Tag: CPL 2278

I wrote in a previous post about CPL 2278, the anonymous 6th century text De Solemnitatibus Paschae, “On the Solemnities of Passover”, which is also letter 149 of St Jerome, or rather pseudo-Jerome.  Since the existing translation by G.S.M.Walker is hard to access, I have made a translation myself. Here it is:

• Jerome (ps) – Letter 149 – De Solemnitatibus Paschae – February 2026 – v1.0 (PDF)
• Jerome (ps) – Letter 149 – De Solemnitatibus Paschae – February 2026 – v1.0(MS Word .docx file)

The files are also at Archive.org here.

As usual, I make this public domain.  Do whatever you like with it, personal, educational or commercial.  And just to make it easier, here’s just the translation without the notes.

It’s a text written during the arguments about whether the Roman or Irish method of calculation should be used for Easter, in the run-up to the Synod of Whitby (664 AD).  The Irish method could potentially cause Easter to coincide with Passover, the 14th of the month.  This left a powerful argument in Roman hands, which the author takes full advantage of.  Now read on!

The Disputation of St. Jerome regarding the Solemnities of Passover / Easter

1. Regarding the solemnities, sabbaths, and new moons, which are commanded to be observed by the Lord in the Law, we are compelled by the authority of your Charity to say what should be rejected according to the letter, and what should be observed spiritually. First we are obliged to respond to those who love the letter and to the adversaries of the truth. Although I could reasonably strike back at them, I prefer to bring them to the recognition of the truth by addressing them in a winning and gentle manner.

In their desire to chew over the bitter bark of the root they are ignoring the fruit, and in admiring golden dust they are despising the finished metal. Because even if they contend that all things should be observed according to the letter of the Law, they cannot be enlightened by the Spirit of Truth because there is a veil placed over the face of Moses.

But even if they have not assented to the truth, let us bear them anyway upon the shoulders of our patience, “ready to give an account of that faith which is in us,” (1 Pet. 3:15), according to the custom of the scape-goat which is sent out to its destruction,(Lev. 16:20-26), and to wash our garments afterwards, so that we may not stay contaminated by the pollution of heretical thinking.

Now at the start of this little book we will follow the example of Jeremiah: we will first uproot and destroy, and then we shall plant and build. (cf. Jer. 1: 10).

2. Regarding the scriptures, we want to show first how these feast days of the Lord, which are commanded to be observed in the Law, must be celebrated, not as a shadow, but as a spiritual observance. And if anyone wants to treat the authority of one as unimportant as myself as of little account, let them listen to the prophets. These looked into the future by providential prophecy and with a clear voice foretold the condemnation of these things in the days of the gospel.

Indeed through them the Lord himself proclaims in advance, “Your feasts, new moons, and sabbaths, my soul hates” (Isaiah 1:13-14), and (in this way) the Lord declares that he did not command these things, when it is clear that He did command these things in the Law. What else is shown by these words, other than that, once Christ the end of the Law has come, He does not command them to be observed according to the letter?

Regarding sacrifices, however, he says through another prophet (Ps. 50:8-9), “I will not reprove you for your sacrifices: your burnt offerings are always in my sight. I will not take calves out of your house, nor goats out of your flocks,” and the rest, as far as, “or shall I drink the blood of goats?” (Ps. 50:13)

The Apostle, filled with the same Spirit, fittingly says in these words, (Col. 2:16-17) “Let no one pass judge you in food or drink or in respect of a festival day or of the new moon or of the sabbaths, which are (just) a shadow of things to come” and the rest. With the utmost clarity he declares in these words that in observing either particular days or foods in the flesh he can find nothing but an empty shadow and a snare of deception.

The Lord Jesus also declared (implicitly) in the gospel that (the commandment about) the sabbath is abolished when he commanded the paralysed man, “Take up your bed” (cf. Mark 2:9; John 5:8), because it is clear that this was forbidden by the Law, namely to carry burdens on the sabbath. He also abolished the feast of Tabernacles when he said, “I do not go up to this festival day” (John 7:8), just as if He had said, “In this observance of this festival, the glory of my honour will not go up.” (cf. John 7: 39)

3. Regarding Passover, however, the greatest sacrament of our salvation, I shall speak a little more fully, although there is not the time to discuss everything.

Firstly, I wish to demonstrate through what regulations and how many it is commanded to observe the Lord’s Passover. Through Moses, the Lord commanded that, on the tenth day of the first month, a lamb, a spotless young lamb, should be set aside and kept until the fourteenth day. On the fourteenth day, in the evening it should be killed by the whole assembly of the children of Israel.

When the Lord himself, the true Lamb, was moving towards the true passover, He observed some of these observances, intending them to continue; but others he changed, preferring them not to continue. While He considered it right to be sacrificed according to the command of the Law in the first month, and made sure that the time of his passion did not in any way precede the fourteenth moon, the gospel reports that he still did some things contrary to the foreshadowing (of the Law), because although He was handed over to the Jews by Judas, he was not taken into custody on the tenth day of the first month, and although He had considered it right to give the sacraments of His body and blood to His disciples during his lifetime, it is revealed that He did this also contrary to the foreshadowing (of the Law), because that lamb, which at passover is ordered to be killed as a foreshadowing of Christ, was commanded to be roasted with fire and eaten by the people, together with its head and feet and entrails, after it was slaughtered.

Now it seems to me that God makes clear that he did this for two intelligible reasons. (Firstly), if he had not changed the (format of) the sacrifice afterwards, when he had eaten passover with his disciples, saying, “This is my body,” (Mt. 26:26) then they would suppose that it should still be observed going forward. The other reason is, I think, this: so that when they saw, prior to the passion, the body of the Lord whole and containing his blood in him, they would believe that they were being refreshed spiritually in the body; and so this should be believed by us now in the same way. And we must also consider this: that it was not on the fourteenth day at evening, as the Law commands, that “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world,”(John 1:29) and “Christ our passover was sacrificed,” (1 Cor. 5:7) but on the fifteenth day. From this it is evident that the feast day of the Jews along with its sacrifice was abolished by the Lord.

But what are we to understand from this: that first they eat the body of the foreshadowing lamb (cf. Exodus 12), and then He refreshed the apostles with the food of his body; and, after the foreshadowing of the Jews, Christ was sacrificed in our passover? This, I think, is in order that the reality would not precede the foreshadowing, but the foreshadowing would precede the reality, because “The spiritual did not come first, but the natural; and after that the spiritual” (1 Cor. 15: 46). For this reason the whole church, the chosen and beloved bride of Christ, anathematises those who, like the Jews, decree that the fourteenth moon is to be celebrated on the passover feast, and the sabbaths and the rest of the shadow observances of this sort. And this only did the Lord deem worthy to observe, so that he decreed without ambiguity that, in the first month AFTER the fourteenth day, the passover festivity should be celebrated, although in this a difference has arisen in the church, some believing that it is sufficient to avoid celebrating passover with the Jews on the fourteenth, while others strongly and cautiously maintain this, that they do not dare to celebrate the sacrifice of the true “Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world,” before the fourteenth, according to that legal precept which the Lord, coming to his passion, did not at all despise, but said, “You shall keep it until the fourteenth day,” (Exodus 12:6) which the Church, following the authority of the apostolic see, now especially observes.

But let us turn our attention to the spiritual interpretation because there is not enough time to examine every detail, leaving these things in which it is commanded to eat the body of the passover lamb on the fourteenth day of the month in the month of new things: so that, while new fruits are being born from good works because the words of the Decalogue have been fulfilled by us, as we stand firm in the four-fold perfection of the gospel, we may eat the body of our Lamb in the evening of the world, in which the end of the ages has come, with unshadowed hearts, while the Holy Spirit is illuminating the night.

4. Regarding the Sabbath, for six days we are commanded to work, but on the seventh, that is the Sabbath, we are forbidden all servile work. By the number six the perfection of works is signified, because God made heaven and earth in six days.

On the Sabbath, however, we are forbidden to do any servile work, which is sin, because “whoever commits a sin is a slave to sin;”(John 8:34) so that, when we have completed the perfection of works in the present age without hardening our hearts, we may deserve to arrive at the true rest which is denied to the obstinate. As the Lord says through David, “They shall not enter into my rest.” (Ps.94:11, Heb. 4:3-7)

Regarding Pentecost, from the day after the Sabbath we are commanded by the Law to count seven full weeks until the day after the completion of the seventh week, that is the fiftieth day , on which the first fruits are offered. This numbering of full perfection is made through the number seven, and fifty, and five times ten, which I think signifies this: that through the number fifty, which contains forgiveness in itself, and through charity, which is poured into our hearts by the grace of the sevenfold Spirit coming upon it, we may have the five senses of our body placed under the Law of God, which contains within it the words of the Decalogue; and, as I said, through charity, “which charity covers over a multitude of sins.” (1 Peter 4:8) And so we shall offer a new sacrifice to the Lord in all our dwelling-places, offering up (ourselves) to our great Priest along with our peaceful sacrifices, just as we shall have made peace with the Lord by offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ, He who eats the bread of the first-fruits of our land, though leavened, yet consecrated to Himself.

This is our high priest, who, having entered heaven, is able to have compassion upon our weaknesses, (Heb. 4:14-15) and, since we have him as an advocate with the Father (1 John 2:1), He accepts the works which, leavened with the leaven of our frailty, through His compassionate mercy rise up through the upraised hand of prayer , to this priest. They do not bring to God an odour of sweetness, but rather demand His forbearance.

5. Regarding the Feast of Tabernacles. And at the end of the solar year among the Hebrews, i. e. in the seventh month, when the harvest is gathered into barns or storehouses, then it is commanded by Law to celebrate, i.e., on the first day (the feast) of Trumpets (Lev 23:24), and on the tenth day (the feast) of Atonement, days of rest should be celebrated; and from the fifteenth day for seven days, until they end on the eighth, the feast-days of Tabernacles are prescribed. But perhaps by these things it can be signified that we should not cease to learn, because we are consecrated at the end of the age by the triple sacrament of prayer: by the trumpet of proclamation; by the faith of the gospel and by sprinkling with the blood of Jesus Christ in which is the true atonement now that the time of the Law is over; and we, having gathered the “new harvest” of good works, having rested from every evil work, and having received perfection through the grace of the sevenfold spirit, we may deserve to attain the number of the eighth blessing. This, however, there is no doubt that we can achieve through the labours of fasting and prayer, because it is commanded in the Law that the soul should be afflicted.

6. Regarding the New Moons. At the “Neomenia” it is commanded to blow the trumpet, i.e. at the new moon, because he who is enlightened by the moon of knowledge should not cease to preach to others. Paul, enlightened by the brightness of the knowledge of Christ, did not at all disdain to observe this (command), and preached in the synagogues of the Jews.

Regarding the sacrifices, I had intended to say little. Since they contain within them the foreshadowing of the sacrifice of the true high priest, they must also be offered by us to the Lord in a spiritual manner. The calf represents our labour, the sheep innocence, the he-goat the mortification the pleasure of fornication, the she-goat, which feeds on the lofty pasture, the contemplative life, the ram the work of preaching, which brings forth lambs for the good shepherd, the turtledove the chastity of a solitary mind joined to no one but Christ, the dove a more perceptive understanding of the sacraments, the bread the solidity of the commandments, the fine flour the honesty of life, the wine and salt the truth of preaching, the oil the comforts of charity. All these things, whether feasts or sacrifices, the Law commands to be celebrated and offered in one place, because then all things are profitable when they are carried out within the unity of the Church without any error of schism. I, a poor man and a foreigner, did not fear to write these few things, this little writing, leaving many things in darkness, to a rich man and a citizen, because “perfect love casts out fear” (1 John 4:18); believing also this, venerable Father , that obedience with faith is worth more than the power of human intellect.

But these things were requested by you and spoken by me on account of those who, although they appear to be Christians on the surface, are not afraid to tear apart the body of Christ, that is, the Church, with their schisms through the impiety of Jewish thinking. These things we have run through in a brief way, which if they were treated in full, would require a large volume, which cannot be completed at this time, because they require a great period of free time.

Pray for me, venerable Father.

Among the letters of Saint Jerome in the Patrologia Latina (= PL) edition, vol. 22, columns 1220-1224, there is a curious text with the title “de solemnitatibus paschae”, “On the Easter ceremonies”.  In the CPL it has the number 2278. The heading in the PL reads: “He discusses the feast days of the Hebrews, and teaches that they should not be observed at all after the Gospel”.  The work is addressed to an unnamed “venerabilis papa”.

The PL edition is a reprint of the Domenico Vallarsi edition (1734), vol. 1, col. 1103-1108, who divided it into six chapters.  The PL heading above is taken from Vallarsi, who adds this curious footnote:

“This appears for the first time from MS Vatican 642, folio 89, where it is attributed to Jerome, but falsely, as would appear from simply reading it if we said nothing.  It seems that whoever falsely attributed it to Jerome, also falsely dedicated it to Pope Damasus, as we see in the colophon, since no name is given in the epigraph.  We published it for other reasons, mainly because it was new, with notes about the innumerable errors that we have removed from it, some of which we will only mention as examples in case it is thought that we are marketing our work.”

Perhaps Vallarsi included it mainly in order to get the number of “letters” up to a round 150.  It certainly has nothing whatever to do with St Jerome or his letters, and Vallarsi certainly knew that.

The Latin text was printed again by J.-B. Pitra in 1853 in Spicilegium Solesmense vol. 1, xi-xii, 9-13, this time in 14 chapters, with an additional note on p.565.  Pitra gives the author as “Anonymus”, with an  introductory “argumentum.”  He tells us that he edited the text from manuscripts in Oxford, London and Paris.¹.

Unfortunately an over-enthusiastic German scholar named Bruno Krusch published it yet again in 1885 from a manuscript in Paris, this time claiming that it was a letter of St. Columbanus to Pope Gregory the Great.  (Columbanus was indeed interested in Easter material, as his genuine letter 5 indicates.)  The attribution was always entirely speculative, but the subsequent controversy led to Krusch’s text being reprinted in the Monumenta Germaniae Historica edition (1892) as “epistula VI” of Columbanus.  Finally the text was edited critically against a wider set of manuscripts by G. S. M. Walker, Sancti Columbani Opera, Dublin (1957).

The text was printed again in I. Hilberg’s edition of the letters of Jerome (CSEL 56, pp.357-363). [But see the note below]

A German translation exists in A. Strobel, Texte zur Geschichte des frühchristlichen Osterkalenders (1984), pp.69-73.  An English translation may be found in Walker, pp.198-206. [And see note below]

The most useful article on the subject is D. O’Croinin, “The Computistical Works of Columbanus”, in: M. Lapidge (ed.), Columbanus. Studies on the Latin Writings, Woodbridge: Boydell (1977)  p. 264-270, which tells us that there are 7 manuscripts, all containing Irish computistical texts, and inferring (probably rightly) that this is the most likely origin for this work, although in fact the text promotes the Roman, not the Celtic dating of Easter.

Pitra summarised the content as follows:²

I. A few introductory words from the author, why he has set to work, II. He teaches that the feasts and sabbaths of the Law were made obsolete by the Lord, speaking through the prophets, III. and by Christ himself in the gospel.  VI. But some of the paschal feasts are kept, others are changed.  V, VI. For this reason there are many things contrary to the letter of the Law in the true passover of the New Law, namely the living sacrifice of the body and blood of the Lord. VII. For the same reason again those who still observe the fourteenth day of the moon according to the letter have been condemned justly by the church, that is, by the apostolic see; VIII. For spiritually, in the evening of the world, the Lamb must be eaten; IX. And on the seventh day one must abstain from every servile work of sin; X. And the other things must likewise be observed spiritually; namely, at Pentecost, charity; XI. at the feast of Tabernacles, the fear of God’s judgement, with the imminent end of the world at hand; XII and XIII. Various virtues in the various rites and victims of the sacrifices. XIV. The author recommends the little he has written to a certain venerable pope as fair and good.

Vallarsi’s Vatican manuscript lat. 642 is online these days, and it is easy enough to find folio 89r (although I wish there was a way to link directly to the page).  Here’s the start of the text.  Instead of writing the heading in red, a red line is drawn through it.

On the right is a modern hand:

Vallarsi edited it from this codex as epistle number 149…. and is that perhaps the signature of Angelo Mai himself?!

Update (19/1/26, later):  I’ve just been looking at Strobel’s German translation of the work.  On p.68 he declares:

G. S. M. WALKER has also included an English translation, which differs from ours in places because we are using the text by Hilberg.

O’Cronin also stated that the volume contained an English translation, so it seems clear that it does, and – therefore – that I do not need to make one!  I have updated the post accordingly.

But looking at Strobel’s translation, especially chapters 4, 5 and 6, I can see that each chapter begins with an embedded short title such as “On the Sabbath,” “Concerning Pentecost,” and so on.  These are features of the Vallarsi/PL edition, and are not found in the Latin text printed in the MGH (although they were actually present as rubrics – red headings – in the Cologne manuscript on which it is based!)  So the Hilberg text in the CSEL is not critical, and merely reprints the old Vallarsi/PL text, itself based solely on the Vatican manuscript, and substantially corrected by Vallarsi.  I would suggest that future workers rely on Walker.

Walker’s edition was clearly a critical text, which Strobel describes in the following terms:

He favored C (= I), the source of S (= Y), V (=Ri), and X (= L), together with Pi, an independent tradition, while simultaneously adhering to the edition by W. Gundlach (in M.G.H. Epistolae, Vol. II, 1892, pp. 154ff.) and, through him, in turn, that of Br. Krusch (in: Neues Archiv X, 1884, pp. 84ff.).

It’s not clear to me how he could adhere to the Gundlach/Krusch MGH edition while favouring C.  C is the Cologne manuscript, while the MGH was based on MS P1, MS Paris BNF lat. 16361, p.288 (12th c.).  But then I have not seen Walker’s book.

C, the Cologne manuscript, is formally MS Köln, Dombibl. 83-ii (ca. 805 AD), fol. 201r-203r.  This manuscript, it turns out, is online here!  Fortunately it is only a few pages.

Here’s the top of the final page, complete with rubrics.

Nice to see the source manuscripts!

1. Online: https://archive.org/details/spicilegiumsoles01pitr/page/n5/mode/2up[↩]
2. I. Auctor, quam ob rem ad opus se accinxerit paucis praefatus, II. Docet legalia festa ac sabbata a Domino, per prophetas praeloquente, III. Et ab ipsomet Christo in Evangelio antiquari. VI. Paschalia vero, alia custodiri, alia commutari. V, VI. Hinc contra Legis litteram esse plura in vero Nove Legis paschate, vivo utique corporis et sanguinis Domini sacrificio. VII. Hinc iterum ab Ecclesia, id est, a Sede Apostolica, jure damnatos fuisse qui xiv lunam adhucdum ad litteram observant; VIII. Spiritaliter enim, in vespere mundi, Agnum esse comedendum, IX. Et abstinendum in die septimo ab omni peccati opere servili; X. Caeteraque item spiritaliter observanda; scilicet in Pentecoste, charitatem; XI. In festo Tabernaculorum , timorem judicis Dei , instante saeculi consummatione; XII et XIII. Virtutes varias variis in sacrificiorum ritibus et victimis. XIV. Quae pauca scripsit auctor, ea venerabili cuidam pape aequi bonique habenda commendat.[↩]