Reformed Churchmen

We are Confessional Calvinists and a Prayer Book Church-people. In 2012, we remembered the 350th anniversary of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer; also, we remembered the 450th anniversary of John Jewel's sober, scholarly, and Reformed "An Apology of the Church of England." In 2013, we remembered the publication of the "Heidelberg Catechism" and the influence of Reformed theologians in England, including Heinrich Bullinger's Decades. For 2014: Tyndale's NT translation. For 2015, John Roger, Rowland Taylor and Bishop John Hooper's martyrdom, burned at the stakes. Books of the month. December 2014: Alan Jacob's "Book of Common Prayer" at: http://www.amazon.com/Book-Common-Prayer-Biography-Religious/dp/0691154813/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1417814005&sr=8-1&keywords=jacobs+book+of+common+prayer. January 2015: A.F. Pollard's "Thomas Cranmer and the English Reformation: 1489-1556" at: http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Cranmer-English-Reformation-1489-1556/dp/1592448658/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1420055574&sr=8-1&keywords=A.F.+Pollard+Cranmer. February 2015: Jaspar Ridley's "Thomas Cranmer" at: http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Cranmer-Jasper-Ridley/dp/0198212879/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1422892154&sr=8-1&keywords=jasper+ridley+cranmer&pebp=1422892151110&peasin=198212879

Wednesday, August 6, 2014

August 663/664 A.D. Synod of Whitby: Calendar Debate, Easter Controversy, Haircuts & English Submission


August 663/664 A.D.  Synod of Whitby:  Calendar Debate, Easter Controversy, Haircuts & English Submission

Thurston, Herbert. "Synod of Whitby." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 15. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15610a.htm.  Accessed 11 Jul 2014.

Synod of Whitby


The Christianizing of Britain begun by St. Augustine in A.D. 597 was carried on with varying success throughout the seventh century. One great hindrance to progress lay in the fact that in Northumbria the missionary impulse was largely Scottish (i.e. Irish) in origin, having come through St. Aidan from Iona. In certain matters of external discipline, notably the observance of Easter, the English and Celtic traditions did not agree. Thus when the Northumbrian King Oswy and his household were keeping Easter, his queen, who had been brought up in the south under the Roman system, was still fasting. The consequent inconvenience and discord must have been extreme. In 664 a fortunate opportunity occurred of debating the matter, and a conference took place at the monastery of St. Hilda at Whitby or Streanoeshalch. King Oswy with Bishops Colman and Chad represented the Celtic tradition; Alchfrid, son of Oswy, and Bishops Wilfrid and Agilbert that of Rome. A full account of the conference is given by Bede and a shorter one by Eddius. Both agree as to the facts that Colman appealed to the practice of St. John, Wilfrid to St. Peter and to the council of Nicaea, and that the matter was finally settled by Oswy's determination not to offend St. Peter. "I dare not longer", he said, "contradict the decrees of him who keeps the doors of the Kingdom of Heaven, lest he should refuse me admission". This decision involved more than a mere matter of discipline. The real question decided at Whitby was not so much whether the church in England should use a particular paschal cycle, (see EASTER CONTROVERSY) as "whether she should link her fortunes with those of the declining and loosely compacted Irish Church, or with the rising power and growing organization of Rome". The solution arrived at was one of great moment, and, though the Celtic Churches did not at once follow the example thus set, the paschal controversy in the West may be said to have ended with the Synod of Whitby.

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