from those from whom they separated and moved the festival of Pascha’(4. 28.
16)—note the emphasis on sectarian separatism. This‘innovation’occurred in
the reign of Valens (364– 78 CE) (5. 21. 7), when a council of Novatian bishops
in the town of Pazos decided to‘watch the Jews when they observe Unleavened
Bread, and with them celebrate the festival of Easter’(4. 28. 17).^167 But most of
the blame is laid on a Jewish convert, Sabbatios, who in 384 started promoting
the Pazos decision because of his own Jewish inclinations as well as for
ulterior, self-aggrandizing motives (5. 21. 6–17; 7. 5. 2). Another Novatian
council then gathered at Angarum and issued a canon which they called
‘indifferent’.^168 In a remarkable attempt to relegitimize calendar diversity—
for which Socrates does not hide his sympathy—the canon declared that
disagreement regarding the festival was not a good reason for the church to
split, and that the Pazos decision would not affect the‘catholic canon’: for the
ancients had differed regarding the festival, yet remained in communion and
did not split. The‘indifferent canon’thus allowed everyone to follow his
previous custom (5. 6. 14–16).^169 After Angarum, Sabbatios continued cele-
brating Easter on his own dates if they differed from the dates of the Church,
but only in private; in public, he would join in with the celebrations of the
Church. But later he broke off from the Church, and held separate meetings to
celebrate Easter on his own dates (5. 6. 17–19; 7. 5, 3). Then, early in the reign
of Theodosius II (408– 50 CE), Sabbatios took the bold step of declaring‘cursed
whoever observes Easter outside Unleavened Bread’(7. 5. 4). This led to a
major rift within the Novatian Church. One year, when Sabbatios was cele-
brating Easter one month early, the Novatian bishop Sisinnios attacked him in
the night with a gang of followers; the ensuing riot left seventy dead (7. 5, 7).
Sabbatios’followers remain—dominated, Socrates concludes, by peasant prej-
udice (7. 5. 9).
This account is obviously only one version of the events, a reflection
of Socrates’perspective. It is difficult to know how Sabbatios, his Novatian
opponents, and other Christians, may have interpreted the events as they
were unfolding. Some questions remain unanswered: for example, if the
‘indifferent canon’was truly indifferent, then Sabbatios should have been
(^167) IïıäÆßïıò KðØôÅæåEí ðïØïFíôÆò ôa ¼ÇıìÆ ŒÆd ófí ÆPôïEò ôcí ôïF ðÜóåÆ KðØôåºåEí ïæôÞí.
To‘watch the Jews when they observe Unleavened Bread’represents the original, traditional
method of determining the Christian Easter date (see above, near n. 77). The same formulation,
but misleadingly abbreviated, is in SozomenHE6. 24. 7. The date of the Council of Pazos is given
in Theophanes’Chronographia(5867) as 367CE, whereas Sozomen (6. 24. 6) places it about the
time of Ambrose’s ordination in 374.
(^168) IäØÜçïæïò. On the location of Angarum (which Socrates calls‘Sangaros’), see Mitchell
(2005) 220.
(^169) The‘catholic canon’means perhaps the‘universal character’of the Church. According to
Sozomen, the indifferent canon permitted everyone to observe the feast according to his own
‘opinion’(7. 8. 3–4)—a significant difference from Socrates, who mentions instead‘previous
custom’, perhaps implicitly to preclude the alleged‘innovations’of Sabbatios.
418 Calendars in Antiquity