Eusebius here does not mention the intervening dispute in which Melito, bishop of Sardis, figures. But in iv. 26 he speaks of him, and from the account we gather that he was a prolific writer ; a list of his books is given. In the quotation from Polycrates in v. 24 we find the name of Melito appearing as a Quartodeciman, but it is not said that he was a ^vriter. From the earlier passage we learn that Iw. wiDt'; a book trepl roO 7rd<rxa, from which a (lUdhd inn i, :^i\(u; ' ^Yllile Servilius [Rulinus gives 'Sci-ius'J Taulus was proconsul of Asia, at the time \\ litn .Safaris suft'ered martyr- dom, there arose in Laodicca [in Phrygia] a great strife concerning Pascha, which fell according to rule in those days (i/nre<r6vTm Kara. Kaipdv 4v iKdvait rah ijfiipais), and these thin^js wcro written [sc. be- cause of the dispute].' Sn >!(■( lillrit ['Eusebius' in Nicejia and Fost-Nin ii. /',,^/,,,n| renders these words, thougli it is not ulninus «h:iL they mean; for when did not Pascha fall according to rule ? For other explanations see Salmon in Smith- Wace, Diet, of Chr. Biog. s.v. ' Melito.' Eusebius goes on to say that Clement of Alexandria refers to Melito's work, and himself wrote one with the same title, ' on occasion ' {i^ ahlas) of Melito's treatise, i.e., probably, in opposition to it, thougli Hefele thinks that Clement's book was meant to suppkmn,/ >r..lit.,s.
Thar,i^,/i>i/ (_'/,rf //(■-7'iiicutioii^lli:i( Apolinarius, bishop cjf Hicraiioli^, (ji whom Sri,i|nciii, bishop of Antiocli (.'. Lini) a.d.), is tlio lir-l. (o sjifak— but he was then dead — wrote a book repi toO irdaxo; and preserves two fragments of it. It is disputed whether Apolinarius was a Quartodeciman. If so, he was not an extreme partisan ; he certainly wrote before the discussion became acute, as in
258 CALENDAR, THE CHRISTIAN
CALENDAR, THE CHRISTIAN
the time of Polyerates. He lield (the Paschal Chronicle states) that our Lord, being the true Paschal Lamb, was slain on the day of the Pass- over feast. Some have asserted that there were two parties of Quartodecimans, the one Judaizing and the other not. But it is perhaps unnecessary to divide them, with Hefele, into 'Ebionites' and ' Johanneans.' Eusebius (iv. 27) mentions Apolin- arius' WTitings, but not the work in question.
There were thus three stages in the controversy : (1) the discussion between Polycarp and Anicetus, c. 150 A.D., when they agreed to difi'er, and parted amicably ; (2) the dispute at Laodicea about A.D. 170 ; (3) the bitter contest between Victor and Polj'crates about A.D. 190.
The other Churches, as a rule, — those outside ' Asia,' — agreed with Victor in his practice, but disapproved of his excommunicating the Quarto- decimans. The Roman Pascha gradually pre- vailed, and was affirmed by the Council of Nicsea in 325, in whose decision the bishop of 'Asia' acquiesced. Thenceforward the Quartodeciman practice was confined to a few communities which were considered heretical. It lasted till the 5th cent., and Sozonien (HE vii. 19) speaks of it as stUl going on in his day, c. 443 A.D.
(d) Determination of Easter: Paschal cycles. — The defeat of the Quartodecimans did not ensure that all should keep Easter on the same day, for different calculations ■were in use for determining the paschal full moon. This had long been the case. For a time the Christians were dependent on the Jews for the date of their festival. The Hippolytean Canons (§ 195, ed. Achelis) say that the week when the Jews celebrate Pascha is to be observed by all with the utmost zeal as a fast. And the older Didascalia, according to Codex Sangermanensis (Gibson's Didasc. 1903, p. 97), bids the Christians 'keep j'our fast with all care, but commence when your brethren of the Nation keep Pascha' ; the Verona Fragments are wanting here. And in the 4th cent. pseudo-Pionius, in his Life of Polycarp (§2; for the date see Light- foot's Ignatius, iii. 429), says that 'the Apostle [Paul] plainly teaches that we ought neither to keep it outside the season of unleavened bread, as the heretics do, especially the Phrygians, nor yet, on the other hand, of necessity on the fourteenth day ; for he said nothing about tlie fourteenth day, but named the days of unleavened bread, the Passover, and the Pentecost, thus ratifying the Gospel.'
On the other hand, the Apostolic Consiit utians (v. 17) expressly say: 'Be no longer careful to keep the feast with the Jews, for we have now no communion with them ' ; and the Jews are said to have erred in their calculations. [Tlie passage inserted before this in Dr. Donaldson's translation in the Ante-Nicene Christian Library, taken from Epiphanius, belongs to the older Didascalia, and is not part of the Apostolic Con- stitutions at all].
And long before this Hippolytus had made an elaborate calculation, so that it might be no longer neces-sary for the Christians to follow the Jews, who had "one wrong in their computation through lax calculations of the lunar year. Hippolytus follows the system adopted by the Greek astro- nomers to harmonize the lunar and solar years. He makes the lunar year to be 354 days of twelve months, which alternately have 30 and 29 days. To supply the difference of llj days between tlie lunar and solar years, he interpolates three months of 30 days each in every eight years (8 x 11^ = 90). He also puts two eight-year periods together, for convenience of determining the day of the week