Editing Synod of Whitby (section)

==Decision==
Bishop Colmán defended the Ionan calculation of Easter on the grounds that it was the practice of [[Columba]], founder of their monastic network and a saint of unquestionable holiness, who himself had followed the tradition of [[John the Apostle|St. John]] the [[Twelve Apostles|apostle]] and [[Four Evangelists|evangelist]].

Wilfrid defended the Roman position on the following grounds (according to Bede's narrative):
# It was the practice in Rome, where the apostles [[Saint]]s [[Saint Peter|Peter]] and [[Paul of Tarsus|Paul]] had "lived, taught, suffered, and are buried".
# It was the universal practice of the Church, even as far as Egypt.
# The customs of the apostle John were particular to the needs of his community and his age and, since then, the Council of Nicaea had established a different practice.
# Columba had done the best he could considering his knowledge, and thus his irregular practice is excusable, but the Ionan monks at present did not have the excuse of ignorance.
# Whatever the case, no one has authority over Peter (and thus his successors, the bishops of Rome).

Oswiu then asked both sides if they agreed that Peter had been given the keys to the kingdom of heaven by Christ and pronounced to be "the rock" on which the Church would be built (as stated in [[Gospel of Matthew|Matthew]] 16:18–19), to which they agreed. Oswiu then declared his judgment in favour of the holder of the keys, i.e. the Roman (and Petrine) practice.

However, Wilfrid's method of calculating the date of Easter was the one used in [[Alexandria]], not in Rome. Bede presented the synod as a victory for the Roman party even though he had doubts whether the method was used in Rome. He produced his own version based on the Alexandrian tables, as amended by [[Dionysius Exiguus|Dionysius]], for his own calculations in his ''De Temporibus'' (703) and in more detail in his ''De Temporum Ratione'' (716–25). The Bedan tables came to be accepted in the British Isles and the [[Carolingian Empire]] in the ninth century and in Rome in the tenth.<ref>Stevens, pp. 160–161</ref>