04 — Rome and the Pascha Dispute
Polycarp’s visit to Rome late in his life (c. 154/155) and his conference with Pope Anicetus over the date of Pascha — the Quartodeciman controversy — which ended not in rupture but in the two bishops “agreeing to differ in peace,” Anicetus yielding the Eucharist in his own church to his visitor. The section sets this against the wider second-century relation of East and West, including the later contrast with Pope Victor’s attempted excommunication.
Tradition: Pan-Orthodox (Apostolic Father)
The episode is preserved by Irenaeus, in his letter to Pope Victor quoted by Eusebius (HE 5.24), and it is one of the most instructive in early Church history: two churches with apostolic pedigrees for incompatible Paschal customs — Asia keeping 14 Nisan, Rome the following Sunday — discovered that communion could hold across the difference. A generation later Victor would try to break that communion, and Irenaeus would rebuke him by invoking precisely the Polycarp–Anicetus precedent. This section treats the visit, the controversy, and what the whole affair means for the Orthodox understanding of conciliarity and unity-in-diversity, handled even-handedly per the methodology.
Files in This Section
| File | Description |
|---|---|
| The Visit to Anicetus | The c.154/155 visit to Rome; the Quartodeciman / Pascha-dating controversy explained (14 Nisan vs Sunday, apostolic-custom appeals on both sides); “agreeing to differ in peace” and Anicetus yielding the Eucharist to Polycarp (Irenaeus in Eusebius, HE 5.24); the Marcion “firstborn of Satan” encounter (Irenaeus, Against Heresies 3.3.4). |
| East and West in the Second Century | The wider significance: communion across diverse customs; the contrast with Victor’s later attempted excommunication (c.190) and Irenaeus’s rebuke; the road to Nicaea 325; and what the episode means for conciliarity, primacy of honor, and unity-in-diversity — presented without polemic. |
See Also
- Irenaeus on Polycarp — the witness who preserves the Rome episode
- The Martyrium Polycarpi — Polycarp’s death, shortly after the Roman visit
- Smyrna and the Apostolic Link — the apostolic custom Polycarp appealed to
- Great Lent — the Paschal cycle at issue
- The Pre-Schism Church — the second-century communion of churches
References
- Eusebius of Caesarea. The Ecclesiastical History (4.14; 5.24). Trans. Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series II, Vol. 1.
- Irenaeus of Lyons. Against Heresies (3.3.4) and the Letter to Victor (in Eusebius, HE 5.24). Trans. Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 1.
- Holmes, Michael W. The Apostolic Fathers: Greek Texts and English Translations. 3rd ed. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2007.
- Lightfoot, J. B. The Apostolic Fathers, Part II: S. Ignatius, S. Polycarp. 2 vols. London: Macmillan, 1885.