Follow the Greater Part of the World

“It was necessary, therefore, that this matter be set right, so that we might have nothing in common with that nation of parricides who killed their Lord. And the arrangement kept by all the churches of the western, southern and northern parts of the world, and by some of the eastern as well, is in keeping with what is fitting. For these reasons all have agreed on this present occasion that it deserves to be adopted. I myself have undertaken that this decision will meet with the approval of your wisdom, in the hope that you in your wisdom will gladly accept the practice that is kept, with complete unity of judgment, in the city of Rome and in Africa, throughout Italy, and in Egypt, in Spain, the provinces of Gaul, Britain, Libya and the whole of Greece, in the dioceses of Asia and Pontus, and in Cilicia. And you will consider not only that the churches in the regions I have listed are far more numerous than in any other, but also that it is most fitting for all to join in wanting what sound reason seems to demand, and in avoiding all share in the perjured conduct of the Jews. In short, to put my meaning in as few words as possible, it has been decided by the common judgment of all that the most holy feast of Easter should be kept on one and the same day. For on the one hand, a difference of opinion on so sacred a question is unseemly; and on the other, it is surely best to act on a decision that is free from strange folly and error. [a]