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The Quartodeciman Controversy was an early church dispute about the proper day to celebrate Easter. Quartodecimanism said that Easter should be observed on Nissan 14 (Passover)—no matter what day of the week that fell on—and other Christians said Easter should always be observed on a Sunday. The word Quartodeciman comes from the Latin phrase quarta decima (meaning “fourteenth”), found in the Vulgate translation of Leviticus 23:5.
The dispute over Quartodecimanism was an early indication of an East-West split. Christians holding to the Nissan 14 date for Easter were primarily Jewish believers who lived in Jerusalem, Asia Minor, and Syria. Those holding to the Sunday-only observance lived nearer to Rome.
The Quartodeciman Controversy may have had roots tracing back to the time of Polycarp, a disciple of the apostle John’s. Three events in the early church contributed to the dispute: 1) the disagreement between Polycarp, the bishop of Smyrna, and Anicetus, the bishop of Rome, around AD 155; 2) the more heated controversy between Polycrates, the bishop of Ephesus, and Victor, the bishop of Rome, around 195; and 3) the decree of Constantine following the Nicene Council in 325.
The historian Eusebius is a primary source for understanding the discord. Concerning the disagreement between Polycarp and Anicetus, Eusebius recorded that “they immediately made peace with one another, not caring to quarrel over this matter” (Ecclesiastical History, Book V, ch. 24, ¶ 16). A stronger disagreement arose between a later bishop of Rome named Victor and a bishop from Asia Minor named Polycrates. Eusebius quotes Polycrates:
We observe the exact day; neither adding nor taking away. For in Asia also great lights have fallen asleep, which shall rise again on the day of the Lord’s coming. . . . Among these are Philip, one of the twelve apostles, who fell asleep in Hierapolis; and his two aged virgin daughters, and another daughter, who lived in the Holy Spirit and now rests at Ephesus; moreover, John, who was both a witness and a teacher, who reclined upon the bosom of the Lord, and, being a priest, wore the sacerdotal plate. . . . All these observed the fourteenth day of the Passover according to the Gospel, deviating in no respect, but following the rule of faith. And I also, Polycrates, the least of you all, do according to the tradition of my relatives, some of whom I have closely followed. Seven of my relatives were bishops, and I am the eighth. And my relatives always observed the day when the people put away the leaven. I, therefore, brethren, who have lived sixty-five years in the Lord, and have met with the brethren throughout the world, and have gone through every Holy Scripture, am not affrighted by terrifying words. For those greater than I have said “We ought to obey God rather than man.” (ibid., ¶ 1–7)
The Quartodeciman Controversy was all but settled at the Council of Nicaea in AD 325. The council took up the matter and unanimously agreed to observe Easter on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox (the first day of spring). So, in the end, Quartodecimanism lost. There are still Christians today, mostly in the East, who believe that Polycarp and Polycrates were right and that Easter should be celebrated on Nissan 14.The observance of a certain calendar day does not make anyone a heretic (see Romans 14:5–6). Polycarp’s response to the controversy is a model for us all. He and Anicetus “agreed to disagree,” and both men continued to observe Easter as they had been doing in their respective churches.
