By the end of the 6th century and beginning part of the 7th century, in the period leading up to the synod, a process of evangelisation had begun in different parts of Britain. The Christian missionary Augustine arrived in Kent (south eastern England) from Rome in 597 AD/CE. At this point Columba from Ireland had not long finished his mission to the northern Picts (north of the Grampian mountains) whilst the mission to the southern Picts, by bishop Ninian (a Briton), had taken place slightly earlier than Columba’s mission. The Frankish bishop (from modern France) Birinus had only received permission to preach to the west Saxons, by their king Cynegils, in 635 AD/CE.
Augustine did invite the Welsh bishops to a conference and asked them to join in evangelising the pagan English but they refused. Apparently the Welsh said “They would not preach the way of life to the English nation” (1). Presumably this is due to bitterness over the Anglo-Saxon tribes taking over their land in the previous centuries.
During the early part of the 7th century the aetheling Oswald, son of King Æthelfrith of Bernicia (now north-eastern England), had been banished from Bernicia when his father died and was exiled to the kingdom of Dál Riata further north (now in Scotland). Whilst there he had been converted to Christianity by Irish clerics. When Oswald became king, he had united the neighbouring kingdoms of Bernicia and Deira into the kingdom of Northumbria again. He also invited in an Irish missionary to teach his people. Eventually Aidan was sent in 635 AD/CE.
This meant that, along with the gospel, the customs and traditions of Roman Christianity were being introduced in the south east of Britain whilst the customs and traditions of the Celtic Christianity were being introduced into the north and north east of Britain.
In Northumbria King Oswald’s successor, Oswy (sometimes spelt as Oswiu), had also been taught and baptised by the Irish. However Oswy’s second wife, Eanfled, was from Kent and followed Christianity that had come from Rome as did Alchfrid, Oswy’s son, who was the sub-king of Deira during Oswy’s reign.
At this point in Christian history, Lent (approximately 40 days long – 46 days in the Roman Catholic calendar) was a time of restricted eating (fasting) that was strictly observed. The fast would be broken, and celebrations begun, on Easter day itself. However, the calculations for the date of Easter in the Irish church was not exactly the same as the calculations then used by the church in Rome and the Mediterranean basin.
This meant that at the Northumbrian court, which was Christian, the most important Christian festival was celebrated on two different dates, by different members of the court, in some years. This was during a period when the general people of the kingdom were either still being evangelised or were newly Christian. This did not cause any problems whilst Aidan of Lindisfarne was alive, as Christians of both the Irish and the Roman Christian traditions respected the holy man, but he died in 651 AD/CE. This sporadic divergence in the celebration of Easter eventually started to cause comments after that.
At the time of the Synod of Whitby, as far as I can tell, both the Christians loyal to Rome and the Celtic Christians had important points on which they agreed about Easter:
- 14 Nisan (first full moon) is the Passover.
- The Passover has to be after the vernal equinox.
- The Christian Paschal feast, Easter, should be held on a Sunday only.
However, as the saying goes, “the devil’s in the detail”. There were two differing points of practice between the Celtic and Roman Christians at Whitby:
- When the vernal or spring equinox was deemed to take place:
for the Celts the equinox fell on March 25th whilst for the Rome loyalists it fell on March 21st.
- Which Sunday was appropriate for the Easter celebration:
They actually agreed on the date for most years but there was a difference every 6 years or so.
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- The Celts understood that the tradition they followed was that taught by the apostle John and they calculated Easter day as falling between14 Nisan and 20 Nisan – i.e. When the 14 Nisan (the Passover) fell on a Sunday, they celebrated it on that day. But if it fell on the day after (on Monday) then the Easter celebration would fall on the following Sunday (20 Nisan), etc.
- The Rome loyalists claimed the authority of the apostle Peter, and calculated Easter Day as falling between 15 Nisan and 21 Nisan.
So when the date of 15 Nisan through to the 20 Nisan fell on a Sunday, and the full moon had fallen after March 25th, both Celtic and Roman Christians would celebrate Easter on the same day. It was when the Celts celebrated on 14 Nisan itself on Sunday that one main difference came, as the Rome loyalists then celebrated Easter a week later on 21 Nisan instead. This explains the situation described by the Venerable Bede: “Thus it is said to have happened in those times that Easter was twice kept in one year; and that when the king having ended the time of fasting, kept his Easter, the queen and her followers were still fasting, and celebrating Palm Sunday” (2). In that particular year 14 Nisan had fallen on a Sunday.
A bigger difference would occur occasionally when the full moon fell between March 21 and March 24th as the Celts would then calculate 14 Nisan as being in a later month to the Roman calculation and the Celts would celebrate Easter about a month later than Rome loyalists in that particular year.
In order to obtain a unified date for Easter for all Christians in Britain to follow, king Oswy called a witan to decide which was the correct Christian tradition to follow. His son, king Alchfrid, also attended.
Representing the Celtic tradition of Christianity were:
- Colman, an Irish cleric, who was king Oswy’s own bishop and bishop of Lindisfarne.
- Cedd, Anglo-Saxon monk and bishop to the East Saxons, who acted as an interpreter for both parties.
- Hilda (sometimes spelt Hild) who was the abbess of the double monastery where the synod was held (Streaneshalch was the largest religious house in Deira, close to the Bernicia/Deira border). She was also a relative of the Northumbrian king.
Representing the Roman tradition of Christianity were:
- Agilbert (Frankish cleric), bishop to the West Saxons who was visiting Northumbria,
- Wilfrid, abbot of the Ripon monastery. Born to Northumbrian nobility and first instructed at Lindisfarne but his main training was at Rome and in Gaul (modern France).
- Some Priests: Agatho, James and Romanus (who was Queen Eanfled’s personal priest)
King Oswy opened the proceedings by saying that as all followed one God, all should follow the same rule of life. Also that as all hoped for the same kingdom in heaven, all should follow the same divine mysteries, so this gathering was to find out which was the truest tradition so all could follow that tradition.
Oswy then instructed Colman to start it off by explaining the customs he followed and where it originated from. Colman said that he had learnt it from the elders of the church and their forefathers, beloved of God, and it originated from Saint John the Evangelist, the disciple beloved of God, and that the churches over which he presided also followed this custom.
Oswy then invited Agilbert to explain the custom he followed and where it originated from. But Agilbert asked if Wilfrid could speak for them instead as Wilfrid could better explain it in English than Agilbert could through a translator. Green (3) suggests it was likely that Agilbert spoke a form of Frankish which could be understood by the west Saxons (the Franks were originally a Germanic tribe) but that language would necessitate an interpreter for the Angles of Northumbria. Though it crossed my mind that Agilbert was also well aware how good an orator Wilfrid was and Agilbert knew Wilfrid would be both articulate, persuasive and fierce in promoting their customs. Whatever the reason, Oswy agreed to Agilbert’s suggestion and invited Wilfrid to speak.
Wilfrid said they had seen Easter celebrated, in the way they followed, in Rome where the Apostles Peter and Paul had lived and died. But then he went further and claimed their customs were celebrated everywhere else except Britain: “except only these and their accomplices in obstinacy, I mean the Picts and the Britons, who foolishly, in these two remote islands of the world, and only in part even of them, oppose all the rest of the universe” (4). Wilfrid had only been to Rome and Lyons (in modern France), plus the places in between as he travelled, but nobody challenged him on this point. Possibly it didn’t cross the minds of the Celtic contingent that he was exaggerating without a real knowledge of the practice of the rest of the church.
Colman replied fairly mildly that it was strange he called them foolish when they followed the example of so great an apostle as John. To this Wilfrid gave a long and detailed reply.
One important point was that the full moon on the 14th had to happen on the Saturday evening before Easter Sunday for the Rome loyalists but the Celts were happy to celebrate on the 14th Nisan if the full moon started during the day on that Sunday.
Wilfrid declared that “…the command being to keep the Passover from the fourteenth moon of the first month in the evening to the twenty-first moon of the same month in the evening” and he further claimed John’s successors in Asia had followed this custom. Wilfrid also claimed that this rule had been confirmed at the Council of Nicea. Green dryly noted that Wilfrid was being a bit economical with the truth here.
Wilfrid then pointed out that the Celtic church was not really following the customs of John as John had followed Jewish law and celebrated the Passover whatever day it fell on. But the Celtic church celebrated Easter on a Sunday yet were not celebrating it according to the customs of the apostle Peter.
Colman then replied saying that St Anatolius had said Easter should be celebrated “from the fourteenth to the twentieth” and that Iona had followed this rule since the time of Saint Columba who was an undoubtedly holy man as the miracles attested to. But Wilfrid argued that the Celts were not really following the instructions of Anatolius as he claimed he followed the Egyptian method and counted the evening of the 14th day as the 15th day – so he was really celebrating on the 15th day. Wilfrid then briefly got rude about Columba but did quickly retract it by saying he wasn’t really saying that about Colman’s fathers in the church.
Wilfrid proceeded to counter Colman’s claim for spiritual authority by claiming the supremacy of the authority of Peter over the authority of John by mentioning the scripture where Jesus gave Peter the key to the kingdom.
This last point obviously struck home to king Oswy and became the crucial point in his final decision. But Oswy carefully checked this point out before giving that decision. It was not common for people to be literate in this period and I suspect Oswy had not read the bible. Even if Oswy was literate in his own language, the bible would only have been available to him in Latin or Greek. So Oswy asked Colman if it was true that Christ had given the keys to the kingdom to Peter and also asked if such authority had been given to Columba. Colman admitted it was true about Peter and that it had not been given to Columba. Both Colman and Wilfrid said Jesus had given the keys to Peter.
It is therefore unsurprising that king Oswy ruled in favour of the tradition of those loyal to Rome. Oswy said he did not wish to make an enemy of the man (Saint Peter) who held the keys to heaven. So this decision was not merely about the appropriate method of calculating the date for the Easter celebration but it also acknowledged the primacy of Rome over all Christians within the Northumbrian kingdom.
All those present had originally agreed to follow his decision. Bishop Cedd went back to the East Saxons and instructed them to follow the Roman ways. Abbess Hilda, although following the Celtic tradition as she had been taught, had always encouraged her monks and nuns to also study the teachings of Rome so the double monastery she led changed to follow the Roman tradition as agreed.
Unfortunately bishop Colman felt he could not follow the Roman tradition and left Lindisfarne for Iona. King Oswy obviously still felt great respect for Colman as he appointed Eata to be abbot of Lindisfarne at Colman’s request.
Finally, during my research of this synod, I came across a quote about Saint Aidan with which I propose to end this article as I think it very relevant to the subject matter and us all. Aidan was a holy man who was accepted by Christians of both strands of Christianity in Britain in his own time and he is also a saint in Orthodox Christianity as well as in the west. Apparently Aidan “advocated mutual tolerance, saying that inner spiritual peace between Christians was far more important than the outward ways in which they express their faith” (5).
(1.) Page 14 in A True Easter: The Synod of Whitby 664 AD by Sister Benedicta Ward, 2007, Fairacres Publications, SLG Press: Oxford.
(2) Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation, Book III by the Venerable Bede,Chapter XXV, (written in 731) translator not clearly indicated (But it seems to be L.C. Jane’s 1903 Temple Classics translation), http://legacy.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/bede-book3.asp
(3) The Northumbrian Cross by Green, J. Michael, 1999, Whalley and District Historical & Archaeological Society Magazine, Vol. 7. No. 1.
(4) Bede, Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation.
(5) Page 58 in Bede: Celtic and Roman Christianity in Britain, edited by Robert Van de Weyer, 1997. Arthur James: Berkhamstead.
Bibliography
The Northumbrian Cross by Green, J. Michael, 1999, Whalley and District Historical & Archaeological Society Magazine, Vol. 7. No. 1.
A History of Christianity by Diarmaid MacCulloch, 2010, Penguin Books: London
A Nearly Infallible History of Christianity by Nick Page, 2013, Hodder & Stoughton: London.
A True Easter: The Synod of Whitby 664 AD by Sister Benedicta Ward, 2007, Fairacres Publications, SLG Press: Oxford.
Bede: Celtic and Roman Christianity in Britain, edited by Robert Van de Weyer, 1997. Arthur James: Berkhamstead.
Hilda of Whitby – A Ray of Light in the “Dark Ages” by Susan Abernethy. http://etc.ancient.eu/2014/09/26/hilda-of-whitby-susan-abernethy/
Eusebius of Caesarea, On the Celebration of Easter; De sollemnitate Paschali (2010) Angelo Mai, Novae Patrum Bibliotheca 4 (1847), pp.209-216 (De sollemnitate paschali) http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/eusebius_on_easter.htm
Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation, Book III by the Venerable Bede,Chapter XXV, (written in 731) translator not clearly indicated (But it seems to be L.C. Jane’s 1903 Temple Classics translation), http://legacy.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/bede-book3.asp
‘Of Bede’s ‘five languages and four nations’: the earliest writing from Ireland, Scotland and Wales’ by Máire Ní Mhaonaigh in The Cambridge History of Early Medieval English Literature Edited by Clare A. Lees. 2012. Cambridge University Press http://universitypublishingonline.org/cambridge/histories/chapter.jsf?bid=CHO9781139035637&cid=CHO9781139035637A014
From De ratione temporum 15 by the Venerable Bede (The reckoning of time, tr. Faith Wallis, Liverpool University Press 1988, pp.53-54) as quoted on http://www.tertullian.org/rpearse/bede_on_eostre.htm
‘Why Can’t the Date of Easter be Fixed?’ article by Caroline Wyatt, 25 March 2016 @ http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-35880795
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Wikipedia: Aidan of Lindisfarne, Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Birinus, Computus, Early centers of Christianity, Easter Controversy, Syriac Christianity.