Controversy over the Date of Easter: Difference between revisions

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==Polycarp, Anicetus and Easter==
==Polycarp, Anicetus and Easter==
The Bishops in Rome continued with this feeling of supremacy until Polycarp (the disciple of John), became frustrated by their attempts to influence other churches over trivial matters and traveled to Rome to deal with the issue of the date of the Passover/Eucharist.


Anicetus (the 10th Bishop of Rome) submitted to Polycarp's rebuke, and an agreement was reached around 160 A.D. that each church should have the right to determine the date of the Passover/Eucharist independently.   
Irenaeus recounts the specific instance when Polycarp visited Rome in the time of Anicetus (ca. 155): “although they disagreed a little about some other matters as well, they immediately made peace, having no wish for strife between them on this matter” (5.24.16). Neither Polycarp nor Anicetus was able to persuade the other of the correctness of his own observance, but “under these circumstances they communicated with each other, and in the church, Anicetus yielded the celebration of the Lord's Supper to Polycarp, obviously out of respect, and they parted from each other in peace, for the peace of the whole church was kept by those who observed and those who did not.”<ref>Luke Timothy Johnson, Among the Gentiles: Greco-Roman Religion and Christianity (New Haven; London: Yale University Press, 2009), 244–245.</ref>
 
Polycarp also influenced Anicetus to condemn certain heresies with more vigor.


==Irenaeus, Victor and Easter==
==Irenaeus, Victor and Easter==