58. A formula to find what year of the lunar cycle or of the nineteen-year cycle it is
THE RECKONING OF TIME
on the above-mentioned kalends. Only remember to add 2 regulars in the 17th,18th and 19th years of this cycle, not 1 as in other years, and you will
¢nd the Moon on the kalends without any mistake.
58. A FORMULA TO FIND WHAT YEAR OF THE LUNAR
CYCLE OR OF THE NINETEEN-YEAR CYCLE IT IS
If you wish to know the year of the lunar cycle, take the year of our Lord, for instance 725, and always subtract two:54 there remain 723. Divide these by 19, and there is a remainder of 1; it is the ¢rst year of the cycle.
But whenever there is no remainder, it is the 19th year.55 And because the 19-year cycle keeps the same course as the lunar cycle, but a bit behind it, if you wish to know what year of this cycle it is, take the year of the Lord, for instance 725, and always add 1;56 this makes 726.
Divide by 19, and there is a remainder of 4. It is the fourth year of the 19-year cycle. If there is nothing left over, it is the last year.57
59. THE FOURTEENTH MOON OF EASTER
The sixth section [locus] of the aforementioned cycle contains the fourteenth Moons of the ¢rst month, which indicate without any ambiguity the day of Easter Sunday in every year; for the Sunday which comes after the fourteenth Moon is the Paschal day of the Lord's Resurrection.
This fourteenth Moon manifests its progress over the Earth at sundown on the equinox,58 that is, the 12th kalends of April [21 March] at the earliest, and at the latest 29 days later, that is, on the 14th kalends of May [18 April]. It is agreed that according to the time appointed by the Law [legali tempore] the course of the Paschal observance is contained within these limits throughout the nineteen years [of the cycle]. And even were it possible for this same fourteenth Moon to fall on Saturday every year, nothing would displace the time of our Paschal observance from its lawful [time]. For [we], sacri¢cing according to the precept of the Law always on the fourteenth day of the Moon of the ¢rst month at 54 Because the lunar cycle runs 3 years ahead of the 19-year cycle, but the 19-year cycle begins in BC 1 (see following argumentum), only 2 is deducted from the AD year.
55 Dionysius Exiguus, Argumenta titulorum paschalium 6 (76.19^22).
56 Because the 19-year cycle begins in BC 1: see ch. 46 and Commentary.
57 Dionysius Exiguus, Argumenta titulorum paschalium 5 (76.15^18).
58 Cf. chs. 6, 43.
TRANSLATION
sunset, and eating the £esh of the immaculate lamb, and sprinkling its blood upon our doorposts to repel /448/ the destroyer (this is baptism), and celebrating the solemnities of the Paschal mass, would triumph over the spiritual Egypt. And at break of day on the ¢fteenth day of the Moon of that month, we would enter upon the ¢rst day of Unleavened
Bread, and we would complete the seven appointed days of that festivity with due veneration from the morning of the ¢fteenth day to the evening of the twenty-¢rst day of that ¢rst month, that is from Easter
Sunday until the Sunday of the octave of Easter.
But because the same day of the Moon falls on di¡erent weekdays, it therefore comes to pass (given that we are taught to restrict the beginning of Easter to a Sunday because of the Resurrection of our Redeemer) that sometimes our festivity takes its beginning on the seventh day after the start of the [feast of] Unleavened Bread [prescribed by the] Law.
However, it never happens that our Paschal solemnity does not fall on a day of the Pasch [appointed by the] Law, but it often falls on all of them within this [period]. On the other hand, those59 who think that Easter
Sunday ought to be celebrated from the sixteenth to the twenty-second Moon labour under a double burden, because they hold to the beginning of the Pasch prescribed by the Law, and because it often happens that they follow none of the days which are laid down by the Law for the observance of the Pasch. For they reject outright from their celebration both the evening of the fourteenth day, when it was decreed that the Pasch was to begin, and the morning of the ¢fteenth day, when the appointed solemnity of the seven days of Unleavened Bread is to commence. And on top of it all, to exacerbate this sin, they command that the twenty-second day ^ which is never once mentioned by Moses in all his Paschal law ^ be sancti¢ed.
There are those60 who swerve from the wayof truth in the other direction, but with no less error, even though Scripture commands them to travel by the royal road, and not to turn aside from it either to the left or to the right. By decreeing that Easter Sunday should be observed from the fourteenth day of the Moon until the twentieth, these people often pre-empt the beginning of the Pasch [decreed by the] Law, when they divert what is ordained for the fourteenth day of the Moon to the thirteenth day. And what is ordained concerning the twenty-¢rst day, conse59 I.e. Victorius.
60 I.e. the Celtic computists.