[LEAPSECS] princes

[Tony Finch]

On Mon, 3 Nov 2008, Clive D.W. Feather wrote:

> Tony Finch said:

> >

> > As well as the egregious example of the pre-Julian Roman calendar, I'm

> > amused and disgusted by the anti-Jewish fiddles in the rules for

> > determining Easter to minimise when it coincides with Passover.

>

> Actually it was a pro-Jewish fiddle: by keeping the two dates apart it

> minimized the risk of religious riots and/or pogroms.


I got this claim from "Calendrical Calculations" which says:

	The concern that the date of Passover would influence the date of
	Easter goes back to the easliest days of Christianity. For
	example, Eusebius (Vita Constantini, book iii, 18-20) gives a
	letter of the Emperor sent to those not present at the Council of
	Nicaea:

		When the question relative to the sacred festival of
		Easter arose ... [it] was declared to be particularly
		unworthy for this, the holist of all festivals, to follow
		the custom of the Jews ... We ought not, therefore, to
		have anything in common with the Jews ... we desire,
		dearest brethren, to separate ourselves from the
		detestable company of the Jews, for it is truly shameful
		for us to hear them boast that without their direction we
		could not keep this feast. How can they be in the right,
		they who, after the death of the Saviour, have no longer
		been led by reason but by wild violence as their delusion
		may urge them? They do not posess the truth in this Easter
		question ... it would still be your duty not to tarnish
		your soul by communications with such wicked people.

	Avoiding Pasover was also evident in the Gregorian reform of the
	Easter calculation. Canon 6 of the Gregorian calendar, published
	in 1582 and probably written by the German Jesuit astronomer
	Christopher Clavius, says so twice: in the last sentence of the
	first paragraph

		ne cum Iudaeis conveniamus, si forte dies XIV lunae
		caderet in diem dominicum

		[so that we would not come together with the Jews if by
		chance day 14 of the moon may fall on a Sunday]

	and in the middle of the second paragraph

		Ne igitur cum Iudaeis conveniamus, qui Pascha celebrant
		die XIV lunae, ...

		[Hence so that we would not come together with the Jews
		who celebrate Passover on day 14 of the moon, ...]

Tony.
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