Migne Reading Room

PL 54 · cols. 1082–1093

Leo the Great, Letters

Letters CXXXII–CXXXIII

PL 54:1082
CAP. II. — De futuro Paschate, ut saepe jam scripsi, esto sollicitus, et clementissimo principi meo homine opportunius intimato, ut quid sibi rescriptum sit faciat certiorem, quoniam imminent dies ut nosse possimus quem diem Formatis ascribere debeamus, et omnium ex hac parte suscipio evidentius possit absolvi.
CHAP. II. — Be concerned, as I have often written already, about the coming Easter, and, having informed my most clement prince through a suitable man, let him make [me] certain what has been written back to him, since the days are at hand in which we must know what day we ought to write in the Formatae, and so that everyone's suspicion [suscipio as printed] on this score may be more clearly resolved.
Data IV idus Martii, Aetio et Studio viris clarissimis consulibus.
Given on the fourth day before the Ides of March, Aetius and Studius, most illustrious men, being consuls.
EPISTOLA CXXXII.
LETTER CXXXII.
ANATOLII EPISCOPI CONSTANTINOPOLITANI AD LEONEM PAPAM.
OF ANATOLIUS, BISHOP OF CONSTANTINOPLE, TO POPE LEO.
Sanctissimo ac beatissimo coepiscopo papae LEONI ANATOLIUS in Domino salutem.
To the most holy and most blessed fellow bishop Pope LEO, ANATOLIUS, greeting in the Lord.
CAP. I. — Omne quidem solatium prorsus atque auxilium quod vitae laboriosae curisque vallatae ratio flagitaret, in vestra positum sperans esse beatitudine, totius sarcinam mihi sollicitudinis inde merito leviorem fore credideram; nunc vero cunctis aliis acrior me pressit anxietas, quam diutina peperit vestrae non solita sanctitatis intermissio litterarum, maxime cum mihi, quae scriptae essent a vobis aliis, ostenderentur epistolae, quae majus facerent doloris augmentum, qui frequentius cuperem potiri vestris affatibus: ut illa vobis obediendo complerem, quae vestris omnifariam perfectissimis sensibus placita videbantur. Nam penitus absit ut eis ego quaecumque mihi fuissent mandata per litteras adversarer. Quia tamen piissimus et Christianissimus princeps, qui consultissimae suae providentiae bono tam res universas regit humanas, quam philosophia divinarum
CHAP. I. — Hoping that all the comfort and help which the condition of a life full of labour and hemmed in by cares might demand was placed in your Beatitude, I had believed that the burden of my whole solicitude would rightly be lighter on that account; but now an anxiety sharper than all others has pressed upon me, which the long and unaccustomed interruption of letters from your Holiness has produced, especially since letters written by you to others were shown to me, which made the increase of my grief greater, since I desired to enjoy your addresses more often, so that by obeying you I might fulfil those things which seemed good to your in every way most perfect understanding. For far be it from me to oppose whatever had been commanded me by letter. Since, however, the most pious and most Christian prince, who by the benefit of his most prudent providence both rules all human affairs and in the philosophy of divine […]
Editors' notes and page, col. 1082

Footnotes

(e) ‹possit absolvi.› · printed under col 1081

Ita ex eodem Ratisp., ut in duabus epistolis praecedentibus. Quesnellus ex Grimanico, VII idus.

So from the same Regensburg manuscript, as in the two preceding letters. Quesnel, from the Grimani, VII idus.

(f) ‹EPISTOLA› · printed under col 1081

Alias post. epist. 105. Quae autem antea 132 erat, nunc 162. Scripta circa April. an. 454.

Elsewhere after Letter 105. The one that was formerly 132 is now 162. Written about April, in the year 454.

(g) ‹EPISTOLA CXXXII.› · printed under col 1081, running on under col 1082

Est in una collectione 16 Thessalonicensi. Contulimus cum cod. Barber, 3336, ex quo illam Holstenius edidit. Ante eum vero eamdem ediderat Allatius in Concordia Ecclesia Occident. ex codice Vaticano, quem frustra quaesivimus. Quoad tempus, dum Leo die 8 Martii anni praesentis 454 scripsit epistolam 128, nondum has quas exspectabat ab Anatolio litteras acceperat; ibidemque idcirco ab imperatore petiit, efficeret ut idem episcopus ea rescriberet quae his litteris continentur. Id Marcianus praestitit, ut liquet ex cap. 1 epistolae praesentis. Leo autem epist. 136, data die 29, Maii, cap., 1, se hanc Anatolii epistolam nunc accepisse testatur una cum ejusdem imperatoris litteris; unde utrisque statim respondit epist. 135 et 136. Ut autem congruum tempus detur transmissioni litterarum ac responsioni, hanc epistolam Anatolii post Martium et ante Maium exaratam, seu circa Aprilem collocamus. Cum porro in fine dicatur. Et subscriptio litteris Graecis, hic proculdubio indicatur autographa ipsius Anatolii subscriptio, qui cum Latinam scripturam ignoraret, Graecis litteris usus est. Hinc etiam significatur, exemplum hujus epistolae ad Leonem transmissum, fuisse scriptum Latine, et solam Anatolii subscriptionem Graecam fuisse. Anatolium quidem Graece lucubrasse hanc epistolam, sicut Graece scripsit epistolam 101 quam nunc primum edidimus, nihil dubitandum videtur. At sicuti S. Cyrillus ut promptiorem et faciliorem Coelestino papae redderet lectionem quorumdam documentorum quae Graece erant scripta, ea antea Latine interpretanda curavit, ac Latine reddita ad eumdem pontificem misit, quemadmodum liquet ex epistola ejusdem octava inter epistolas Coelestini apud P. Coustantium num. 9, ita etiam Anatolius hanc epistolam abs se quidem Graece scriptam, at Latine per alios redditam, et abs se litteris Graecis signatam ad Leonem misisse videtur; unde hic Latinus textus pro ipso originali Anatolii manu subscripto haberi debet.

It is in one collection, the 16th, the Thessalonian. We have collated it with the Barberini manuscript 3336, from which Holstenius published it. Before him Allatius had published it in the Concordia Ecclesia[e] Occident[alis] from a Vatican manuscript, which we have sought in vain. As to the date: when Leo wrote Letter 128 on 8 March of this present year 454, he had not yet received this letter which he was expecting from Anatolius; and for that reason he asked the emperor in that very letter to see to it that the same bishop should write back the things contained in this letter. Marcian did so, as is clear from ch. 1 of the present letter. And Leo, in Letter 136, given on 29 May, ch. 1, testifies that he has now received this letter of Anatolius together with a letter of the same emperor; hence he at once answered both in Letters 135 and 136. To allow a suitable time for the conveyance of the letters and the answer, we place this letter of Anatolius as written after March and before May, that is, about April. Further, since it is said at the end, And the subscription in Greek letters, this without doubt indicates Anatolius's own autograph subscription, who, since he did not know Latin writing, used Greek letters. It is also signified by this that the copy of this letter sent to Leo was written in Latin, and that only Anatolius's subscription was Greek. That Anatolius composed this letter in Greek, as he wrote in Greek Letter 101, which we now publish for the first time, seems beyond doubt. But just as St Cyril, to make the reading of certain documents written in Greek readier and easier for Pope Celestine, first had them translated into Latin and sent them rendered into Latin to that same pontiff, as is clear from his letter, the eighth among the letters of Celestine in Fr. Coustant, no. 9, so too Anatolius seems to have sent Leo this letter, written by himself in Greek but rendered into Latin by others, and signed by himself in Greek letters; hence this Latin text ought to be held as the very original subscribed by Anatolius's hand.

(h) ‹anxietas, quam› · printed under col 1082

Allatius, diuturna.

Allatius, diuturna.

(i) ‹epistolae, quae› · printed under col 1082

Ita melius Allatius quam alias magis.

So Allatius, better than magis elsewhere.

Editors' prose

SYNOPSIS. — I. De intermisso litterarum commercio amice conqueritur. Debitam pontifici obedientiam ostendit. — II. Aetium restitutum esse. Andream vero depositum scribit. — III. Litteris sancti pontificis recreari peroptat. — IV. Ambitionis culpam a se amolitur, eamque in cleri sui episcoporumque Orientalium studium refundit. Gestorum Chalcedonensium confirmatio pontificiae auctoritati reservata traditur.

SYNOPSIS. — I. He complains in friendly fashion of the interrupted exchange of letters. He shows the obedience due to the pontiff. — II. He writes that Aetius has been restored, but Andrew deposed. — III. He earnestly wishes to be refreshed by the holy pontiff's letters. — IV. He puts away from himself the blame of ambition and turns it back upon the zeal of his clergy and of the Eastern bishops. The confirmation of the acts of Chalcedon is declared to be reserved to the pontifical authority.

Page

  • running head: 1081 EPISTOLA CXXXII. 1082 (across the page; this column carries "CXXXII. 1082")
  • marginal letters: A ‹CAP. II. — De futuro Paschate›; B ‹litur, eamque in cleri› (synopsis); C ‹affatibus: ut illa›; D ‹quam nunc primum edidimus› (footnotes)
  • old-edition numerals: 1261 before ‹EPISTOLA (f) CXXXII.›; 1262 before ‹aliis›
  • signature: none
  • other: Letter CXXXI ends with its date and Letter CXXXII (Anatolius to Leo) begins in this column; its text is the Latin, which the editors' note (g) holds to be the original as sent to Leo. The column ends with "divina-", completed as "divinarum" from the head of col 1083 and set whole here
PL 54:1083
pollet ubique virtutum, cum quibus aemula pietatis zelare non cessat, cum sic moderatur genus humanum, ut id studio religionis in Deum reddit attentius, vestrae beatitudinis litteras mihi sublegit, ea statim quae continebantur eis ut placita vobis implevi, quod me facere vel communis pacis utilitas, vel quod decuerat hortabatur.
[…] virtues is everywhere powerful, with which, emulous of piety, he does not cease to be zealous, while he so governs the human race as to make it more attentive through zeal for religion towards God, conveyed to me the letter of your Beatitude, I at once fulfilled the things contained in it as pleasing to you, as either the common benefit of peace or what was fitting urged me to do.
CAP. II. — Et reverentissimus quidem sacrosanctae Ecclesiae nostrae presbyter Aetius in priore loco atque honore ecclesiastico nobis est restitutus: omne quod episcopi nostri est modeste faciens ipse responsum. Andreas autem, qui non provectus a nobis, sed gradu faciente archidiaconi dignitate fuerat honoratus, ab Ecclesia separatus est, cum his qui contra sanctae memoriae patrem nostrum atque episcopum fuerant Flavianum; qui etiam partis antea perfidissimi fuerant Eutychetis; quamvis excusationibus plurimis et subscriptionibus propriis, quas epistolae sanctitatis vestrae subdiderant, jam viderentur satisfecisse praeteritis, eo usque quamdiu quod vobis placitum super istis fuerit ordinatum.
CHAP. II. — And the most reverend Aetius, priest of our most holy Church, has been restored by us to his former place and ecclesiastical honour: he himself modestly doing everything that is our bishop's [responsum as printed; the passage is corrupt, see the editors' note]. But Andrew, who had been honoured with the dignity of archdeacon not by our promotion but by his grade bringing it about, has been separated from the Church, together with those who had been against Flavian of holy memory, our father and bishop; who had also formerly been of the party of the most faithless Eutyches; although by very many excuses and by their own subscriptions, which they had set under the letter of your Holiness, they already seemed to have made satisfaction for the past; [and this] until such time as what pleases you concerning them has been ordained.
CAP. III. — Considerans ergo beatitudo vestra quam nostrae conjunctio charitatis ipsi Domino Christo, qui pax nostra consistit, grata futura sit, et quantum fidelissimi principis animus exsultabit, et quam pariter universa plebs Dei et Ecclesiae Christi procul ab omni discordia liberae permanebunt, litteris suis nos laetificare dignetur, quibus illo perfici valeamus affectu, quem prudentissimis vestris insitum copiose jam novimus vigere praecordiis: ut
CHAP. III. — Your Beatitude, therefore, considering how pleasing the union of our charity will be to the Lord Christ Himself, Who is our peace, and how much the mind of the most faithful prince will exult, and how equally the whole people of God and the Churches of Christ will remain free, far from all discord, may deign to gladden us with a letter, by which we may be brought to perfection in that affection which we already know to be richly implanted and flourishing in your most prudent heart: so that […]
Editors' notes and page, col. 1083

Footnotes

(a) ‹cum quibus aemula› · printed under col 1083

Allatius, pietatis Ecclesia non cesset. Cod. Barb., pietatis zelo non cesset. In depravato loco vulgatam lectionem mutare noluimus.

Allatius, pietatis Ecclesia non cesset. The Barberini manuscript, pietatis zelo non cesset. In a corrupt passage we have not wished to change the common reading.

(b) ‹eis ut placita› · printed under col 1083

Cod. Barb. cum Allatio, nobis implevit. Holstenii emendationem sensus postulat.

The Barberini manuscript, with Allatius, nobis implevit. The sense requires Holstenius's emendation.

(c) ‹honore ecclesiastico› · printed under col 1083

Lege, a nobis.

Read a nobis.

(d) ‹omne quod› · printed under col 1083

Forte, episcopii.

Perhaps episcopii.

(e) ‹modeste faciens› · printed under col 1083

Quid hoc loco corrupto et valde obscuro indicetur, colligi potest ex illis epist. 127, cap. 3, Aetium presbyterum, quem asseris fuisse discussum, gratulamur cognitione habita in omnibus fuisse purgatum. Archidiaconus fuerat, et forte circa administrationem bonorum accusationem aliquam incurrerat.

What is indicated in this corrupt and very obscure passage can be gathered from these words of Letter 127, ch. 3: We rejoice that the priest Aetius, who you assert was examined, has been cleared in all things after an inquiry was held. He had been archdeacon, and had perhaps incurred some accusation concerning the administration of property.

(f) ‹fuerat honoratus,› · printed under col 1083

Ita editi et codex, non vero, ut legendum credit Tillemontius art. 62, in Leone, ab ecclesiasticis separatus est. Leo quidem epist. 135, c. 2, et 136, c. 3, Andream ab archidiaconi ministerio submotum tantummodo indicat. Cum autem haec epistola apud Graecos Latine reddita fuerit, ut annot. 1 (Col. 1081, n. g) vidimus, forte interpres minus peritus non satis ante ab Ecclesia separatum reddidit, ut significaret Andream fuisse omni gradu et officio ecclesiastico privatum, quoad Leo rescriberet quid de ipso agendum judicaret.

So the printed editions and the manuscript, and not, as Tillemont, art. 62 on Leo, thinks should be read, ab ecclesiasticis separatus est. Leo indeed, in Letter 135, ch. 2, and 136, ch. 3, only indicates that Andrew was removed from the office of archdeacon. But since this letter was rendered into Latin among the Greeks, as we saw in note 1 (col. 1081, n. g), perhaps a less skilled translator rendered not very aptly [ante as printed] ab Ecclesia separatum, to mean that Andrew had been deprived of every ecclesiastical grade and office until Leo should write back what he judged ought to be done about him.

(g) ‹placitum› · printed under col 1083

Allatius, susperstitibus.

Allatius, susperstitibus [probably superstitibus].

(h) printed under this column; its call is in col 1084, set in n1084 (i) printed under this column; its call is in col 1084, set in n1084

Page

  • running head: 1083 S. LEONIS MAGNI EPISTOLAE. 1084 (across the page; this column carries "1083 S. LEONIS MAGNI")
  • marginal letters: A ‹rum pollet ubique virtutum›; B ‹tea perfidissimi fuerant›; C ‹(a) Allatius, pietatis› (footnotes); D ‹vidimus, forte interpres› (footnotes)
  • old-edition numerals: 1263 before ‹sanctitatis vestrae›
  • signature: none
  • other: the column begins with "rum", the end of "divinarum", set whole in col 1082
PL 54:1084
perceptis alacriter vestrae sanctitatis epistolis, et gratias agamus Domino Deo nostro Christo, qui totius difficultatis vincula disrupit, eidemque vota solemnia pro vestra beatitudine persolvamus.
[…] we may joyfully receive the letter of your Holiness, and give thanks to the Lord our God Christ, Who has broken the bonds of every difficulty, and pay to Him solemn vows for your Beatitude.
CAP. IV. — De his autem quae Constantinopolitanae gratia sedis sancita sunt in Chalcedonensi nuper universali synodo, pro certo beatitudo vestra hoc habeat, nullam esse culpam in me, homine qui semper otium et quietem, in humilitate me continens, ab ineunte mea aetate dilexerim, sed Constantinopolitanae Ecclesiae reverentissimus clerus est, qui hoc habuit studium, et istarum partium religiosissimi sacerdotes qui in hoc fuere concordes et sibi pariter adjutores; cum et sic gestorum vis omnis et confirmatio auctoritati vestrae beatitudinis fuerit reservata. Hoc igitur bene compertum sanctitas vestra cognoscat, nihil ex me istius causa factum esse negotii, qui semper omnem jactantiae levitatem et aliena appetendi cupiditatem mihi vitandam crediderim. Omnem fraternitatem in Christo quae cum vestra est sanctitate, tam ego ipse quam mei plurimum salutamus. Et subscriptio litteris Graecis.
CHAP. IV. — But concerning the things that were enacted for the sake of the see of Constantinople at the universal synod lately held at Chalcedon, let your Beatitude hold this for certain: that there is no fault in me, a man who from my earliest years have always loved leisure and quiet, keeping myself in humility; but it is the most reverend clergy of the Church of Constantinople who had this zeal, and the most religious priests of these parts, who were of one mind in this and helpers to one another alike; since even so the whole force and confirmation of the acts has been reserved to the authority of your Beatitude. Let your Holiness therefore know it as well established that nothing in this business was done by me, who have always believed that all the levity of boasting and the desire of seeking what belongs to others were to be avoided by me. Both I myself and those with me greet warmly all the brotherhood in Christ that is with your Holiness. And the subscription in Greek letters.
EPISTOLA CXXXIII
LETTER CXXXIII
SANCTI PROTERII ALEXANDRINI EPISCOPI AD BEATISSIMUM PAPAM LEONEM ROMAE URBIS EPISCOPUM.
OF SAINT PROTERIUS, BISHOP OF ALEXANDRIA, TO THE MOST BLESSED POPE LEO, BISHOP OF THE CITY OF ROME.
De Ratione Paschalis.
On the Reckoning of Easter.
Domino meo dilectissimo fratri et consacerdoti LEONI PROTERIUS in Domino salutem.
To my lord, most beloved brother and fellow priest LEO, PROTERIUS, greeting in the Lord.
CAP. I. — Piissimus et fidelissimus imperator noster Marcianus litteris ad nos nuper venerabilibus usus est, quibus asseruit aestimare quosdam non diligenter
CHAP. I. — Our most pious and most faithful emperor Marcian has lately made use of a venerable letter to us, in which he declared that certain people think that not carefully […]
Editors' notes and page, col. 1084

Footnotes

(h) ‹reverentissimus› · printed under col 1083

Hoc testimonium laudat Gelasius in epistola ad Dardanos, uti auctior edita est ex praestantissima collectione 14 Avellana, et legitur tom. V Concilior. Venetae editionis pag. 333: Audiant, inquit. Anatolium, ejusdem sedis antistitem, clerum potius Constantinopolitanum, quam se tentasse talia confitentem, atque in apostolici praesulis totum dicentem positum potestate.

Gelasius cites this testimony in the letter to the Dardanians, as it was published in fuller form from the most excellent collection 14, the Avellana, and is read in vol. V of the Councils, Venice edition, p. 333: Let them hear, he says, Anatolius, bishop of that same see, confessing that it was the clergy of Constantinople rather than himself who had attempted such things, and saying that the whole was placed in the power of the apostolic prelate.

(i) ‹EPISTOLA› · printed under col 1083

Alias post epist. 103. Quae autem antea erat 133, nunc 164. Scripta paulo post 3 April. an. 454.

Elsewhere after Letter 103. The one that was formerly 133 is now 164. Written a little after 3 April, in the year 454.

(j) ‹EPISTOLA CXXXIII› · printed under col 1084

Duplex hujus epistolae a Proterio Graece scriptae Latina versio exstitit. Alia vetustior Leonis tempore translata ab interprete Latini sermonis minus perito, cujus fragmentum recitatur ab Hadriano I, in epistola 97, ad episcopos Hispaniae, et a Quesnello in observationibus exhibetur; altera est haec, quam esse Dionysii Exigui, cujus meminit Sigebertus in Catalogo scriptorum ecclesiasticorum c. 27; immo ipse Dionysius in praefatione ad Cyclum Paschalem, ubi eam a se translatam eidem operi subjecisse testatur, illud evidenter evincit, quod ei quidem Cyclo subjecta in codicibus inventa est. Istam ex Sirmondiano ms. ediderunt Petavius in append. operis de Doctr. temp. tom. II; Aegidius Bucherius in Comment. ad Victorii Canonem Paschalem pag. 82, et accuratius P. Labbeus in Conciliis. Quesnellus ad Oxoniensem codicem eamdem relegit. Tandem Joannes Guillelmus Janus in Historia Cycli Dionysiani edit. Vittemberg. an. 1718, pag. 95, emendatiorem recusit ex tribus Dionysii codd. Bodleiano, Cottoniano, et Digbaeano, e quibus multum profecimus. Agitur in hac epistola de die Paschatis anni 455, et scripta fuit post Pascha anni 454, indictione septima; nam c. 3, Pascha, de quo quaerebatur, solemnitas futura, et c. 1, octava indictio ejusdem Paschatis indictio futura vocatur. Igitur post diem 4 Aprilis septimae indictionis, in quem inciderat Pascha anni 454, scripta fuit; cumque illam jam recepisset die 29 Maii ex epist. 136, c. 1, palam fit inter diem 4 Aprilis, et 29 Maii an. 454 fuisse exaratam; et, ut congruum tempus detur transmissioni ejusdem Romam ex Aegypto, paulo post diem 4 Aprilis.

Of this letter, written in Greek by Proterius, there existed a twofold Latin version. One, older, was translated in Leo's time by an interpreter not very skilled in the Latin language; a fragment of it is quoted by Hadrian I in Letter 97, to the bishops of Spain, and is shown by Quesnel in his observations. The other is this one, which is that of Dionysius Exiguus, mentioned by Sigebert in the Catalogue of Ecclesiastical Writers, ch. 27; indeed Dionysius himself, in the preface to his Easter Cycle, where he testifies that he translated it and appended it to that same work, clearly proves it, since it is found in the manuscripts appended to that Cycle. It was published from the Sirmond manuscript by Petau in the appendix of his work De doctrina temporum, vol. II; by Gilles Boucher in his Commentary on the Easter Canon of Victorius, p. 82; and more accurately by Fr. Labbe in the Councils. Quesnel read it again against the Oxford manuscript. Finally Johann Wilhelm Jan, in his History of the Dionysian Cycle, Wittenberg edition, 1718, p. 95, reprinted it in a more correct form from three manuscripts of Dionysius, the Bodleian, the Cottonian and the Digby, from which we have profited much. This letter deals with the day of Easter of the year 455, and it was written after Easter of the year 454, in the seventh indiction; for in ch. 3 the Easter in question is called the coming solemnity, and in ch. 1 the eighth indiction, that of the same Easter, is called the coming indiction. It was therefore written after 4 April of the seventh indiction, on which Easter of the year 454 had fallen; and since he had already received it on 29 May, from Letter 136, ch. 1, it becomes clear that it was composed between 4 April and 29 May of the year 454; and, to allow a suitable time for its conveyance from Egypt to Rome, a little after 4 April.

(k) ‹Marcianus litteris› · printed under col 1084

Janus, nuper ad nos; et post pauca, Domino praestante.

Jan, nuper ad nos; and a little after, Domino praestante.

Page

  • running head: 1083 S. LEONIS MAGNI EPISTOLAE. 1084 (across the page; this column carries "MAGNI EPISTOLAE. 1084")
  • marginal letters: A ‹perceptis alacriter›; B ‹Hoc igitur bene compertum›; C ‹(j) Duplex hujus epistolae› (footnotes); D ‹tribus Dionysii codd.› (footnotes)
  • old-edition numerals: 1264 before ‹quam mei›
  • signature: none
  • other: Letter CXXXII (Anatolius) ends and Letter CXXXIII (Proterius to Leo, Dionysius Exiguus's Latin version; the Greek is lost) begins in this column. The column ends with "di-", completed as "diligenter" from the head of col 1085 and set whole here
PL 54:1085
ascriptam diem festi paschalis, quae per octavam Indictionem futuram, Deo praestante celebranda est. Verumtamen non velut a se commotus hoc indicavit, sed quia scripta tuae sanctitatis acceperit, et praecipiebat oportere nos causam diligenter inquirere adhibita nimis tenuissima scrutatione, quae multum sollicitudinis ac studii contineret. Quapropter negligendum non fuit quominus statim negotium ventilarem; quando ex illo jam tempore, quo commonitorium tuae venerationis accepi, plurimam curam rei hujus habuerim, nunc legales libros inspiciens, nunc antiquorum doctorum instituta contingens, ex quibus possibile est hujusmodi computum investigare solertius.
[…] has been assigned the day of the paschal feast which, God granting, is to be celebrated in the coming eighth indiction. Yet he did not indicate this as moved of himself, but because he had received a writing of your Holiness; and he directed that we ought to inquire into the matter carefully, applying a most minute scrutiny, as one which involved much solicitude and zeal. Therefore it was not to be neglected that I should at once discuss the business; since from that very time when I received the memorandum of your Veneration I have taken very great care of this matter, now examining the books of the Law, now touching upon the rules of the ancient teachers, from which it is possible to investigate a computation of this kind more skilfully.
Sumens etiam et centenalem cursum Paschae descriptum a beatissimo patre et episcopo nostro Theophilo, omnemque purcurrens, ita reperi diligenter integreque compositum, ut quicumque ille sit, auctoritatem scripturae hujus quolibet modo reprehendere ac vituperare non possit. Erat enim inconsequens virum ita vigilantem Deoque charissimum, divinarum etiam ditatum scientia Scripturarum, in negotio tam magno ac necessario, praetermisso diligentiae labore potuisse delinquere. Sed forte, sicut tua sanctitas scribit, mendosi codicis aut librarii error est, et propterea nos oporteret diem sanctae illius festivitatis transferre, quod absit. Celebretur autem ita potius ut centenarius annorum cursus ejusdem beatissimi patris nostri et episcopi Theophili continet, qui antiquorum paginis omnino concordat, id est XXXIX dies mensis Pharmuthi juxta Aegyptios, qui est VIII kal. Maias. Et nos enim, et tota Aegyptia regio, atque Oriens universus, sic ipsum diem celebraturi sumus, Deo praestante.
Taking also the hundred-year cycle of Easter drawn up by our most blessed father and bishop Theophilus, and going through [purcurrens as printed] all of it, I found it so carefully and completely composed that no one, whoever he may be, can in any way find fault with or censure the authority of this writing. For it would be unreasonable that a man so watchful and so dear to God, enriched also with the knowledge of the divine Scriptures, should have been able to go wrong in a matter so great and so necessary by omitting the labour of diligence. But perhaps, as your Holiness writes, it is the error of a faulty manuscript or of a copyist, and for that reason we ought to move the day of that holy festival, which God forbid. Let it rather be celebrated as the hundred-year cycle of that same most blessed father and bishop of ours Theophilus contains, which agrees entirely with the pages of the ancients, that is, the 39th [XXXIX as printed] day of the month Pharmuthi according to the Egyptians, which is the eighth day before the Kalends of May. For both we and the whole region of Egypt and the entire East are going to celebrate that very day thus, God granting.
Editors' notes and page, col. 1085

Footnotes

(a) ‹sed quia› · printed under col 1085

Vid. epist. 121, c. 2; epist. 127, c. 2; et epist. 131. c. 1.

See Letter 121, ch. 2; Letter 127, ch. 2; and Letter 131, ch. 1.

(b) ‹scripta tuae› · printed under col 1085

Ms. Oxon., fraternitatis; et postea teneret pro contineret.

The Oxford manuscript, fraternitatis; and afterwards teneret for contineret.

(c) ‹tempore, quo› · printed under col 1085

Hoc Leonis commonitorium ad Proterium de Paschate ann. 455 desideratur.

This memorandum of Leo to Proterius about the Easter of the year 455 is lost.

(d) ‹habuerim, nunc› · printed under col 1085

Legalium librorum nomine videtur intelligere libros legis Moysis, in quibus primum Pascha praeceptum fuit, et ascriptum primo mensi, qui et Novorum vocatur, luna 14.

By the name of the books of the Law he seems to mean the books of the law of Moses, in which the Pasch was first commanded and assigned to the first month, which is also called the month of New Corn, on the 14th moon.

(e) ‹nunc antiquorum› · printed under col 1085

M. Cotton., dicta instituta. Melius cod. Oxon., docta instituta. Intelligere videtur Cyclos et monumenta paschalia antiquiora centenario Theophili Laterculo seu cursu, de quo sane paulo post testatur: Qui antiquorum paginis omnino concordat.

The Cottonian manuscript, dicta instituta. Better the Oxford manuscript, docta instituta. He seems to mean the cycles and paschal records older than Theophilus's hundred-year table or cycle, of which indeed he testifies a little later: Which agrees entirely with the pages of the ancients.

(f) ‹beatissimo patre et› · printed under col 1085

Janus, coepiscopo nostro Theophilo, omnemque decurrens.

Jan, coepiscopo nostro Theophilo, omnemque decurrens.

(g) ‹reprehendere› · printed under col 1085

In mss. Oxon. voces ac vituperare omittuntur.

In the Oxford manuscript the words ac vituperare are omitted.

(h) ‹tua sanctitas› · printed under col 1085

Mss. Cotton. et Digb., scripsit.

The Cottonian and Digby manuscripts, scripsit.

(i) ‹mendosi codicis› · printed under col 1085

Erat in editis, aut scriptoris librarii. Quesnellus notavit haec omnia deesse in ms. Oxon. Solam vocem scriptoris, quae abundat, auctoritate trium codicum Jani delevimus.

In the printed editions there was aut scriptoris librarii. Quesnel noted that all this is missing in the Oxford manuscript. We have deleted only the word scriptoris, which is superfluous, on the authority of Jan's three manuscripts.

(j) ‹propterea nos› · printed under col 1085

Codd. Cotton. et Digb., oportet. In Theophili Laterculo ac Alexandrinorum computatione Pascha anni 455 statuebatur VIII kal. Maii; ex Leonis autem sententia, qui errorem in eo Laterculo irrepsisse putabat, transferendum erat pascha in diem XV kal. ejusdem mensis, ut Latinis videbatur.

The Cottonian and Digby manuscripts, oportet. In Theophilus's table and in the Alexandrians' computation, Easter of the year 455 was fixed on the eighth day before the Kalends of May; but in the opinion of Leo, who thought an error had crept into that table, Easter was to be moved to the fifteenth day before the Kalends of the same month, as seemed right to the Latins.

(k) ‹festivitatis transferre,› · printed under col 1085, running on under col 1086

Edit ex Sirmondianis schedis, quod abiit. Quesnellus ex ms. Oxon. et Janus ex tribus suis codd. emendarunt.

Published from Sirmond's papers, quod abiit. Quesnel from the Oxford manuscript and Jan from his three manuscripts emended it.

(l) ‹quod absit.› · printed under col 1086

Ita legendum cum Jano ex ms. Cotton., pro celebratur, quod erat in aliis editis.

So it is to be read, with Jan, from the Cottonian manuscript, instead of celebratur, which was in the other printed editions.

(m) ‹patris nostri et› · printed under col 1086

Editio Jani, coepiscopi.

Jan's edition, coepiscopi.

(n) ‹atque Oriens universus,› · printed under col 1086

Cod. Digb., sic ipsius diei celebraturi auctoritatem sumus.

The Digby manuscript, sic ipsius diei celebraturi auctoritatem sumus.

Page

  • running head: 1085 EPISTOLA CXXXIII. 1086 (across the page; this column carries "1085 EPISTOLA")
  • marginal letters: A ‹ligenter ascriptam›; B ‹beatissimo patre et episcopo›; C ‹VIII kal. Maias›; D ‹Qui antiquorum paginis› (footnotes)
  • old-edition numerals: 1265 before ‹instituta›
  • signature: none
  • other: the column begins with "ligenter", the end of "diligenter", set whole in col 1084
PL 54:1086
CAP. II. — Ut autem non arbitremur absolute quae nobis videntur scribere seu velle firmare, inseruimus etiam causas huic epistolae, quibus tua sanctitas forte aestimet non se debere reprehendere Aegyptiorum Ecclesiae veritatem, quae mater hujuscemodi laboris extitit, diligenterque conscripsit. Olim quidem Dominus per Moysem tempus paschale significavit dicens: Custodi mensem novorum (Deut. XVI, 1); primum hunc esse pronuntians, sicut iterum dicit: Mensis iste vobis initium mensium, primus erit in mensibus anni (Exod. XII, 2); et: Facies Pascha Domino Deo tuo quarta decima die mensis primi (Levit. XXIII, 5; Num. XXVIII, 16.)
CHAP. II. — And so that we may not be thought to write, or to wish to establish, absolutely what seems right to us, we have also inserted in this letter the reasons by which your Holiness may perhaps judge that you ought not to censure the truth of the Church of the Egyptians, which has been the mother of labour of this kind and has carefully set it down in writing. Of old the Lord indicated the paschal time through Moses, saying: Keep the month of new corn (Deut. 16:1); declaring this to be the first, as He says again: This month shall be to you the beginning of months, it shall be the first in the months of the year (Exod. 12:2); and: You shall make the Pasch to the Lord your God on the fourteenth day of the first month (Lev. 23:5; Num. 28:16).
Sed qui haec per Moysem locutus est Dominus, plenitudo legis existens, quando dignatus est homo fieri, quinta sabbatorum XIV luna mensis primi in coenaculo cum discipulis pascha manducans, paulo post a Juda traditur, et sequenti die XV luna crucifigitur, id est VI feria, et ad inferos descendens, ac dispensationes salutis nostrae perficiens, vespere sabbati lucescente Dominico resurrexit a mortuis. In quo die lunam XVII primi mensis juxta Hebraeos exstitisse manifestum est Nos ergo Christiani non solum XIV lunam in Pascha requirimus (hoc enim Judaei facientes sine festivitate sunt), sed etiam Resurrectionis diem Redemptoris nostri, qui est XVII luna praefati primi mensis novorum, sollicitius observamus. Quod si eodem modo plenilunium semper occurreret quinta sabbatorum, quando Salvator pascha cum discipulis manducavit, omne tolleretur ambiguum. Quia vero lunae circus ad solis cursum inaequalis est, et XIV luna paschalis in die Dominico saepe contingit, non est autem possibile tunc festum celebrare, sed nec pridie, sabbato, luna XIII jejunium solvere, in septimanam
But the Lord who spoke these things through Moses, being the fullness of the law, when He deigned to become man, eating the pasch with His disciples in the upper room on the fifth day of the week, the fourteenth moon of the first month, was a little later betrayed by Judas, and on the following day, the fifteenth moon, was crucified, that is, on the sixth weekday; and descending to the lower world, and accomplishing the dispensations of our salvation, He rose from the dead at evening on the sabbath as the Lord's day was dawning. On which day it is clear that the moon of the first month according to the Hebrews was the seventeenth. We Christians therefore not only look for the fourteenth moon at Easter (for the Jews, doing this, are without the festival), but also observe more carefully the day of the Resurrection of our Redeemer, which is the seventeenth moon of the aforesaid first month of new corn. And if in the same way the full moon always fell on the fifth day of the week, when the Saviour ate the pasch with His disciples, all ambiguity would be removed. But since the circuit of the moon is unequal to the course of the sun, and the paschal fourteenth moon often falls on the Lord's day, and yet it is not possible to celebrate the feast then, nor on the day before, the sabbath, the thirteenth moon, to break the fast, into the week […]
Editors' notes and page, col. 1086

Footnotes

(k) continued from col 1085, set in n1085

(l), (m), (n) printed under this column; their calls are in col 1085, set in n1085

(o) ‹Ut autem non› · printed under col 1086

Arbitremur passive hic sumitur pro existimemur, uti passive pariter sumitur a Coelio apud Priscianum lib. VIII, et ab Ulpiano D. II, 7, 12.

Arbitremur is taken here passively for existimemur, as it is likewise taken passively by Caelius in Priscian, book VIII, and by Ulpian, Digest II, 7, 12.

(p) ‹inseruimus› · printed under col 1086

Particula etiam ex Jani editione et mss. inserta est. Mox forte deest in ms. Oxon., et spernere pro reprehendere.

The particle etiam has been inserted from Jan's edition and the manuscripts. Next, forte is missing in the Oxford manuscript, and [it has] spernere for reprehendere.

(q) ‹homo fieri,› · printed under col 1086

Ita ex ms. Oxon, et tribus codd. Jani, pro quinta feria, ut erat in editis.

So from the Oxford manuscript and Jan's three manuscripts, instead of quinta feria, as it was in the printed editions.

(r) ‹traditur, et› · printed under col 1086

Voces sequenti die absunt a ms. Oxon.

The words sequenti die are absent from the Oxford manuscript.

(s) ‹vespere sabbati lucescente› · printed under col 1086

Apud Labbeum Dominus pro Dominico, perperam. Respiciuntur illa Evangelii: Vespere autem sabbati, quae lucescit in prima sabbati, id est Dominica, qua Christus resurrexit.

In Labbe, Dominus for Dominico, wrongly. The reference is to those words of the Gospel: But at evening on the sabbath, which dawns on the first day of the week, that is, the Lord's day, on which Christ rose again.

(t) ‹plenilunium› · printed under col 1086

Ita Bucherius, et ms. Oxon., ac Janus ex cod. Digb. rectius quam in aliis, editis super occurrerit, et paulo post, tolletur, quae sensum plane perturbant.

So Boucher and the Oxford manuscript, and Jan from the Digby manuscript, more correctly than in the others, the printed editions: super occurrerit, and a little later tolletur, which plainly disturb the sense.

(u) ‹sabbato, luna XIII› · printed under col 1086, running on under col 1087

Duas Proterius rationes affert quibus eo casu quo luna 14 incidit in Dominicam, Pascha celebrari nequeat ipsa die Dominica luna 14, sed differendum sit in Dominicam sequentem, 1° quia tunc paschale festum celebrari nequit, 2° quia pridie, sabbato, luna 13, jejunium solvere non licet. Has easdem rationes, quas Proterius interum urget c. 5 eodem scopo in simili controversia jam diu ante proluerant etiam Ambrosius in epistola ad episcopos per Aemiliam constitutos, ac Theophilus Alexandrinus in Prologo Paschali agentes de Paschate an. 387. Ex horum autem testimoniis colligitur totam earum rationum vim ad jejunium revocari, ita ut sensus sit paschale festum non posse die Dominica luna 14 celebrari, eo quod nec junare liceat ea die luna 14, nec liceat antepaschale jejunium solvere seu terminare luna 13. Si nimirum celebrandum esset paschale festum luna 14 cum incidit in Dominicam, hac eadem luna jejunium esset servandum, et solvendum solum in vespere, ut lex praecipiebat; sicque jejunandum esset die Dominico, quod tamen omnino faciendum non est, ne cum Manichaeis Dominica jejunantibus consentiamus. Si vero ob evitandam hanc cum Manicaehis similitudinem non jejunemus ipso Dominico die luna 14, quo Pascha celebrandum putemus, jejunium antepaschale cogemur solvere, seu terminare die sabbati praecedentis luna 13, quod tamen ex veteris legis praeceptione ante decimam quartam lunam, qua agnus paschalis comedendus erat, solvi seu terminari nequit. Vide c. 5 hujus epistolae. Igitur ut declinetur utrumque, paschale festum in Dominicam sequentem protrahendum est.

Proterius brings forward two reasons why, in the case where the 14th moon falls on a Sunday, Easter cannot be celebrated on that Sunday, the 14th moon, but must be deferred to the following Sunday: first, because the paschal feast cannot be celebrated then; second, because it is not lawful to break the fast on the day before, the sabbath, the 13th moon. These same reasons, which Proterius presses again [interum as printed] in ch. 5, had long before been put forward [proluerant as printed] to the same end in a similar controversy by Ambrose too, in the letter to the bishops established throughout Aemilia, and by Theophilus of Alexandria in the Paschal Prologue, both dealing with the Easter of the year 387. From their testimonies it is gathered that the whole force of those reasons comes back to the fast, so that the sense is that the paschal feast cannot be celebrated on a Sunday, the 14th moon, because it is neither lawful to fast [junare as printed] on that day, the 14th moon, nor lawful to break or end the pre-paschal fast on the 13th moon. For if the paschal feast had to be celebrated on the 14th moon when it falls on a Sunday, the fast would have to be kept on that same moon and broken only in the evening, as the law prescribed; and so one would have to fast on the Lord's day, which, however, is by no means to be done, lest we agree with the Manichaeans, who fast on Sunday. But if, to avoid this likeness to the Manichaeans, we do not fast on the Sunday itself, the 14th moon, on which we think Easter is to be celebrated, we shall be forced to break or end the pre-paschal fast on the preceding sabbath, the 13th moon, which, however, by the precept of the old law cannot be broken or ended before the fourteenth moon, on which the paschal lamb was to be eaten. See ch. 5 of this letter. Therefore, to avoid both, the paschal feast must be put off to the following Sunday.

Page

  • running head: 1085 EPISTOLA CXXXIII. 1086 (across the page; this column carries "CXXXIII. 1086")
  • marginal letters: A ‹CAP. II. — Ut autem›; B ‹batorum XIV luna›; C ‹paschalis in die Dominico›; D ‹quinta feria, ut erat› (footnotes)
  • old-edition numerals: 1266 before ‹extitit›
  • signature: none
  • other: the column ends with "septima-", completed as "septimanam" from the head of col 1087 and set whole here
PL 54:1087
sequentem differendum est. Maxime cum habeamus intra eam XV lunam, quando, sicut scripsit Apostolus, Pascha nostrum immolatus est Christus (I Cor. V, 7); XIV namque luna primi mensis, juxta Hebraeos, ut superius dictum est, Jesus pascha typicum manducavit: sequenti vero sexta feria XV luna, ut ovis occisionis, cruci pro nobis affixus est, et vespere sabbati lucessente Dominico XVII luna resurrexit a mortuis.
[…] following it is to be deferred. Especially since we have within it the fifteenth moon, when, as the Apostle wrote, Christ our Pasch was sacrificed (1 Cor. 5:7); for on the fourteenth moon of the first month, according to the Hebrews, as was said above, Jesus ate the typical pasch; and on the following sixth weekday, the fifteenth moon, like a sheep for the slaughter, He was fastened to the cross for us, and at evening on the sabbath, as the Lord's day was dawning, on the seventeenth moon, He rose from the dead.
CAP. III. — Quia ergo in solemnitate futura paschali per octavam indictionem, XXII die Pharmuthi mensis novorum, qui est XV kalendas Maias, occurrit XIV luna die Dominico, in septimanam differre convenit subsequentem. Habentes enim intra eam triduanum mysterium, hoc est XV lunam, quando crucifixus est Christus, quartae decimae cohaerentem, necnon et sextam decimam, et sequentem decimam
CHAP. III. — Since, therefore, at the coming paschal solemnity in the eighth indiction, on the 22nd day of Pharmuthi, the month of new corn, which is the fifteenth day before the Kalends of May, the fourteenth moon falls on the Lord's day, it is fitting to defer [the feast] into the following week. For having within it the three-day mystery, that is, the fifteenth moon, when Christ was crucified, joined to the fourteenth, and also the sixteenth, and the following […]
Editors' notes and page, col. 1087

Footnotes

(u) continued from col 1086, set in n1086

(a) ‹differendum est.› · printed under col 1087

Ms. Oxon., Maxime quod; et paulo post perperam, 14 lunam pro 15. Indicatur autem intra eam septimanam sequentem haberi lunam 15, qua Christus passus est, quaeque in hypothesi lunae 14 concurrentis cum die Dominica, in feriam secundam incidit; et similiter intra eam septimanam haberi lunam 17, qua Christus resurrexit, quaeque in feriam quartam eadem in hypothesi incurrit. Hoc autem argumento, quo pariter usi fuerant S. Ambrosius ac Theophilus, Proterius insinuare nititur. Paschatis dilationem in Dominicam sequentem esse licitam, quia in eadem septimana per ejusmodi dilationem lunares dies passionis et resurrectionis Christi comprehenduntur, quos utrosque subsequi sane potest dies Paschatis, praecedere autem non potest. Haec probe statuebantur in supputatione Alexandrinorum, in qua dies XV kal. Maii anni 455 concurrebat cum luna 14 die Dominico, non vero in Latinorum supputatione, quibus alio cyclo utentibus dies XV kal. Maii eo anno incidebat in lunam 17, ut annot 27 (Infra. n. e) explicabimus. Quare totum hoc Proterii argumentum, pro Alexandrinis quid⟨d⟩am congruum, Romanos movere non poterat.

The Oxford manuscript, Maxime quod; and a little later, wrongly, 14 lunam for 15. It is indicated that within that following week there is the 15th moon, on which Christ suffered, and which, on the hypothesis of the 14th moon coinciding with a Sunday, falls on the second weekday; and likewise that within that week there is the 17th moon, on which Christ rose again, and which on the same hypothesis falls on the fourth weekday. By this argument, which St Ambrose and Theophilus had likewise used, Proterius tries to suggest: that the deferment of Easter to the following Sunday is lawful, because within that same week, through such a deferment, the lunar days of Christ's passion and resurrection are included, both of which the day of Easter may indeed follow but may not precede. These things were rightly laid down in the reckoning of the Alexandrians, in which the fifteenth day before the Kalends of May of the year 455 coincided with the 14th moon on a Sunday, but not in the reckoning of the Latins, for whom, using another cycle, the fifteenth day before the Kalends of May in that year fell on the 17th moon, as we shall explain in note 27 (below, n. e). Therefore this whole argument of Proterius, somewhat suited to the Alexandrians, could not move the Romans.

(b) ‹sequenti› · printed under col 1087

Particulam vero adjecimus et per eam planiorem sensum reddidimus, ope mss. Cotton. et Digb.

We have added the particle vero, and by it made the sense plainer, with the help of the Cottonian and Digby manuscripts.

(c) ‹sabbati lucessente› · printed under col 1087

Vox dominico abest a ms. Oxon. Vide annot. 20 (Col. 1086, n. s).

The word dominico is absent from the Oxford manuscript. See note 20 (col. 1086, n. s).

(d) ‹XXII die› · printed under col 1087

Editi ante Janum hic inserit vocem Dominico quae in codd. Cotton. et Digb. abest, et abundabat.

The editions before Jan insert here the word Dominico, which is absent in the Cottonian and Digby manuscripts and was superfluous.

(e) ‹kalendas Maias,› · printed under col 1088

Ita ex Jano reposuimus pro occurrerit, uti etiam contextus postulat. Indictione autem 8 an. 452, luna 14 occurrebat quidem XV kal. Maii ex Alexandrinorum supputatione, non vero apud Romanos, qui eo die habebant lunam 17. Tantum vero discrimen inter Alexandrinos et Romanos ex diverso cyclo, et ex lunae saltibus diversimode constitutis oriebatur. Cum enim illi ex suo cyclo decemnovennali decimo nono quoque anno saltum lunae admitterent, isti vero ex cyclo annnorum 84 olim quidem duodecimo quoque anno, postremum vero anno quolibet decimo quarto eumdem saltum receperint, successu temporis evenit ut aetas lunae an. 455 triduo discreparet, et Romanis XV kal. Maii esset luna 17, quae Alexandrinis erat 14. Hinc Romanis ea dies apta erat Paschati, quae si apud ipsos fuisset luna 14, uti erat apud Alexandrinos, non solum ex Alexandrinorum, verum etiam ex Romanorum regulis paschalis esse non potuisset. Mirum vero accidit Proterium non advertisse hanc lunae aetatem apud Romanos diversam, quam satis indicaverat S. Cyrillus in Prologo Paschali, quamque si ille pariter observasset, deprehendisset suum argumentum soli lunae 14 innixum exindenutare, nisi in alia lunae aetate statuenda Romanos errare docuisset.

So we have restored from Jan, instead of occurrerit, as the context also requires. In the 8th indiction, the year 452 [as printed], the 14th moon did indeed fall on the fifteenth day before the Kalends of May by the reckoning of the Alexandrians, but not among the Romans, who had the 17th moon on that day. So great a difference between the Alexandrians and the Romans arose from their different cycles and from the leaps of the moon being placed in different ways. For while the former, by their nineteen-year cycle, admitted the moon's leap every nineteenth year, the latter, by the cycle of 84 years, formerly took the same leap every twelfth year, but latterly every fourteenth year; so in the course of time it came about that the age of the moon in the year 455 differed by three days, and for the Romans the fifteenth day before the Kalends of May was the 17th moon, which for the Alexandrians was the 14th. Hence that day was suitable for Easter for the Romans, whereas if it had been the 14th moon among them, as it was among the Alexandrians, it could not have been paschal, not only by the rules of the Alexandrians but also by those of the Romans. It is surprising that Proterius did not notice this different age of the moon among the Romans, which St Cyril had sufficiently indicated in his Paschal Prologue; and if he had likewise observed it, he would have perceived that his argument, resting on the 14th moon alone, wavered from that point, unless he had shown that the Romans erred in fixing a different age of the moon.

Page

  • running head: 1087 S. LEONIS MAGNI EPISTOLAE. 1088 (across the page; this column carries "1087 S. LEONIS MAGNI")
  • marginal letters: A ‹nam 1267 sequentem›; B ‹necnon et sextam decimam›; C ‹Paschacelebrandum putemus› (footnotes); D ‹septimana per ejusmodi› (footnotes)
  • old-edition numerals: 1267 after ‹nam› (the end of septimanam, set whole in col 1086)
  • signature: none
  • other: the column begins with "nam", the end of "septimanam", set whole in col 1086
PL 54:1088
septimam, vicesimo quidem octavo die mensis Pharmuthi, qui est IX kalendas Maias, jejunia solvemus vespere sabbatorum, sequenti vero lucescente Dominico, die XXIX mensis ipsius Pharmuthi, qui est VIII kalendas Maias, festivitatem sincerissime celebrabimus.
[…] seventeenth, we shall break the fasts on the twenty-eighth day of the month Pharmuthi, which is the ninth day before the Kalends of May, at evening on the sabbath, and on the following Lord's day as it dawns, the 29th day of that same month Pharmuthi, which is the eighth day before the Kalends of May, we shall celebrate the festival in all sincerity.
CAP. IV. — Nam et priscis temporibus, siquando die Dominico luna XIV reperta est, in sequentem septimanam est dilata festivitas, sicut in octogesimo nono, et nonagesimo tertio anno a Diocletiani probatur imperio. Sic enim et tunc beatissimi Patres nostri fecisse declarantur. In octogesimo quidem nono anno ab imperio Diocletiani, superstite beatae memoriae patre nostro et episcopo Athanasio, cum luna XIV paschalis die XXVIII mensis Phamenot, id est nono kalendarum Aprilium die provenisset, die Dominico, in subsequentem translatum est hebdomadem
CHAP. IV. — For in former times too, whenever the fourteenth moon was found on the Lord's day, the festival was deferred into the following week, as is proved [to have happened] in the eighty-ninth and the ninety-third year from the reign of Diocletian. For so our most blessed Fathers are declared to have done then as well. In the eighty-ninth year from the reign of Diocletian, while our father and bishop Athanasius of blessed memory was still living, when the paschal fourteenth moon had fallen on the 28th day of the month Phamenoth, that is, on the ninth day before the Kalends of April, a Lord's day, [the festival] was transferred into the following week […]
Editors' notes and page, col. 1088

Footnotes

(e) printed under this column; its call is in col 1087, set in n1087

(f) ‹festivitas, sicut in› · printed under col 1088

Alexandrini aera Diocletianea utebantur, quae incipit anno aerae vulgaris 284, unde annus aerae Diocletiani 89 fuit annus aerae vulgaris 373, et annus aerae Diocletianae 93 fuit annus aerae vulgaris 377. Haec autem duo exempla S. Ambrosius in eumdem finem attulerat pro statuendo die Paschatis an. 387 qui fuit annus aerae Diocletiani 103. Licet enim is Latinus esset et Latinae Mediolanensis Ecclesiae episcopus, non tamen Romanorum, sed Alexandrinorum cyclo, mensibus aeraque utebatur, ut ex epistola ad Aemiliae episcopos liquet.

The Alexandrians used the era of Diocletian, which begins in the year 284 of the common era; hence the year 89 of the era of Diocletian was the year 373 of the common era, and the year 93 of the Diocletian era was the year 377 of the common era. St Ambrose had adduced these two examples to the same end for fixing the day of Easter in the year 387, which was the year 103 of the era of Diocletian. For although he was a Latin and bishop of the Latin Church of Milan, he used not the cycle, months and era of the Romans but those of the Alexandrians, as is clear from the letter to the bishops of Aemilia.

(g) ‹patre nostro et episcopo› · printed under col 1088

Editi, Anastasio. Quesnellus emendavit ex codice Oxon. Janus vero ex mss. Bodl. et Digb. Confer illius notam, ubi Athanasium in Paschate anni 315 adhuc superstitem ex hoc testimonio ad fidem unius codicis emendato, cui nunc duo alii codices accedunt, optime colligit, idque nos confirmavimus lib. I Observationum in Hist. Pelagianam card. Norisii c. 2, n. 3, auctoritate anonymi Athanasiani, qui postea ex antiquissimo ms. 57 capituli Veronensis a Marchione Scipione Maffeio editus fuit in append. Hist. Theolog. pag. 269.

The printed editions, Anastasio. Quesnel emended it from the Oxford manuscript, and Jan from the Bodleian and Digby manuscripts. Compare Quesnel's note, where from this testimony, emended on the authority of one manuscript, to which two other manuscripts are now added, he very well gathers that Athanasius was still alive at the Easter of the year 315 [sic; probably 373]; and we confirmed this in book I of the Observations on Cardinal Noris's History of Pelagianism, ch. 2, n. 3, on the authority of the anonymous Athanasian writer, who was afterwards published from the very ancient manuscript 57 of the chapter of Verona by the Marchese Scipione Maffei in the appendix to the Historia Theologica, p. 269.

(h) ‹die XXVIII mensis› · printed under col 1088

Pro Phamenoth editi Phaminoth. Ms. Oxon., Parmothi.

For Phamenoth the printed editions have Phaminoth. The Oxford manuscript, Parmothi.

(i) ‹die Dominico,› · printed under col 1088

Idem ms., in subsequentem Dominicam translatum est Pascha, ita ut pridie kal. Aprilium, etc. Et paulo post, in sequentem item Dominicam pro in sequentem item septimanam. QUESN.

The same manuscript, in subsequentem Dominicam translatum est Pascha, ita ut pridie kal. Aprilium, etc. And a little later, in sequentem item Dominicam for in sequentem item septimanam. QUESNEL.

Page

  • running head: 1087 S. LEONIS MAGNI EPISTOLAE. 1088 (across the page; this column carries "MAGNI EPISTOLAE. 1088")
  • marginal letters: A ‹septimam, vicesimo quidem›; B ‹nono kalendarum Aprilium›; C ‹etiam ex Romanorum regulis› (footnotes); D ‹(g) Editi, Anastasio› (footnotes)
  • old-edition numerals: 1268 before ‹festivitatem›
  • signature: none
  • other: the column ends with "hebdoma-", completed as "hebdomadem" from the first line of col 1089 and set whole here; all notes called in this column end in this column
PL 54:1089
ita ut quinta die mensis Pharmuthi, hoc est pridie kalendarum Aprilium celebraretur Pascha Dominicum. In nonagesimo autem tertio anno ab imperio ejusdem Diocletiani, cum luna xiv paschalis die xiv mensis Pharmuthi qui est v idus Aprilis, die Dominico contigisset, in sequentem item septimanam dilatio facta est, ita ut Dominicum Pascha die xxi mensis Pharmuthi, qui est xvi kalend. Maiar. solemniter ageretur. In centesimo quoque tertio anno ab imperio praefati Diocletiani, cum luna paschalis xiv Pharmuthi xxiii die, qui est xiv kalend. Maiar., esset die Dominico superventura, iterum septimana quaesita est, et Do⟨m⟩inicum Pascha xxx die mensis ipsius Pharmuthi, qui est vii kalend. Maiar., constat esse celebratum, propter a⟨n⟩gustiam temporis imminentem.
[…] so that the Lord's Pasch was celebrated on the fifth day of the month Pharmuthi, that is, on the day before the kalends of April. And in the ninety-third year from the reign of the same Diocletian, when the paschal fourteenth moon had fallen on a Sunday, on the fourteenth day of the month Pharmuthi, which is the fifth day before the ides of April, a postponement was likewise made into the following week, so that the Lord's Pasch was solemnly kept on the twenty-first day of the month Pharmuthi, which is the sixteenth day before the kalends of May. In the hundred and third year, too, from the reign of the aforesaid Diocletian, when the paschal fourteenth moon was going to come on the twenty-third day of Pharmuthi, which is the fourteenth day before the kalends of May, on a Sunday, again a week was sought, and it is established that the Lord's Pasch was celebrated on the thirtieth day of the same month Pharmuthi, which is the seventh day before the kalends of May, because of the pressing narrowness of the time.
Item cum in centesimo sexagesimo anno a Diocletiani imperio xiv luna paschalis Pharmuthi xxiii die qui est xiv kalend. Maiar., occurrerit tertia feria septimanae, et Dominicum Pascha xxviii die mensis ipsius Pharmuthi, qui est ix kalend. Maiar., nos celebrasse meminimus.
Likewise, when in the hundred and sixtieth year from the reign of Diocletian the paschal fourteenth moon fell on the twenty-third day of Pharmuthi, which is the fourteenth day before the kalends of May, on the third day of the week, we remember that we celebrated the Lord's Pasch on the twenty-eighth day of the same month Pharmuthi, which is the ninth day before the kalends of May.
CAP. V. — Necesse est igitur et in clxxi anno a Diocletiani imperio, in futuro paschali festo indictionis octavae, 23 die Pharmuthi, qui est xv kalend. Maiar., luna xiv occurrente die Dominico, in proximam septimanam juxta praecedentem formam convenienter extendi, ut die xxix mensis Pharmuthi, qui est viii kalend. Maiar., Dominicum celebremus Pascha propter apprehendentem rursus angustiam, sicut patres nostri fecerunt, decimas quartas lunas occurrentes die Dominico, differentes. Nam si xxii die mensis Pharmuthi, qui est xv kalend. Maiar., luna xiv, sicut dixi saepius, occurrente die Dominico Pascha
CHAP. V. — It is necessary, therefore, in the hundred and seventy-first year from the reign of Diocletian also, at the coming paschal feast of the eighth indiction, since the fourteenth moon falls on a Sunday, on the 23rd [recte 22nd] day of Pharmuthi, which is the fifteenth day before the kalends of May, that [the feast] be fittingly extended into the next week according to the preceding pattern, so that we celebrate the Lord's Pasch on the twenty-ninth day of the month Pharmuthi, which is the eighth day before the kalends of May, because of the narrowness that again presses upon us, as our fathers did, postponing the fourteenth moons that fell on a Sunday. For if, when the fourteenth moon falls, as I have said several times, on a Sunday, the twenty-second day of the month Pharmuthi, which is the fifteenth day before the kalends of May, we celebrate the Pasch […]
Editors' notes and page, col. 1089

Footnotes

(a) ‹constat esse celebratum› · printed under col 1089

Haec verba, propter angustiam temporis imminentem, et cap. sequenti, propter apprehendentem angustiam, (quibus concinunt illa Theophili in Prologo Paschali, propter intercurrentem necessitatem), indicant quod si luna 14 tam sero concurrat cum xiv vel xv kal. Maii die Dominico, cum Pascha ea lunae aetate celebrari nequeat, et differendum sit in Dominicam sequentem, propter ejusmodi angustias atque necessitatem ultimus paschalis Latinorum limes, qui figebatur die 22 Aprilis, servari non possit, et Pascha in diem 24 vel 25 Aprilis, transferendum sit.

These words, "because of the pressing narrowness of the time", and in the following chapter, "because of the narrowness that presses upon us" (with which agree those words of Theophilus in the Paschal Prologue, "because of the intervening necessity"), indicate that if the moon 14 coincides so late with a Sunday on the fourteenth or fifteenth day before the kalends of May, since the Pasch cannot be celebrated at that age of the moon and must be postponed to the following Sunday, then because of such narrowness and necessity the last paschal limit of the Latins, which was fixed at 22 April, cannot be kept, and the Pasch must be moved to 24 or 25 April.

(b) ‹qui est xiv kalend. Maiar.› · printed under col 1089

Mss. Bodl. et Digb., occurrit. Sermo est de Paschate anni 444, quod priori controversiae sub pontificatu ipsius Leonis occasionem dedit.

The Bodleian and Digby manuscripts, occurrit. He is speaking of the Pasch of the year 444, which gave occasion to the earlier controversy under the pontificate of Leo himself.

(c) ‹qui est ix kalend. Maiar.› · printed under col 1089

Nos pro tunc ex Jano praetulimus. Caeterum etiam S. Leo Paschasini litteris acquiescens, eadem die Pascha celebravit, ut ex integro Chronico Prosperi didicimus.

We have preferred nos to tunc, following Janus. Moreover St. Leo too, acquiescing in the letter of Paschasinus, celebrated the Pasch on the same day, as we have learned from the complete Chronicle of Prosper.

(d) ‹Necesse est igitur et› · printed under col 1089

Editi ex Sirmondi apographo et cod. Cotton. in cclv anno. Ms. Oxon. et Bodl., in clxv anno; Digb., in cclxv anno. Haec varietas mss. errorem innuit, qui evidens fit ex quaestione Paschatis an. 455, de qua hic sermo est. Annus enim 455 aerae vulgaris est annus aerae Diocletiani clxxi, unde textum sine ulla dubitatione correximus, ut sane corrigendum eruditi omnes cognoverunt.

The editions from Sirmond's copy, and the Cotton manuscript, in cclv anno. The Oxford and Bodleian manuscripts, in clxv anno; Digby, in cclxv anno. This variety among the manuscripts points to an error, which becomes evident from the question of the Pasch of the year 455, which is spoken of here. For the year 455 of the common era is the year 171 of the era of Diocletian; hence we have corrected the text without any hesitation, as all the learned have recognized that it must indeed be corrected.

(e) printed under this column; its call is in col 1090, set in n1090. (f) printed under this column (running on under col 1090); its call is in col 1090, set in n1090.

Page

  • running head: 1089 EPISTOLA CXXXIII. 1090 (across the page; this column carries "1089 EPISTOLA CX")
  • marginal letters: A ‹dem, ita ut quinta die›; B ‹imminentem. Item cum in centesimo›; C ‹mensis Pharmuthi, qui est xv kalend. Maiar., luna›; D ‹(footnotes) die Pascha celebravit›
  • old-edition numerals: 1269 after ‹imperio›
  • signature: none
  • other: col 1089 opens with "dem", the tail of "hebdoma-" at the foot of col 1088 (set whole in col 1088 by E47).
PL 54:1090
celebremus, inveniemur pridie, id est sabbato xxi die mensis ejusdem, qui est xvi kalend. Maiar., xiii luna tunc existente, non rite jejunia solvere. Nec enim in xiii luna comeditur Pascha. Unde quia xxii die mensis Pharmuthi, qui est xv kalend. Maiar., Dominico die xiv luna contingit, non autem convenit die Dominico jejunare, quia hoc Manichaeorum est proprium, consequens est in proximam tendere septimanam, intra quam, ut diximus, habemus et xv lunam, quando crucifixus est Dominus et xvi lunam, simul et xvii, quaneo resurrexit a mortuis: ita ut xxviii die mensis Pharmuthi, qui est ix kalend. Maiar., vespere sabbati jejunia pro more solvamus, et sequenti Dominico, xxix die mensis ipsius, qui est viii kalend. Maiar., festum paschale celebremus.
[…] we shall be found to break the fasts improperly on the day before, that is, on the Sabbath, the twenty-first day of the same month, which is the sixteenth day before the kalends of May, when the moon will then be the thirteenth. For the Pasch is not eaten on the thirteenth moon. Hence, since on the twenty-second day of the month Pharmuthi, which is the fifteenth day before the kalends of May, the fourteenth moon falls on a Sunday, and it is not fitting to fast on a Sunday, because this is proper to the Manichaeans, it follows that we must go on into the next week, within which, as we have said, we have both the fifteenth moon, when the Lord was crucified, and the sixteenth moon, and also the seventeenth, on which [printed quaneo] He rose from the dead: so that on the twenty-eighth day of the month Pharmuthi, which is the ninth day before the kalends of May, we break the fasts in the evening of the Sabbath according to custom, and on the following Sunday, the twenty-ninth day of the same month, which is the eighth day before the kalends of May, we celebrate the paschal feast.
CAP. VI. — Illud etiam necessario vobis innotescimus, quod et in futuro centesimo nonagesimo octavo anno ab imperio Diocletiani, xiv luna rursus occurrente xxiii die mensis Pharmuthi, qui est xiv kalend. Maiar., Dominicum Pascha xxx die mensis ipsius, qui est vii kalend. Maiar., Deo praestante celebrabitur.
CHAP. VI. — This too we necessarily make known to you, that in the coming hundred and ninety-eighth year from the reign of Diocletian also, when the fourteenth moon again falls on the twenty-third day of the month Pharmuthi, which is the fourteenth day before the kalends of May, the Lord's Pasch will be celebrated, God granting, on the thirtieth day of the same month, which is the seventh day before the kalends of May.
CAP. VII. — Sed nonnulli subtilitatem paschalis computi forsitan ignorantes Judaicis seducti fabulis aestimabunt nos in secundum mensem recedere, si festivitatem eatenus exigamus. Nescio prorsus unde hoc asserentes. Nam xiv luna ipsius mensis occurrente xxii die mensis Pharmuthi, qui est xv kal. Maiar., quomodo querelam sustinebimus, quod in secundo mense Pascha celebremus? Judaei namque ignorantes Dominum, tempus quoque Paschae ignorant. Unde saepius a primo mense recedunt, et duodecimo mense Pascha celebrare aliquatenus
CHAP. VII. — But some, perhaps ignorant of the subtlety of the paschal reckoning, and led astray by Jewish fables, will think that we are withdrawing into the second month if we carry the festival so far. I do not know at all on what ground they assert this. For when the fourteenth moon of that month falls on the twenty-second day of the month Pharmuthi, which is the fifteenth day before the kalends of May, how shall we suffer the complaint that we celebrate the Pasch in the second month? For the Jews, not knowing the Lord, do not know the time of the Pasch either. Hence they often withdraw from the first month, and to celebrate the Pasch in the twelfth month to some extent […]
Editors' notes and page, col. 1090

Footnotes

(e) ‹quando crucifixus est› · printed under col 1089

Ex editione et mss. Jani supplevimus vocem Dominus.

From the edition and manuscripts of Janus we have supplied the word Dominus.

(f) ‹quod et in futuro› · printed under col 1089, running on under col 1090

Editi ex Sirmondo, cclxv anno. Mss. Oxon. et Bodl., cclxvii anno. Alius codex S. Augendi, quem in emendationibus citat Bucherius, cclviii anno. Correximus eadem ratione, quam indicavimus annot. 35 (Supra, n. d) cum Auctor loquatur de Paschate anni 482, qui convenit cum anno aerae Diocletiani cxcviii. Janus forte ex suis codd. omisit particulam et ante verba in futuro.

The editions from Sirmond, cclxv anno. The Oxford and Bodleian manuscripts, cclxvii anno. Another manuscript, of St. Eugendus, which Bucherius cites in his emendations, cclviii anno. We have corrected it for the same reason that we indicated in note 35 (above, n. d), since the Author is speaking of the Pasch of the year 482, which corresponds to the year 198 of the era of Diocletian. Janus perhaps omitted the particle et before the words in futuro on the authority of his manuscripts.

(g) ‹Dominicum Pascha› · printed under col 1090

Editi et mss., 28 die Pharmuti, perperam; nam hic dies respondet diei ix kal. Maiarum, ut ipse Proterius cap. antecedenti testatur; ac proinde correctio tutissima est, quam alii margini ascribendam scrupulosius censuere.

The editions and manuscripts, 28 die Pharmuti, wrongly; for this day corresponds to the ninth day before the kalends of May, as Proterius himself testifies in the preceding chapter; and therefore the correction is entirely safe, which others, too scrupulously, judged should be written in the margin.

(h) ‹computi forsitan ignorantes› · printed under col 1090

Ex his et sequentibus, quae de Judaeis traduntur, colligendum videtur Judaeorum supputationem Romanis favisse, quos tamen aeque errasse Auctor pronuntiat.

From these and the following statements made about the Jews, it seems one must infer that the reckoning of the Jews favoured the Romans, whom nevertheless the Author declares to have erred equally.

(i) ‹aestimabunt nos› · printed under col 1090

Haec eadem objectio facta Alexandrinis fuit a Romanis etiam an. 387, cum illi similiter diem Paschatis integra hebdomada post Latinos statuebant, ut ex Ambrosii epistola ad episcopos Aemiliae, ac ex Theophili Prologo Paschali manifestum est; ejusdemque objectionis meminit etiam Cyrillus in Prologo. Quo autem sensu Latini contenderent Alexandrinos celebrare Pascha mense secundo, cum istud in heddomadem protenderent, Proterius indicat capite sequenti in quod vide annot. 47 (Infra, col. 1091, n. d).

This same objection was made to the Alexandrians by the Romans in the year 387 also, when they likewise fixed the day of the Pasch a whole week after the Latins, as is plain from Ambrose's letter to the bishops of Aemilia and from the Paschal Prologue of Theophilus; and Cyril too mentions the same objection in his Prologue. In what sense the Latins contended that the Alexandrians celebrated the Pasch in the second month, when they extended it into [the following] week, Proterius indicates in the following chapter, on which see note 47 (below, col. 1091, n. d).

(j) ‹Nescio prorsus unde hoc› · printed under col 1090

Forte, asserant, vel aliquid desideratur. Mox voces mensis Pharmuti perperam desunt in ms. Oxon.

Perhaps asserant, or something is missing. Shortly after, the words mensis Pharmuti are wrongly missing in the Oxford manuscript.

(k) ‹quomodo querelam sustinebimus› · printed under col 1090

Ita ex editione Jani; al., quia. In sequentibus objectionem in Latinos retorquet, quasi ipsi non tam secundo quam duodecimo mense Pascha celebrent, cum Judaeorum more Pascha celebrant eo mense qui Alexandrinis embolismalis est, ut annot. sequenti explicabimus.

So from the edition of Janus; others, quia. In what follows he turns the objection back upon the Latins, as though they themselves celebrate the Pasch not so much in the second month as in the twelfth, since after the manner of the Jews they celebrate the Pasch in that month which for the Alexandrians is the embolismic one, as we shall explain in the next note.

(l) ‹duodecimo mense Pascha› · printed under col 1090, running on under col 1091

Pronomen se hic additum in plerisque mss. et omnibus editis, excepto Petavio, delevimus auctoritate ms. Cotton., sensu quoque exigente: nam verbum arbitrantur non active sumitur, sed passive pro existimantur, ut supra, cap. 2. Vide annot. 16 (Col. 1086, n. o). Neque enim Judaei umquam arbitrati sunt celebrare Pascha mense 12, sed ita celebrare ab aliis aliquatenus credebantur. Id autem accidit cum Judaei annum faciebant communem, qui Alexandrinis erat embolismalis. Tunc nimirum Judaei celebrabant Pascha mense quidem ipsis primo, sed Alexandrinis qui rectius embolismum admittebant, ultimo, ac proinde ex istorum sententia recedebant a mense primo in lege constituto. Mensis autem embolismalis antecedens mensem primum, licet additus in fine anni praecedentis mensium duodecim, decimus tertius mensis reipsa fuerit, accensebatur tamen a Judaeis mensi duodecimo, eodemque nomine Hebraice appellatus cum 12 mense, quasi alte mensis 12 pro duodecimo mense aliquatenus habebatur.

The pronoun se, added here in most manuscripts and in all the editions except Petau, we have deleted on the authority of the Cotton manuscript, the sense also requiring it: for the verb arbitrantur is not taken actively but passively, for existimantur, as above, chap. 2. See note 16 (col. 1086, n. o). For the Jews never thought that they celebrated the Pasch in month 12, but they were believed by others to celebrate it so in some measure. This happened when the Jews made a common year which for the Alexandrians was embolismic. Then, to be sure, the Jews celebrated the Pasch in the month that was the first for them, but for the Alexandrians, who admitted the embolism more correctly, in the last; and therefore in these men's view they withdrew from the first month appointed in the Law. For the embolismic month preceding the first month, although, being added at the end of the preceding year of twelve months, it was in reality a thirteenth month, was nevertheless reckoned by the Jews with the twelfth month, and, being called by the same name in Hebrew as the 12th month, as a second [printed alte] month 12, it was held in some measure for the twelfth month.

Page

  • running head: 1089 EPISTOLA CXXXIII. 1090 (across the page; this column carries "[EPISTO]LA CXXXIII. 1090")
  • marginal letters: A ‹scha celebremus, inveniemur›; B ‹cimus, quod et in futuro›; C ‹rant. 1271 Unde saepius›; D ‹(footnotes) phili Prologo Paschali›
  • old-edition numerals: 1270 after ‹comeditur›; 1271 after ‹ignorant.›
  • signature: none
  • other: col 1090 opens with "scha", the tail of "Pa-" at the foot of col 1089, set whole in c1089_b; "aliquate-" at the foot of col 1090 is set whole (aliquatenus) at the end of c1090_b.
PL 54:1091
arbitrantur. Sed beatissimi Patres nostri cyclum decemnovennalem certius affigentes, quem violari impossibile est velut crepidinem ac fundamentum et regulam, hunc eumdem decemnovennalem computum statuerunt, non juxta Judaeorum nunc indoctas atque ineptas actiones, neque secundum exterorum putativam fictamque prudentiam, sed secundum gratiam Spiritus sancti instituti, in revolutione saepe memorati decemnovennalis circuli decimas quartas paschales lunas diligentius annotarunt.
[…] they are thought. But our most blessed Fathers, fixing the nineteen-year cycle more surely, which cannot be violated, established this same nineteen-year reckoning as a base, a foundation and a rule, not according to the now unlearned and inept proceedings of the Jews, nor according to the supposed and feigned wisdom of outsiders, but, instructed according to the grace of the Holy Spirit, they noted down with great care the paschal fourteenth moons in the revolution of the oft-mentioned nineteen-year circle.
CAP. VIII. — His itaque confectis, illud etiam oportet attendere quod errent nimium qui primi mensis initium lunaris cursus a xxv die mensis Phamenoth, qui est xii kal. Aprilum, omnino esse constituunt, eo quod tunc initium verni temporis ab his qui hoc invenire valuerunt, cum omni diligentia praefixum esse videatur. Et manifeste quidem secundum cursum solis xxv die mensis Phamenoth, qui
CHAP. VIII. — These things being settled, this too must be observed, that those err greatly who lay down that the beginning of the first month of the lunar course is absolutely from the twenty-fifth day of the month Phamenoth, which is the twelfth day before the kalends of April, on the ground that the beginning of the spring season seems then to have been fixed with all diligence by those who were able to discover this. And plainly indeed, according to the course of the sun, on the twenty-fifth day of the month Phamenoth, which […]
Editors' notes and page, col. 1091

Footnotes

(l) continued from col 1090, set in n1090.

(a) ‹cyclum decemnovennalem› · printed under col 1091

Voces certius affigentes innuunt Christianos Patres cyclum decemnovennalem melius ordinasse quam Judaei; ac proinde Judaeis tribuere videtur eumdem cyclum, in quo embolismos ac decimas quartas paschales lunas aliter et indiligentius annotaverant, indoctis ducti rationibus, et decepti ficta et falsa prudentia exterorum, hoc est, Graecorum ethnicorum, qui etiam decemnovennalem cyclum adhibebant. Mox verba violari impossibile est desunt in ms. Oxon. Et post pauca Janus omittit vocem eumdem.

The words certius affigentes imply that the Christian Fathers ordered the nineteen-year cycle better than the Jews; and so he seems to attribute the same cycle to the Jews, in which they had noted the embolisms and the paschal fourteenth moons otherwise and less carefully, led by unlearned reasonings and deceived by the feigned and false wisdom of outsiders, that is, of the pagan Greeks, who also used a nineteen-year cycle. Shortly after, the words violari impossibile est are missing in the Oxford manuscript. And a little later Janus omits the word eumdem.

(b) ‹nunc indoctas atque ineptas› · printed under col 1091

Forte, rationes, inquit Bucherius. Dein sed gratia Spiritus sancti in ms. Bodl.

Perhaps rationes, says Bucherius. Then sed gratia Spiritus sancti in the Bodleian manuscript.

(c) ‹decemnovennalis circuli› · printed under col 1091

Lunae tantum 14 paschalis diem in decemnovennali Alexandrinorum cyclo quovis anno notatum indicat. Et licet ex luna paschali 14 facile esset Dominicas paschales colligere, non tamen hae in eo cyclo designabantur, eo quod in revolutione annorum 19 ipsius cycli non ita redirent ad caput paschales Dominicae, sicut redibant lunae decimae quartae. Id in cyclo Romanorum ann. 84 accidebat, qui proinde cyclus erat Dominicarum paschalium, ubi ille erat cyclus lunarum paschalium 14.

He indicates that only the day of the paschal moon 14 was marked for each year in the nineteen-year cycle of the Alexandrians. And although it was easy to derive the paschal Sundays from the paschal moon 14, these were nevertheless not marked in that cycle, because in the revolution of the 19 years of the cycle the paschal Sundays did not return to the head as the fourteenth moons returned. That happened in the Romans' cycle of 84 years, which was therefore a cycle of paschal Sundays, whereas the former was a cycle of paschal moons 14.

(d) ‹quod errent nimium› · printed under col 1091, running on under col 1092

Proterius hic respondere nititur objectioni antecedenti capite propositae, qua Romani opponebant Alexandrinos ex suo cyclo Pascha anni 455 rejicere in mensem secundum, eo quod istud festum celebrarent post diem 21 Aprilis, qui Romanis extremus limes erat Dominicarum paschalium; ac si extremus Dominicarum paschalium limes esset dies ultimus mensis primi. Infert vero eos hac ratione primum mensem inchoare a xii kal. Aprilis, id est, a die 21 Martii, in quem incidit aequinoctium vernum. Id autem ex eo probat erroneum, quia initium primi mensis, qui lunaris est, et juxta lunae cursum computari debet, non est sumendus a die certo aequinoctii verni, sed a cursu lunae, quae cum suum cursum tum annuum tum menstruum citius quam sol absolvat, initium primi mensis non potest certo diei cursus solaris affigi, sed per singulos annos cycli decemnovennalis variet necesse est. Cum porro luna 14 primi mensis hoc anno ex Alexandrinorum supputatione incideret in diem xv kal. Maiarum, sequebatur neomeniam paschalem ac proinde initium primi mensis occurrere pridie non. Aprilis. Hinc dies viii kal. Maii, cui iidem pascha assignabant erat luna 21 seu dies 21 primi mensis, ut ne hoc festum in secundum mensem rejicere dici possent. Lunam autem 14 in eumdem diem xv kal. Maiarum cadere Proterius nullibi probat, ut superius annot. 27 (Col. 1088, n. e) monuimus, sed ex solo cyclo decemnovennali certum praesumit. Monendum praeterea est Victorium Aquitanum in Prologo Paschali aliter ex Latinorum sententia primi mensis initium statuere. Latini namque, inquit, a iii non. Martii usque ad iii nonas Aprilis, diebus scilicet 29 observandum maxime consueverunt, ut quocumque eorum die luna fuerit nata, efficiat primi mensis initium. Igitur primi mensis initium non ab aequinoctio verno, ut illis Proterius tribuit, sumebant, sed Proterius id cum Alexandrinis ex Latinorum objectionibus et ratiociniis collegit. Enimvero haud intelligi potest Alexandrinos rejicientes Pascha anni 455 a die xv kal. Maii, ut Romani volebant, in diem viii kal., seu a die 17 Aprilis in diem 24, ex Romanorum sententia transire in secundum mensem, si Leonis tempore primum mensem incoepissent, ut Victorius postea exposuit, a neomenio paschali. Cum enim haec incidisset apud Romanos in diem primam Aprilis, dies vigesima quarta ejusdem mensis, iu quem Alexandrini Pascha prorogabant, excedebat quidem limitem Dominicarum paschalium Romanorum; at cum esset dies Lunae apud Latinos 24, primi mensis limites non praeteribat, ita ut in secundum mensem a neomenia sequenti inchoandum transiret. Igitur hoc tempore Romani non a neomenia lunae paschalis, sed post ultimum Dominicarum paschalium terminum secundum mensem inchoasse videntur, ac proinde eosdem mensem primum ab aequinoctio verno exorsos Proterius non male argumentatus credi potest. In ms. quidem auctiore Chronici Prosperi, quod Bucherius allegat pag. 89, ad annum 455 haec leguntur, quae in editione Labbei desunt: In quo (Paschate scilicet cum Latinis celebrando die 17 Aprilis) nec in ratione plenilunii, nec in primi mensis limite fuisset erratum; ubi primi mensis limitem pro limite Dominicarum paschalium Auctor videtur accipere.

Proterius here tries to answer the objection set out in the preceding chapter, by which the Romans charged that the Alexandrians, following their cycle, threw the Pasch of the year 455 into the second month, because they celebrated this feast after 21 April, which for the Romans was the extreme limit of the paschal Sundays; as though the extreme limit of the paschal Sundays were the last day of the first month. He infers, indeed, that by this reasoning they begin the first month from the twelfth day before the kalends of April, that is, from 21 March, on which the spring equinox falls. And he proves this erroneous from the fact that the beginning of the first month, which is lunar and must be reckoned according to the course of the moon, is not to be taken from a fixed day of the spring equinox but from the course of the moon; and since the moon completes both its yearly and its monthly course more quickly than the sun, the beginning of the first month cannot be fixed to a set day of the solar course, but must vary in each year of the nineteen-year cycle. Further, since by the Alexandrians' reckoning the moon 14 of the first month fell this year on the fifteenth day before the kalends of May, it followed that the paschal new moon, and so the beginning of the first month, fell on the day before the nones of April. Hence the eighth day before the kalends of May, to which they assigned the Pasch, was moon 21, or day 21 of the first month, so that they could not be said to throw this feast into the second month. But Proterius nowhere proves that moon 14 fell on that same fifteenth day before the kalends of May, as we noted above in note 27 (col. 1088, n. e), but presumes it certain from the nineteen-year cycle alone. It must be noted besides that Victorius of Aquitaine, in his Paschal Prologue, sets the beginning of the first month differently, according to the view of the Latins. For the Latins, he says, have been most accustomed to observe from the third day before the nones of March to the third day before the nones of April, that is, 29 days, so that on whichever of these days the moon has been born, it makes the beginning of the first month. Therefore they did not take the beginning of the first month from the spring equinox, as Proterius attributes to them; but Proterius, with the Alexandrians, inferred this from the Latins' objections and reasonings. Indeed it cannot be understood how the Alexandrians, moving the Pasch of the year 455 from the fifteenth day before the kalends of May, as the Romans wished, to the eighth, that is, from 17 April to the 24th, would in the Romans' view pass into the second month, if in Leo's time they had begun the first month, as Victorius later set out, from the paschal new moon. For since this fell among the Romans on the first day of April, the twenty-fourth day of the same month, to which the Alexandrians postponed the Pasch, did indeed exceed the Romans' limit for the paschal Sundays; but since among the Latins it was the 24th day of the moon, it did not pass the limits of the first month, so as to pass into the second month, to be begun from the following new moon. Therefore at this time the Romans seem to have begun the second month not from the new moon of the paschal moon but after the last limit of the paschal Sundays, and consequently Proterius may be believed to have argued not badly that they began the first month from the spring equinox. Indeed in the fuller manuscript of Prosper's Chronicle, which Bucherius cites on p. 89, the following is read at the year 455, which is missing in Labbe's edition: In which (namely the Pasch, if it had been celebrated with the Latins on 17 April) there would have been no error either in the reckoning of the full moon or in the limit of the first month; where the Author seems to take the limit of the first month for the limit of the paschal Sundays.

(e) ‹qui hoc invenire› · printed under col 1092

Ita cum Jano. Alias, voluerunt.

So with Janus. Elsewhere, voluerunt.

Page

  • running head: 1091 S. LEONIS MAGNI EPISTOLAE. 1092 (across the page; this column carries "1091 S. LEONIS MAGNI")
  • marginal letters: A ‹nus arbitrantur. Sed beatissimi›; B ‹his qui hoc invenire›; C ‹(footnotes) pellatus cum 12 mense›; D ‹(footnotes) minicae, sicut redibant›
  • old-edition numerals: 1272 before ‹CAP. VIII.›
  • signature: none
  • other: col 1091 opens with "nus", the tail of "aliquate-" at the foot of col 1090, set whole in c1090_b.
PL 54:1092
est xii kalendar. Aprilium, aequinoctium esse cognoscitur; sed non oportet ab hoc aequinoctio primi mensis exordium juxta cursum lunae prorsus affigere, Alioquin per omnia solis circulo lunae discursus concordare debuerat. Verum quia cunctis habentibus intellectum certum est quod velocissimum lunae motum cursus solis minine consequatur, age jam nunc breviter, Deo praestante, dubios instruamus, quod in secundum mensem nullo modo possimus excedere.
[…] is the twelfth day before the kalends of April, it is known to be the equinox; but one must not fix the beginning of the first month according to the course of the moon altogether from this equinox. Otherwise the course of the moon ought to have agreed in all respects with the circuit of the sun. But since it is certain to all who have understanding that the course of the sun by no means [printed minine] keeps pace with the very swift motion of the moon, come now, let us briefly, God granting, instruct the doubtful that we can in no way go over into the second month.
Si enim in aequinoctio, id est xxv die mensis Phamenoth, qui est xii kal. Aprilium juxta cursum lunae mensis constitueretur initium, rationis esset opinari nonnullos in secundum mensem nos posse recedere. Nunc autem, quia xiv luna primi mensis per indictionem viii, quae ventura est, xxii die mensis Pharmuthi, qui est xv kal. Maiar., invenitur, certum est quod initium ejusdem mensis primi juxta lunae cursum nono die Pharmuthi, qui est pridie non.
For if the beginning of the month according to the course of the moon were set at the equinox, that is, on the twenty-fifth day of the month Phamenoth, which is the twelfth day before the kalends of April, there would be reason for some to suppose that we could withdraw into the second month. But now, since the fourteenth moon of the first month in the eighth indiction, which is to come, is found on the twenty-second day of the month Pharmuthi, which is the fifteenth day before the kalends of May, it is certain that the beginning of that same first month according to the course of the moon [falls] on the ninth day of Pharmuthi, which is the day before the nones […]
Editors' notes and page, col. 1092

Footnotes

(d) continued from col 1091, set in n1091.

(e) printed under this column; its call is in col 1091, set in n1091.

Page

  • running head: 1091 S. LEONIS MAGNI EPISTOLAE. 1092 (across the page; this column carries "MAGNI EPISTOLAE. 1092")
  • marginal letters: A ‹est xii kalendar. Aprilium›; B ‹sis Pharmuthi, qui est xv kal.›; C ‹(footnotes) praeterea est Victorium›; D ‹(footnotes) tem Dominicarum paschalium›
  • old-edition numerals: 1273 after ‹concordare›
  • signature: none
  • other: no footnote call in this column's text; its footnote space holds the end of (d) of col 1091 and (e).
PL 54:1093
April., occurrat. Cum ergo 14 luna xxii die mensis Pharmuthi inveniatur, qui est xv kal. Maiar., Dominicum Pascha xxix die mensis ipsius Pharmuthi qui est viii kal. Maiar., celebrantes, in secundum mensem minime recedimus, cum lunam tunc xxi indubitanter habeamus. Quomodo igitur excurremus in mensem secundum, quandoquidem initium primi mensis juxta lunae cursum, sicut paulo ante dictum est, ix die mensis Pharmuthi, qui est pridie non. April., existat, et xiv luna xxii die mensis ipsius, id est xv kal. Maiar., die proveniat? Hoc autem ita declarato, certum est quod in secundum mensem nullatenus excurramus, xxix die mensis Pharmuthi, qui est viii kal, Maiar., Dominicum Pascha celebrantes.
[…] of April, falls. Since, then, the moon 14 is found on the twenty-second day of the month Pharmuthi, which is the fifteenth day before the kalends of May, in celebrating the Lord's Pasch on the twenty-ninth day of the same month Pharmuthi, which is the eighth day before the kalends of May, we by no means withdraw into the second month, since we then undoubtedly have the twenty-first moon. How then shall we run over into the second month, since the beginning of the first month according to the course of the moon, as was said a little before, is on the ninth day of the month Pharmuthi, which is the day before the nones of April, and the fourteenth moon comes on the twenty-second day of the same month, that is, on the fifteenth day before the kalends of May? This being so declared, it is certain that we in no way run over into the second month when we celebrate the Lord's Pasch on the twenty-ninth day of the month Pharmuthi, which is the eighth day before the kalends of May.
CAP. IX. — Cognoscant itaque per tuam sanctitatem, qui in illis partibus ambigunt, quod legitime per octavam indictionem Pascha peragemus. Propterea enim scripsi, Patrum et in hoc ecclesiasticas formulas subsequens, et exinde occasiones rei hujus assumens. Sic namque et praecessores nostri, si quando dubietas orta est, praedicere festinabant, ut ubique consonanter ageretur sacra festivitas. Quod etiam nunc juxta priscam consuetudinem credimus in Domino praedicari in Ecclesiis et unam fidem, unum baptisma, unam solemnitatem sacratissimam paschalem ab omnibus Christianis ubique celebrari in Christo Jesu Domino nostro, quia in ipso vivimus, et movemur, et sumus (Act. XVII, 28).
CHAP. IX. — Let those, then, who are in doubt in those parts learn through your holiness that we shall keep the Pasch lawfully in the eighth indiction. For I have written for this reason, following in this too the ecclesiastical rules of the Fathers, and taking from them the occasions for this matter. For so our predecessors too, whenever a doubt arose, made haste to announce it beforehand, so that the sacred festival might everywhere be kept in agreement. And this we believe even now, according to the ancient custom, to be proclaimed in the Lord in the churches: that one faith, one baptism, one most sacred paschal solemnity be celebrated by all Christians everywhere in Christ Jesus our Lord, because in Him we live, and move, and are (Acts 17:28).
Transferre voro hanc epistolam in Latinae vocis eloquium non satis certum esse putavimus, ne forte Graecizantes potius apud nos, nec jam valentes haec diligenter exprimere, laederent veritatem propter informem
But we did not think it safe enough to translate this letter into the speech of the Latin tongue, lest perhaps those among us who rather speak Greek, not being able to express these things carefully, should injure the truth through shapeless […]
Editors' notes and page, col. 1093

Footnotes

(a) ‹cum lunam tunc xxi› · printed under col 1093

Jani editio, indubitate.

Janus's edition, indubitate.

(b) ‹id est xv kal. Maiar.› · printed under col 1093

Eadem Jani editio omittit die.

The same edition of Janus omits die.

(c) ‹per octavam indictionem Pascha› · printed under col 1093

Ita correximus ex ms. Digb. Al., peragimus. Mox idem codex habet scripta pro scripsi.

So we have corrected from the Digby manuscript. Others, peragimus. Shortly after, the same manuscript has scripta for scripsi.

(d) ‹Sic namque et› · printed under col 1093

Ita Janus cum mss. Bodl. et Digb., quibus concinit Oxonien., praedecessores. Caeteri editi, praecursores. Cod. Bodl., pro nostri, habet mei.

So Janus with the Bodleian and Digby manuscripts; the Oxford manuscript agrees with them, praedecessores. The other editions, praecursores. The Bodleian manuscript has mei for nostri.

(e) ‹ut ubique consonanter ageretur› · printed under col 1093

Janus, sancta.

Janus, sancta.

(f) ‹juxta priscam consuetudinem› · printed under col 1093

Ita Janus ex suis, ut credimus, mss., cui concinunt alii antiquiores editi, qui solum omittunt conjunctionem et ante voces unam solemnitatem. Apud Quesn., debemus in Domino praedicare in Ecclesiis, sicut unam fidem, unum baptisma, ita unam solemnitatem sacratissimam paschalem ab omnibus Christianis ubique celebrari; in quibus celebrari cum verbo debemus non satis cohaeret.

So Janus from his manuscripts, as we believe, with whom the other older editions agree, which only omit the conjunction et before the words unam solemnitatem. In Quesnel, debemus in Domino praedicare in Ecclesiis, sicut unam fidem, unum baptisma, ita unam solemnitatem sacratissimam paschalem ab omnibus Christianis ubique celebrari; in which celebrari does not agree well enough with the verb debemus.

(g) ‹ne forte Graecizantes potius› · printed under col 1093

Magis placuit haec lectio Jani, cui ejus codd. suffragantur, nec non editio Petavii, quam lectio Bucheriana et Quesnelliana, apud vos; agitur enim de his Graecizantibus apud Proterium, quos, cum timeret ne valerent exacte exprimere sermone Latino, noluit hanc epistolam Latine reddere. Mox apud Labbeum et Quesnellum intra parenthesim (nec enim jam valemus haec diligenter exprimere alii vero editi, nec enim jam valentes, etc. quae sensum turbant. Janum sequi maluimus.

This reading of Janus, which his manuscripts support, as does Petau's edition, pleased us more than the reading of Bucherius and Quesnel, apud vos; for it concerns those Greek-speakers in Proterius's company whom he feared would not be able to express it exactly in the Latin tongue, and so he was unwilling to render this letter into Latin. Shortly after, in Labbe and Quesnel, within a parenthesis (nec enim jam valemus haec diligenter exprimere; the other editions, nec enim jam valentes, etc., which disturb the sense. We have preferred to follow Janus.

(h) printed under this column; its call is in col 1094, set in n1094. (i) printed under this column; its call is in col 1094, set in n1094. (j) printed under this column (running on under col 1094); its call is in col 1094, set in n1094.

Page

  • running head: 1093 EPISTOLA CXXXIV. 1094 (across the page; this column carries "1093 EPISTOLA CX")
  • marginal letters: A ‹April., occurrat. Cum ergo›; B ‹CAP. IX. — Cognoscant itaque›; C ‹Graecizantes potius apud nos›; D ‹(footnotes) (g) Magis placuit›
  • old-edition numerals: 1274 before ‹sacratissimam›
  • signature: none
  • other: "in-" at the foot of col 1093 is set whole (informem) at the end of c1093_b.