equinox; which equinox, from the twelfth day before the Kalends of April, is specially noted by the opinions of all the Easterners, and especially of the Egyptians, who beyond all others are skilled in calculation. In which equinox, too, if the fourteenth moon should fall on a Sabbath (which it is manifest happens once in ninety-five years), the same holy synod without ambiguity confirmed that the Pascha is to be celebrated on the following Lord's day, that is, the eleventh before the Kalends of April, on the fifteenth moon. Admonishing by all means that no one should seek the fourteenth moon of the Paschal feast before the twelfth before the Kalends of April;
for it would be established to be not of the first month, but of the last. But neither did we think this should be passed over, that those err exceedingly who, estimating the moon to complete the course of its cycle in spaces of thirty days, reckon twelve lunar months in three hundred and sixty days; to which they also add five days, which antiquity called intercalary, that they might seem to fill out the solar year. Whereas a diligent inquiry into the truth has shown that in two lunar cycles not sixty days, but fifty-nine ought to be numbered. And through this, in twelve lunar months the sum of three hundred and fifty-four days is gathered; to which the Egyptians accommodate annual epacts, that is, eleven days:
so that thus at last the lunar measurement may be made equal to the reckoning of the sun. That this is most true and most certain is proved by the judgment of the above-written Fathers, who, according to this calculation of the Egyptians, handed down the fourteenth moons of the Paschal observance. But some, ignorant of so great a subtlety, or rather of so great a sanction, while they search out other arguments of computation, recede from the path of the truth. Whence it most often happens that, when the oft-mentioned Fathers set down the fourteenth moon, these suspect it to be the fifteenth; and that which is the twenty-first, they pronounce to be the twenty-second. But for us, whose love and care is for the Christian religion, it is fitting by no reason whatever to depart;
but it is fitting to keep with the most sincere observance the Paschal rule prefixed by these Fathers. How greatly we rely, in the Churches diffused throughout the whole world, upon the authority of these Fathers, it is no labour to show: since a second council, meeting at Nicaea not long after, judged that the definition which they had first put forth concerning the Paschal reckoning was by no means to be violated. Finally, in the sacred canons, under the seventy-ninth title, which is the first of the Antiochene council itself, it is found expressed in these words:
We decree that all who dare to undo the definition of the holy and great Council that was assembled at Nicaea, in the presence of the most pious and venerable prince Constantine, concerning the saving solemnity of Easter, are to be excommunicated and driven out of the Church, provided that they persist contentiously against the things that have been rightly decreed. And let these things be said concerning the laity. But if any of those who preside over the Church, whether bishop, or presbyter, or deacon, should after this definition attempt, to the subversion of the peoples and the disturbance of the Churches, to gather apart by himself and to celebrate the Pasch together with the Jews:
the holy synod has judged such a man to be henceforth alien from the Church, since he has become a cause of corruption and disturbance not only to himself but to very many. Nor does it remove from the ministry only him, but those also who after such a condemnation shall attempt to communicate with him are likewise to be condemned, and deprived as well of every outward honour which the holy rule and the priesthood of God had merited. Things not unlike these the venerable pope Leo, the prelate of the Apostolic See, pronounces, saying: Against the statutes of the canons of the Fathers, which before the years of a very long age were established at the city of Nicaea by spiritual decrees, it is granted to no one to dare anything; so that if anyone should wish to decree something different, he rather diminishes himself than corrupts those decrees.
And if these are kept inviolate by all the pontiffs, as is fitting, there will be peace throughout all the Churches, and firm concord. And again he says: In all ecclesiastical matters we obey these laws, which the Holy Spirit, through three hundred and eighteen bishops, established for the peaceful observance of all priests; so that even if many more should decree something other than what those bishops established, whatever is at variance with the constitution of the aforesaid Fathers is to be held in no reverence. Sufficiently, as we think, is it enjoined upon all, that henceforth the most sacred Pasch should not be celebrated otherwise than as was appointed by the holy Fathers.
But if perhaps anyone with obstinate mind should despise the testimonies of so many priests, he will find the like things briefly set down even in the ecclesiastical history; and he will learn these same matters published by the report of many pontiffs, and especially of the blessed Athanasius, whom we mentioned above. This very thing also the letter of the holy Proterius, bishop of the city of Alexandria, directed to that same pope Leo concerning this same paschal question, attests; which letter, translating it from the Greek some years ago, we judged ought to be appended to this work. We have likewise subjoined the arguments sought out by the keenness of the Egyptians, by which, if perchance they be unknown, the paschal headings may easily be found:
that is, what number the year is from the Incarnation of the Lord, and what number the indiction is; what too the lunar cycle is, or what the nineteen-year cycle may be; and the other like things may be sought by a similar abridgement of reckoning. May divine grace deign to guard your blessedness as you pray for us. SECOND LETTER, WRITTEN IN THE 526TH YEAR OF THE COMMON ERA OF CHRIST. To the lords to be much venerated by me, Boniface, primicerius of the notaries, and Bonus, secundicerius, Dionysius Exiguus sends greeting. Being at length compelled, after long urging by the holy and venerable bishop Petronius, to commit to writing the rule of the paschal observance, I had believed that thenceforth every assault of diversity would be done away;
especially because I had taken care with all my efforts to instil the authority of the holy three hundred and eighteen bishops who had convened at Nicaea, who in that venerable council, regularly fixing the nineteen-year cycle, noted the fourteenth moons of the paschal observance, immovable through all the seasons by the law of their revolution. But since your holiness, when a question of this matter had arisen, has now brought forth from the archive of the Roman Church the writings of the venerable bishop Paschasinus—who, it is known, presided in place of the most blessed pope Leo at the holy Council of Chalcedon—directed to that same pope about that same time, which agree by evident reasoning with the holy Fathers, we have inserted them into this present work:
so that we might rely also on the testimony of this man, who by a manifest miracle confirms the paschal decrees of the venerable pontiffs. But as for the fact that in these very writings mention is made of common years and embolismic years, and as this reckoning—which, it is said, is derived from the tradition of the Hebrews—is greatly inquired into by some who wish to know whether it appears to agree with the rule of the Fathers, we have judged it necessary to set forth this information too, with compelled brevity, lest it be thought to differ in any point. Let us therefore know that this same nineteen-year cycle is always revolved within itself through an ogdoad and a hendecad. For that very number is unfolded as eight and eleven.
The ogdoad, therefore, which begins from the first year of the nineteen-year cycle—which is the seventeenth lunar—is carried through by this reckoning: that it has the first and second years common, that is, lesser; the third embolismic, that is, greater; the fourth and fifth years likewise common, the sixth embolismic; the seventh common, the eighth embolismic. And by this, five common years and three embolisms are continually assigned to the ogdoad. Now a common year gathers twelve lunar months, which make three hundred and fifty-four days. But an embolismic year is shown to have thirteen moons and three hundred and eighty-four days. Likewise the hendecad runs on by this law.
It begins in the ninth year of the nineteen-year cycle, which is the sixth lunar: of which the first and second year is common, the third embolismic; the fourth and fifth common, the sixth embolismic; the seventh and eighth common; the ninth embolismic; the tenth common, the eleventh embolismic: and thus the hendecad is concluded with seven common years and four embolisms. But this account of the embolisms is proved to exist because it appears to supply the deficits of the common years, in order that the lunar course may be made equal to the solar time. For although the moon traverses the circle of the solar year through its individual months, yet it does not avail to complete its perfection in its twelve months.
In short, in the common years, by the reckoning of the solar year, eleven days of the moon are seen to be lacking. But in the embolismic years the moon is seen to exceed that same solar year by nineteen days. Wherefore let us bring forward into the open the years of the ogdoad and the hendecad according to the order of the aforesaid cycle; and we shall plainly prove that through eight years and eleven the course of the moon contends with the sun: since she gathers as many days as he has run. In the ogdoad we said there are five common years and three embolisms. Five times three hundred and fifty-four, then, makes one thousand seven hundred and seventy; and three times three hundred and eighty-four, one thousand one hundred and fifty-two; and by this together they make two thousand nine hundred and twenty-two.
Likewise eight solar years, if reduced to a sum—that is, eight times three hundred and sixty-five, and a quarter—make together two thousand nine hundred and twenty-two. In like manner also the years of the hendecad, which are seven common and four embolismic, if you gather them into a sum by that reckoning which we have stated, you will find nearly the same amount as eleven solar years make up; that is, four thousand and fourteen. This, therefore, as we said before, is the account of the embolisms: that by their increases they should compensate the deficits of the common years. But now let me show you the most beautiful and splendid collation of that very nineteen-year cycle, by which you may henceforth remove every ambiguity, if any be stirred up;
and let no one be so smitten with excessive amazement as not to rejoice at the light of truth shown to him, and, leaving behind the darkness of ignorance, not at once to acquiesce in so great a reckoning. From the fifteenth moon of the paschal feast, of the preceding year for example, up to the fourteenth of the following year—which is what we seek—if it is a common year, it will have three hundred and fifty-four days; if embolismic, three hundred and eighty-four. But if one day more or less should occur, it is an evident error. Excepting, of course, the first year of the oft-mentioned nineteen-year cycle, which we take care to count from the fourteenth moon of the Pasch of the last, that is, the nineteenth year, up to the fourteenth of that same first year.
On account of which, that same last year, then retaining its epact—that is, the lunar additions—as eighteen, allots to the first year not eleven days, as is wont to be done for the other years, but twelve. And because they are revolved within a limit of thirty days, no epact is placed at the beginning of that cycle itself; but the second year receives eleven epacts: and therefore, as we have said, it is not doubtful that, from the fifteenth moon of the Pasch of the first cycle up to its end, we find the prefixed days in the common and embolismic years. But if at any time it has perchance been set forth otherwise by the inexperience of those reckoning, by this careful observance of computation the falsity of their reckoning will be convicted. And that this may be understood more plainly, let us show it by the example of the present year.
The indiction indeed is the fourth, and the lunar cycle the eleventh; the nineteen-year cycle the fourteenth. And since it is the sixth year of the hendecad, it must necessarily be embolismic. Therefore from the fifteenth moon of the past feast, up to the fourteenth of the present, let us inquire more diligently how many days there are: and we shall find beyond doubt when we ought to celebrate the Pasch. With the past year through the third indiction, who that is known to have any care of this matter, however little, would doubt that at the Pasch the fourteenth moon fell on the ninth day before the Kalends of April, that is, on the twenty-fourth of the month of March? And therefore let us take the beginning of counting from the eighth day before the Kalends of April;
we have of March seven days, of April thirty, of May thirty-one, of June thirty, of July thirty-one, of August thirty-one, of September thirty, of October thirty-one, of November thirty, of December thirty-one, of January thirty-one, of February twenty-eight, of March thirty-one, of April twelve days, which is the day before the Ides of April. Together they make three hundred and eighty-four. But if, according to the definition of those who compute the moon otherwise than the truth has it, we should grant that the fourteenth falls not on the day before the Ides of April, but on the third day before the Ides, we shall gather three hundred and eighty-three days by a diminished number; which is in no way permitted to be done.
And so always, as often as such a doubt shall occur, let us carefully compute, from the fifteenth moon of the past festivity up to the fourteenth of the Pasch, the days that we seek. And if it is a common year, we shall find three hundred and fifty-four days; if it is embolismic, three hundred and eighty-four: nor will any inequality at all arise: because the rule of this cycle subsists by this reckoning, whose unfolded formula we shall lay open in the description set below. In the first year of the nineteen-year cycle, the seventeenth lunar, from the fifteenth before the Kalends of May up to the Nones of April, because it is a common year, there are three hundred and fifty-four days.
In the second year of the nineteen-year cycle, the eighteenth lunar, from the eighth before the Ides of April up to the eighth before the Kalends of April, because it is common, there are three hundred and fifty-four days. In the third year of the nineteen-year cycle, the nineteenth lunar, from the seventh before the Kalends of April up to the Ides of April, because it is embolismic, there are three hundred and eighty-four days. In the fourth year of the nineteen-year cycle, the first lunar, from the eighteenth before the Kalends of May up to the fourth before the Nones of April, because it is common, there are three hundred and fifty-four days. In the fifth year of the nineteen-year cycle, the second lunar, from the third before the Nones of April up to the eleventh before the Kalends of April, because it is common, there are three hundred and fifty-four days.
In the sixth year of the nineteen-year cycle, the third lunar, from the tenth before the Kalends of April up to the fourth before the Ides of April, because it is embolismic, there are three hundred and eighty-four days. In the seventh year of the nineteen-year cycle, the fourth lunar, from the third before the Ides of April up to the third before the Kalends of April, because it is common, there are three hundred and fifty-four days. In the eighth year of the nineteen-year cycle, the fifth lunar, from the day before the Kalends of April up to the fourteenth before the Kalends of May, because it is embolismic, there are three hundred and eighty-four days. In the ninth year of the nineteen-year cycle, the sixth lunar, from the thirteenth before the Kalends of May up to the seventh before the Ides of April, because it is common, there are three hundred and fifty-four days.
In the tenth year of the nineteen-year cycle, the seventh lunar, from the sixth before the Ides of April up to the sixth before the Kalends of April, because it is common, there are three hundred and fifty-four days. In the eleventh year of the nineteen-year cycle, the eighth lunar, from the fifth before the Kalends of April up to the seventeenth before the Kalends of May, because it is embolismic, there are three hundred and eighty-four days. In the twelfth year of the nineteen-year cycle, the ninth lunar, from the sixteenth before the Kalends of May up to the day before the Nones of April, because it is common, there are three hundred and fifty-four days. In the thirteenth year of the nineteen-year cycle, the tenth lunar, from the Nones of April up to the ninth before the Kalends of April, because it is common, there are three hundred and fifty-four days.
In the fourteenth year of the nineteen-year cycle, the eleventh lunar, from the eighth before the Kalends of April up to the second before the Ides of April, because it is embolismic, there are three hundred and eighty-four days. In the fifteenth year of the nineteen-year cycle, the twelfth lunar, from the Ides of April up to the Kalends of April, because it is common, there are three hundred and fifty-four days. In the sixteenth year of the nineteen-year cycle, the thirteenth lunar, from the fourth before the Nones of April up to the twelfth before the Kalends of April, because it is common, there are three hundred and fifty-four days. In the seventeenth year of the nineteen-year cycle, the fourteenth lunar, from the eleventh before the Kalends of April up to the fifth before the Ides of April, because it is embolismic, there are three hundred and eighty-four days.
In the eighteenth year of the nineteen-year cycle, the fifteenth lunar, from the fourth before the Ides of April up to the fourth before the Kalends of April, because it is common, there are three hundred and fifty-four days. In the nineteenth year of the nineteen-year cycle, the sixteenth lunar, from the third before the Kalends of April up to the fifteenth before the Kalends of May, because it is embolismic, there are three hundred and eighty-four days.