what the bible says about abortion:

[happyslug]

133. Quit knocking the Roman Empire.....

Easter's date is set under Rules the reflect the long term budget (19 years) adopted by the Emperor Diocletian. When Constantine became Emperor he asked the Christian Bishops to standardize some Christian holidays to reflect traditional Roman Holiday. For over 100 years prior to Constantine, the Roman Army had slowly adopted the Sun as its "god" and that worship (And this is NOT worship of the Sun God Apollo, but the sun itself) had a holiday every 14 days on what we call Sunday. The Christians bishops read the bible and notice the bible only says one out of 7 days is a day of rest and that day could be Sunday instead of Saturday, thus to keep the Sun Worshippers happy, the day of rest was transferred to Sunday.

Worshipping of the almighty Sun continued under Constantine but seems to have been replaced by Arianism in the Roman Army by the time of death of Constantine's son. Emperor Julian then became emperor and seems to have a plan to return Rome to Pagan Worship, but died in battle as he retreated from his failed attempt to sack the Capital of Persia so he could pay for the reconversion. Subsequent Emperors returned to Constantine's policy of looting Pagan Temples for the Gold in those temples, so the troops could be paid (Constantine minted Gold Coins from such Loots called "Soldius" from which we get the term Soldier). This "Looting" was always controlled, called "Riots" by pagan writers, but here were NEVER riots, the Emperor and his troops were always in control for they wanted the gold from the Temples to pay the troops.

As to Easter, most Christian Churches in the Western Empire did NOT have access to Jewish calendars, so it was decided to adopt a rule based on the 19 year long term Roman Budget. The reason 19 was picked was Rome, when it came to numbers had a tendency to be "Inclusive" as oppose to being 'exclusive" i.e. Year One of a 20 year cycle was also the 20th year of the previous cycle. We tend to be "exclusive" i.e year one of a 20 year cycle is the year AFTER the 20th year of the previous cycle. This caused some problems after Julius Ceasar had adopted the Julian Calendar for Rome when he was Dictator of Rome. The Julian Calendar had a leap year every four years (like today's Gregorian Calendar) and it was clear Julius Ceasar wanted it be four exclusive years, but for about 20-30 years it was done on an exclusive basis, i.e. every three years as we calculate three years, but that was every four years as the Ancient Romans counted years. Augustus Ceasar discovered this error and corrected it but it does cause some problems for the years the three year rule was used.

Thus the date of Easter is based on Roman Budget periods for even the invading barbarians knew of those periods for they had been paid based on those periods. The Christian Church that survived the fall of the Roman Empire, also kept that long term budget and with it the 19 year "golden period". It was called the "Golden Period" for the budget from Constantine onward was in terms of gold (and the troops were paid in gold AND the entrance for any visiting royalty to Constantinople, the capital of the Roman Empire AFTER the fall of the Empire in the West, entered that city through its "Golden Gate&quot .

Side note: The older Roman Empire had paid is troops and debts in silver, but when the Silver mines of Spain watered out in the mid 200s, something had to replace the silver and no one came up with a replacement till Constantine decided to abandon paganism (and its Golden Idols) in favor of Christianity. n many ways, Rome was forced to become Christian for it was the only Empire Wide Religion that did NOT have golden idols to maintain. Gold was used by the Christians but in times of Crisis they would give it up, unlike the Pagan Temples that refused to do so.

Such a comment that HOW we calculate when Easter occurs is based on What the Roman Emperors required. It is NOT religious in calculation except that Easter had to be one day for all Christians (or as few as different days as possible, thus the Orthodox add the requirement it be after Passover, some thing many Christians in the Western Roman Empire did not know how to calculate thus NOT a requirement in Catholic or Protestant Religions.