because, the spirit of our mind being renewed unto the love of heavenly things, we ought to celebrate the sacraments of the Lord's resurrection and of our own deliverance. We are bidden to keep it in the third week of that same month; because Christ Himself, who was to be sacrificed as our Passover, promised before the Law and under the Law, came in the third age of the world with grace; because, rising from the dead on the third day after the sacrifice of His passion, He willed this day to be called the Lord's Day, and on it to celebrate yearly the Paschal feasts of that same resurrection; because we too then only truly celebrate His solemnities, if through faith, hope, and love we take care to make our Passover—that is, our passing-over—from this world to the Father, together with Him.
After the spring equinox we are bidden to observe the full moon of the Paschal month; namely, that first the sun should make the day longer than the night, and then the moon should present to the world the full orb of its light; because first indeed the Sun of righteousness, in whose wings is healing—that is, the Lord Jesus—through the triumph of His resurrection overcame all the darkness of death; and thus, ascending into the heavens, having sent the Spirit from above, He filled His Church—which is often designated by the name of the moon—with the light of inward grace. And this order of our salvation the prophet, contemplating it, said: The sun was lifted up, and the moon stood in its order.
Whoever, therefore, shall contend that the fullness of the Paschal moon can come about before the equinox, such a one, in the celebration of the greatest mysteries, indeed dissents from the teaching of the holy Scriptures; but he agrees with those who trust that they can be saved without the prevenient grace of Christ—who, even if the true Light had never by dying and rising again conquered the darkness of the world, presume to dogmatize that they can possess perfect righteousness.
And so, after the equinoctial rising of the sun, after the full moon of the first month following it in order—that is, after the completed fourteenth day of that same month, all of which we have received as to be observed according to the Law—we still await, the Gospel admonishing us, in that very third week the time of the Lord's Day; and so at last we celebrate the votive feasts of our Passover, that we may show that we do not, with the ancients, venerate the yoke of Egyptian servitude shaken off, but rather, with devout faith and love, honour the redemption of the whole world—which was prefigured in the deliverance of the ancient people of God, but completed in the resurrection of Christ—and that we may signify that we rejoice with most certain hope also of our own resurrection, which we believe shall come to pass on that same Lord's Day.
This computation of Easter, however, which we show you ought to be followed, is contained in a cycle of nineteen years; which long ago indeed—that is, in the very times of the Apostles—already began to be observed in the Church, especially at Rome and in Egypt, as we have already said above. But through the industry of Eusebius—who takes his surname from the blessed martyr Pamphilus—it was set in order more distinctly; so that what until then had been wont to be sent forth each year by the bishop of Alexandria to all the churches, might thenceforth, the series of the fourteenth moon having been gathered into order, most easily be known by all. The computation of this Easter, Theophilus, prelate of Alexandria, drew up for the Emperor Theodosius for a space of a hundred years.
Likewise his successor Cyril comprised a series of ninety-five years in five cycles of nineteen years; after whom Dionysius Exiguus appended just as many others in order, by a like scheme, which reached even down to our own times. As these approach their term, so great today is the abounding store of calculators, that even in our own churches throughout Britain there are many who, having committed to memory those ancient arguments of the Egyptians, can most easily extend the Paschal cycles over whatsoever spaces of time, even if they wished to do so up to five hundred and thirty-two years; on the completion of which, all things that pertain to the consequence of sun and moon, of month and week, recur in the same order as before.
For this reason, however, we have forborne to send you those same cycles of the times now at hand, because, seeking to be instructed only concerning the reckoning of the Paschal time, you showed that you already had in abundance the very Catholic cycles of Easter. But these things concerning Easter having been recalled succinctly and briefly, as you requested, I likewise exhort you concerning the tonsure—about which you wished letters to be written to you as well—that you take care to have one that is ecclesiastical and befitting the Christian faith. And indeed we know that neither were all the Apostles tonsured in one and the same manner, nor now does the Catholic Church—just as it agrees in one faith, hope, and love toward God—so also agree in one and undifferentiated form of tonsure for itself throughout the whole world.
In short, that we may look back upon earlier times, that is, those of the patriarchs: Job, the exemplar of patience, when at the onset of the crisis of his tribulations he shaved his head, certainly proved that in the time of his felicity he had been wont to let his hair grow. But Joseph too—himself a most eminent practiser and teacher of chastity, humility, piety, and the rest of the virtues—since he is read to have been shorn when he was to be released from servitude, it is plainly evident that in the time of his servitude he was wont to remain with unshorn locks in prison. Behold, each man of God outwardly showed forth a guise of countenance differing from the other, whose inward conscience nevertheless agreed together in an equal grace of virtues.
But, although we are free to profess that the distinction of tonsure does no harm to those whose faith toward God is pure and whose love toward the neighbour is sincere—especially since one never reads that there was among the Catholic Fathers any such controversy concerning the difference of tonsure as there was conflict concerning the diversity of Easter or of faith—nevertheless, among all the tonsures that we find either in the Church or in the whole race of men, I would rightly say that none is more to be followed and embraced by us than that which he bore upon his head to whom, when he confessed, the Lord said: You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it; and to you I will give the keys of the kingdom of heaven;
and none, I should rightly believe, is more to be abominated and detested by all the faithful than that which he had to whom, when he wished to purchase for himself the grace of the Holy Spirit, the same Peter said: Your money perish with you, because you thought that the gift of God could be possessed through money; you have neither part nor lot in this matter. Nor indeed are we shorn into a crown only for this reason, that Peter was thus tonsured; but because Peter was thus tonsured in memory of the Lord's passion, therefore we too, who desire to be saved through that same passion, bear the sign of that passion together with him upon the crown of the head—namely, upon the highest part of our body.
For just as the whole Church, because it was made the Church through the death of its Quickener, has been wont to bear the sign of His holy cross upon the forehead, that by the frequent guard of this banner it may be defended from the assaults of malignant spirits, and by the frequent admonition of it may be taught that it too ought to crucify its own flesh with its vices and concupiscences; so also it behoves those who, having either the vow of a monk or the rank of clericate, must needs bind themselves with the stricter reins of continence for the Lord's sake, to display each one upon his head, by the tonsure, the form also of that crown which He Himself bore, made of thorns, in His passion upon His head, that He might bear—that is, carry off and take away from us—the thorns and briers of our sins;
so that by their very forehead they may teach that they also willingly and readily bear all derisions and reproaches for His sake; that they may signify that they ever await the crown of eternal life which God promised to those who love Him, and, for the sake of attaining it, despise both the adversities and the prosperities of the world. As for that tonsure, however, which they relate Simon Magus to have had—who, I ask, of the faithful would not at once detest it together with that same magic, and deservedly blow it away at first sight? It seems indeed on the surface of the forehead to present the appearance of a crown; but when by consideration you come to the nape of the neck, you will find that crown which you thought you saw to be curtailed; so that you may rightly recognize such a habit to befit Simoniacs and not Christians;
who in the present life indeed were thought by deceived men to be worthy of the crown of perpetual glory; but in that life which follows this one, they are not only deprived of all hope of a crown, but are moreover condemned to eternal punishment. Yet do not suppose that I have pursued these matters in such a way as though I judged those who have this tonsure to be condemned, if by faith and works they shall have favoured Catholic unity;
Indeed, I confidently declare that very many of them have been holy men and worthy of God; among whom is Adamnan, the abbot and outstanding priest of the monks of Columba. When he had been sent as ambassador of his people to King Aldfrith and wished also to see our monastery, and showed a wonderful prudence, humility, and devotion in his conduct and his words, I said to him among other things in conversation: 'I beg you, holy brother, you who believe that you are pressing on toward the crown of a life that knows no end, why do you wear upon your head, contrary to your faith, the image of a crown that is cut off and incomplete? And if you seek the fellowship of blessed Peter, why do you imitate the image of that tonsure which he condemned with anathema?'
'And why do you not rather show that, as far as you can, you even now cherish the appearance of him with whom you long to live blessed forever?' He answered: 'Know for certain, my beloved brother, that although by the custom of my country I bear the tonsure of Simon, yet with my whole mind I detest and reject the perfidy of simony; and as far as my littleness can avail, I desire to follow in the footsteps of the most blessed prince of the apostles.' But I said: 'I truly believe that it is so; yet it becomes evident that you embrace in the secret of your heart the things that are of the apostle Peter, only if you hold visibly on your face also those things which you know to be his.'
'For I think your prudence will most easily judge that it is far more fitting to separate from your own countenance—now dedicated to God—the appearance of him whom you abhor with your whole heart, and whose dreadful face you shrink from beholding; and on the contrary, that just as you desire to follow the deeds and counsels of him whom you seek to have as your patron before God, so it would become you also to imitate the fashion of his appearance.' These things I then said to Adamnan; and how much he had profited by beholding the ordinances of our churches he proved when, having returned to Ireland, he afterward by his preaching corrected many companies of that same people to the catholic observance of the time of Easter;
although he was not yet able to bring back to the way of the better ordinance those monks who dwelt on the island of Iona, over whom he presided by special right as their ruler. He would also have taken care to amend the tonsure, had he but possessed authority enough. But now too I admonish your prudence, O king, that together with the people over whom the King of kings and Lord of lords has set you, you strive to observe in all things those things which accord with the unity of the catholic and apostolic Church. For thus it comes to pass that, after you have received the power of a temporal kingdom, the most blessed prince of the apostles himself may also gladly open to you and yours, together with the rest of the elect, the entrance into the heavenly kingdom.
May the grace of the eternal King keep you safe, reigning for a long time for the peace of us all, most beloved son in Christ. When this letter had been read in the presence of King Naiton and many of his more learned men, and carefully interpreted into their own tongue by those who could understand it, he is reported to have rejoiced greatly at its exhortation; so that, rising up from the midst of the assembly of his nobles, he bent his knees to the ground, giving thanks to God that he had been counted worthy to receive such a little gift from the land of the English. 'And indeed I knew even before,' he said, 'that this was the true celebration of Easter; but now I so understand the reckoning of observing this season that I seem to myself to have understood far too little about these matters before.'
'Therefore I openly declare, and in the presence of you who sit here I solemnly testify, that I wish to observe this time of Easter perpetually with my whole nation; and I decree that all the clergy who are in my kingdom ought to receive this tonsure, which we hear to be full of reason.' And without delay he carried out by royal authority what he had said. For at once, by public command, the nineteen-year Easter cycles were sent throughout all the provinces of the Picts to be copied, learned, and observed, the erroneous cycles of eighty-four years being everywhere blotted out. All the ministers of the altar and the monks were tonsured into the crown;
and the corrected nation rejoiced, as though made subject to a new discipleship of the most blessed prince of the apostles Peter, and to be guarded by his patronage. [22] Not long after, those monks too of the Scottish nation who dwelt on the island of Iona, together with the monasteries that were subject to them, were brought, by the Lord's providing, to the canonical rite of Easter and of the tonsure. For in the year 716 from the incarnation of the Lord, in which, Osred being slain, Coenred took up the helm of the kingdom of the Northumbrians, when there came to them from Ireland the father and priest beloved of God and to be named with all honour, Ecgberht, of whom we have often before made mention, he was honourably and with much joy received by them.
Since he was both a most gentle teacher and a most devoted performer of the things he taught ought to be done, he was gladly heard by all and changed, by his pious and diligent exhortations, that inveterate tradition of their fathers—of whom one may apply that apostolic saying, that they had a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge—and he fully taught them to keep, in the catholic and apostolic manner, as we have said, the celebration of the chief solemnity under the figure of a perpetual crown. This, it is agreed, was done by the wonderful dispensation of divine goodness: that, since that nation had willingly and without envy taken care to share with the peoples of the English the knowledge of the divine cognition which it possessed;
so it too should afterward, through the English nation, attain in those matters in which it was lacking to the perfect rule of living. Just as, on the contrary, the Britons—who were unwilling to make known to the English the knowledge of the Christian faith which they had—now that the peoples of the English already believe and are in all things instructed in the rule of the catholic faith, themselves still inveterate and limping from their own paths, both display heads without the crown and venerate the solemnities of Christ without the fellowship of the Church of Christ. The monks of Iona, then, received the catholic rites of living, Ecgberht teaching them, under the abbot Dunchad, about eighty years after they had sent the bishop Aidan to preach to the English nation.
Now the man of God Ecgberht remained thirteen years on the aforesaid island, which he had himself consecrated to Christ, as though with a new and shining grace of ecclesiastical fellowship and peace. And in the year of the Lord's incarnation 729, in which the Lord's Easter was celebrated on the eighth day before the Kalends of May, when he had celebrated the solemnities of the masses in memory of that same Lord's resurrection, on the same day he too himself passed over to the Lord; and the joy of that highest festivity, which he had begun with the brethren whom he had converted to the grace of unity, he completed with the Lord and the apostles and the other citizens of heaven—nay rather, he does not cease to celebrate that very thing without end.
Wonderful indeed was the dispensation of divine providence, that the venerable man not only passed at Easter from this world to the Father, but did so when Easter was being celebrated on that day on which it had never before been wont to be celebrated in those places. The brethren therefore rejoiced over the sure and catholic knowledge of the time of Easter; they were glad over the patronage of the father who was going to the Lord, by whom they had been corrected; he himself gave thanks that he had been kept in the flesh so long, until he might see his hearers receive that Easter-day—which they had always before avoided—and keep it with him. And so, made certain of their correction, the most reverend father exulted that he might see the day of the Lord; he saw it and was glad.
[23] In the year of the Lord's incarnation 725, which was the seventh year of Osric, king of the Northumbrians, who had succeeded Coenred, Wihtred son of Ecgberht, king of the people of Kent, died on the ninth day before the Kalends of May; and of the kingdom which he had held for thirty-four and a half years, he left as heirs his three sons, Æthelberht, Eadberht, and Alric. In the year immediately after, Tobias, bishop of the church of Rochester, a most learned man, as we have mentioned above, died. For he had been a disciple of those masters of blessed memory, Archbishop Theodore and Abbot Hadrian;
whence, as has been said, together with erudition in both ecclesiastical and general letters, he so learned the Greek tongue as well as the Latin that he held them as known and familiar to himself as the speech of his own birth. He was buried in the porch of the holy apostle Paul, which he had himself made within the church of Saint Andrew for the place of his tomb. After him Aldwulf received the office of the episcopate, Archbishop Berhtwald consecrating him. In the year of the Lord's incarnation 729 two comets appeared about the sun, striking great terror into those who beheld them. For the one preceded the sun, rising in the morning; the other followed it in the evening as it set, as though presaging dire disaster to both east and west alike;
or rather, the one preceded the rising of the day, the other the rising of the night, so that at both times they signified that evils threatened mortals. They bore a torch of fire toward the north, as though inclined to set it ablaze; and they appeared in the month of January, and remained for nearly two weeks. At that time a most grievous plague of the Saracens devastated Gaul with wretched slaughter, and they themselves not long after paid in that same province the fitting penalties of their perfidy. In which year the holy man of the Lord, Ecgberht, as we have commemorated above, passed to the Lord on the very day of Easter;
and soon, Easter being over, that is, on the seventh day before the Ides of May, Osric king of the Northumbrians departed this life, having himself decreed that Ceolwulf—brother of Coenred, who had reigned before him—should be the successor of the kingdom which he had governed for eleven years; the beginnings and the course of whose reign so abounded with so many and so great commotions of adverse affairs that what ought to be written of them, and what end each is to have, cannot yet be known. In the year of the Lord's incarnation 731, Archbishop Berhtwald, worn out by long age, died on the day of the Ides of January; he had presided thirty-seven years, six months, and fourteen days;
in whose place, in the same year, there was made archbishop one Tatwine, from the province of the Mercians, who had been a presbyter in the monastery called Breedon. He was consecrated in the city of Canterbury by the venerable men Daniel of Winchester, Ingwald of London, Aldwine of Lichfield, and Aldwulf of Rochester, bishops, on the tenth day of the month of June, a Sunday—a man distinguished in religion and prudence, and nobly instructed also in the sacred letters. Thus at present the bishops Tatwine and Aldwulf preside over the churches of Kent. Further, over the province of the East Saxons is Bishop Ingwald; over the province of the East Angles are the bishops Aldberht and Hadulac; over the province of the West Saxons are Daniel and Forthhere;
over the province of the Mercians is Bishop Aldwine; and over those peoples who dwell beyond the river Severn to the west, Bishop Walhstod; over the province of the Hwicce is Bishop Wilfrid; over the province of the people of Lindsey, Bishop Cynebert presides. The bishopric of the Isle of Wight belongs to Daniel, bishop of the city of Winchester. The province of the South Saxons, now remaining for some years without a bishop, seeks the episcopal ministry for itself from the bishop of the West Saxons. And all these provinces, and the rest of the southern ones, as far as the boundary of the river Humber, are subject, each with their kings, to Æthelbald, king of the Mercians. But the provinces of the Northumbrians, over which King Ceolwulf presides, four bishops now hold the prelacy;
Wilfrid in the church of York, Æthelwald in that of Lindisfarne, Acca in that of Hexham, Pecthelm in that which is called Whithorn (the White House), which lately, the congregations of the faithful having multiplied, has been added as a see of the pontificate and has him as its first bishop. The nation of the Picts also at this time both holds a treaty of peace with the English nation, and rejoices to share in the catholic peace and truth with the universal Church. The Scots, who inhabit Britain, content with their own borders, devise nothing of ambushes or frauds against the English nation. The Britons, although for the most part, both out of their domestic hatred, they assail the English nation and the state of the whole catholic Church by a less correct Easter and by depraved manners;
yet, both divine and human power utterly resisting them, they can in neither attain the purpose they desire; since, although in part they are of their own jurisdiction, in part nevertheless they are delivered into the servitude of the English. With this peace and serenity of the times smiling upon them, very many of the people of the Northumbrians, both nobles and private persons, having laid aside their arms, busy themselves rather—receiving the tonsure—to bind themselves and their children to the vows of the monastic life than to exercise themselves in warlike studies. What end this matter will have, a later age will see. This is at the present time the state of all Britain, in about the two hundred and eighty-fifth year of the coming of the English into Britain, but in the year 731 of the Lord's incarnation;
in whose reign may the earth exult forever, and may Britain, rejoicing with him in his faith, the many islands be glad and confess the memorials of his holiness. [24] But it has seemed good briefly to recapitulate, for the preserving of memory, those things which have been more amply set forth in the distinction of times. In the sixtieth year, then, before the Lord's incarnation, Gaius Julius Caesar, the first of the Romans, attacked the Britains in war and conquered them, yet could not there obtain dominion. In the year 46 from the Lord's incarnation, Claudius, the second of the Romans to go to the Britains, received the greatest part of the island into surrender, and added also the Orkney islands to the Roman empire.
In the year of the Lord's incarnation 167, Eleutherus, made prelate at Rome, ruled the Church most gloriously for fifteen years; to whom Lucius, king of Britain, sending a letter that he might be made a Christian, asked and obtained his request. In the year 189 from the Lord's incarnation, Severus, made emperor, reigned seventeen years; he girded Britain with a rampart from sea to sea. In the year 381, Maximus, created emperor in Britain, crossed over into Gaul and slew Gratian. In the year 409, Rome was broken by the Goths, from which time the Romans ceased to reign in Britain. In the year 430, Palladius was sent as first bishop by Pope Celestine to the Scots believing in Christ.
In the year 449, Marcian, taking up the empire with Valentinian, held it seven years; in whose time the Angles, summoned by the Britons, came to Britain. In the year 538, an eclipse of the sun took place on the fourteenth day before the Kalends of March, from the first hour to the third. In the year 540, an eclipse of the sun took place on the twelfth day before the Kalends of July, and stars appeared for nearly half an hour from the third hour of the day. In the year 547, Ida began to reign, from whom the royal stock of the Northumbrians takes its origin, and he remained in the kingdom twelve years. In the year 565, Columba the presbyter came from Ireland to Britain to teach the Picts, and made a monastery on the island of Iona.
In the year 596, Pope Gregory sent Augustine with monks to Britain, that they might evangelize the word of God to the English nation. In the year 597, the aforesaid teachers came to Britain, which was the year more or less the 150th of the coming of the English into Britain. In the year 601, Pope Gregory sent the pallium to Britain to Augustine, now made bishop, and many ministers of the word, among whom was also Paulinus. In the year 603, battle was fought at Degsastan. In the year 604, the East Saxons received the faith of Christ under King Sæberht, the bishop being Mellitus. In the year 605, Gregory died. In the year 616, Æthelberht king of the people of Kent died. In the year 625, Paulinus was ordained bishop for the Northumbrian nation by Archbishop Justus.
In the year 626, Eanfled, daughter of King Edwin, was baptized with twelve others on the Saturday of Pentecost. In the year 627, King Edwin was baptized with his nation at Easter. In the year 633, King Edwin being slain, Paulinus returned to Kent. In the year 640, Eadbald king of the people of Kent died. In the year 642, King Oswald was killed. In the year 644, Paulinus, once of York but then bishop of the city of Rochester, passed to the Lord. In the year 651, King Oswine was killed, and Bishop Aidan died. In the year 653, the Middle Angles, under their prince Peada, were imbued with the mysteries of the faith. In the year 655, Penda perished, and the Mercians were made Christians. In the year 664, an eclipse took place; Earconberht king of the people of Kent died, and Colman with the Scots returned to his own people;
and a pestilence came; and Ceadda and Wilfrid were ordained bishops of the Northumbrians. In the year 668, Theodore was ordained bishop. In the year 670, Oswiu king of the Northumbrians died. In the year 673, Ecgberht king of the people of Kent died; and a synod was held at Hertford, in the presence of King Ecgfrith, with Archbishop Theodore presiding—a most useful synod, of ten chapters. In the year 675, Wulfhere king of the Mercians, after he had reigned seventeen years, died, leaving the rule to his brother Æthelred. In the year 676, Æthelred ravaged Kent. In the year 678, a comet appeared; Bishop Wilfrid was driven from his see by King Ecgfrith; and in his place Bosa, Eata, and Eadhæd were consecrated bishops. In the year 679, Ælfwine was slain.