The Disagreement over Easter

But before this time another most harmful disorder had existed, and had long afflicted the church. I mean the difference over the saving feast of Easter. For one party claimed that the Jewish custom should be followed, while the other held that the exact return of the season should be kept, without following the authority of people who were in error and strangers to the grace of the gospel. [a]

So the people were divided over this everywhere, and the sacred observances of religion had been thrown into confusion for a long time. The difference of opinion over the time for keeping one and the same feast caused the deepest disagreement among those who kept it: some were afflicting themselves with fasting and hardship, while others were giving their time to festive rest. Yet no one appeared who was able to devise a remedy for the evil, because the dispute stayed evenly balanced between the two sides. To God alone, the Almighty, was the healing of these differences an easy task, and Constantine appeared to be the only one on earth able to serve him for this good end. For as soon as he learned the facts I have described, and saw that his letter to the Christians of Alexandria had not had its proper effect, he at once roused all the energy of his mind, and declared that he must carry on this war too, to the very end, against the hidden enemy who was disturbing the peace of the church.