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world her full orb of light; inasmuch as first  the Sun of Righteousness, with healing in His wings, 
that is, our Lord Jesus, by the triumph of His Resurrection, dispelled all the darkness of death, and
so ascending into Heaven, filled His Church, which is often signified by the name of the moon,
with the light of inward grace, by sending down upon her His Spirit. Which order of our salvation
the prophet had in his mind, when he said  The sun was exalted and the moon stood in her order.
"He, therefore, who shall contend that the full Paschal moon can happen before the equinox,
disagrees with the doctrine of the Holy Scriptures, in the celebration of the greatest mysteries, and
agrees with those who trust that they may be saved without the grace of Christ preventing them,
and who presume to teach that they might have attained to perfect righteousness, though the true
Light had never by death and resurrection vanquished the darkness of the world. Thus, after the
rising of the sun at the equinox, and after the full moon of the first month following in her order,
that is, after the end of the fourteenth day of the same month, all which we have received by the
Law to be observed, we still, as we are taught in the Gospel, wait in the third week for the Lord s
day; and so, at length, we celebrate the offering of our Easter solemnity, to show that we are not,
with the ancients, doing honour to the casting off of the yoke of Egyptian bondage; but that, with
devout faith and love, we worship the Redemption of the whole world, which having been prefigured
in the deliverance of the ancient people of God, was fulfilled in Christ s Resurrection, and that we
may signify that we rejoice in the sure and certain hope of our own resurrection, which we believe
will likewise happen on the Lord s day.
"Now this computation of Easter, which we set forth to you to be followed, is contained in a
cycle of nineteen years, which began long since to be observed in the Church, to wit, even in the
time of the Apostles, especially at Rome and in Egypt, as has been said above. But by the industry
of Eusebius, who took his surname from the blessed martyr Pamphilus, it was reduced to a plainer
system; insomuch that what till then used to be enjoined every year throughout all the Churches
by the Bishop of Alexandria, might, from that time forward, be most easily known by all men, the
occurrence of the fourteenth moon being regularly set forth in its course. This Paschal computation,
Theophilus, Bishop of Alexandria, made for the Emperor Theodosius, for a hundred years to come.
Cyril also, his successor, comprised a series of ninety-five years in five cycles of nineteen years.
After whom, Dionysius Exiguus added as many more, in order, after the same manner, reaching
down to our own time. The expiration of these is now drawing near, but there is at the present day
so great a number of calculators, that even in our Churches throughout Britain, there are many who,
having learned the ancient rules of the Egyptians, can with great ease carry on the Paschal cycles
for any length of time, even to five hundred and thirty-two years, if they will; after the expiration
of which, all that appertains to the succession of sun and moon, month and week, returns in the
same order as before. We therefore forbear to send you these same cycles of the times to come,
193
Bede's Ecclesiastical History of England The Venerable Bede
because, desiring only to be instructed respecting the reason for the Paschal time, you show that
you have enough of those catholic cycles concerning Easter.
"But having said thus much briefly and succinctly, as you required, concerning Easter, I also
exhort you to take heed that the tonsure, concerning which likewise you desired me to write to you,
be in accordance with the use of the Church and the Christian Faith. And we know indeed that the
Apostles were not all shorn after the same manner, nor does the Catholic Church now, as it agrees
in one faith, hope, and charity towards God, use one and the same form of tonsure throughout the
world. Moreover, to look back to former times, to wit, the times of the patriarchs, Job, the pattern
of patience, when tribulation came upon him, shaved his head, and thus made it appear that he had
used, in time of prosperity, to let his hair grow. But concerning Joseph, who more than other men
practised and taught chastity, humility, piety, and the other virtues, we read that he was shorn when
he was to be delivered from bondage, by which it appears, that during the time of his bondage, he
was in the prison with unshorn hair. Behold then how each of these men of God differed in the
manner of their appearance abroad, though their inward consciences agreed in a like grace of virtue.
But though we may be free to confess, that the difference of tonsure is not hurtful to those whose
faith is pure towards God, and their charity sincere towards their neighbour, especially since we
do not read that there was ever any controversy among the Catholic fathers about the difference of
tonsure, as there has been a contention about the diversity in keeping Easter, and in matters of faith;
nevertheless, among all the forms of tonsure that are to be found in the Church, or among mankind [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]