Augustalis (bishop)
Encyclopedia
Augustalis was the first bishop
Bishop
A bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...

 of Toulon
Toulon
Toulon is a town in southern France and a large military harbor on the Mediterranean coast, with a major French naval base. Located in the Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur region, Toulon is the capital of the Var department in the former province of Provence....

, according to some authorities. He was appointed in 441. He attended the Council of Orange
Councils of Orange
The Councils of Orange comprised two synods held at Orange, France. The first dealt with various church issues. The second affirmed Augustine's teaching against Pelagian challenge.-First Council of Orange:...

 that year, and the Council of Vaison
Council of Vaison
The Council of Vaison may refer to several pre-Schism church councils held at Vaison in Gaul .* A council held circa 350.* A council held in 442.* The Third Council of Vaison held in 529....

 the following. He is associated with the civitas
Civitas
In the history of Rome, the Latin term civitas , according to Cicero in the time of the late Roman Republic, was the social body of the cives, or citizens, united by law . It is the law that binds them together, giving them responsibilities on the one hand and rights of citizenship on the other...

of Arles
Arles
Arles is a city and commune in the south of France, in the Bouches-du-Rhône department, of which it is a subprefecture, in the former province of Provence....

 (ancient Arelate) by the Martyrologium Hieronymianum
Martyrologium Hieronymianum
The Martyrologium Hieronymianum was a medieval list of martyrs, one of the most used and influential of the Middle Ages...

, which honors him on September 7. He is also named by the Martyrologium romanum
Roman Martyrology
The Roman Martyrology is the official martyrology of the Roman Rite of the Roman Catholic Church. It provides an extensive but not exhaustive list of the saints recognized by the Church.-History:...

on that day, with his location noted as in Gallia
Gaul
Gaul was a region of Western Europe during the Iron Age and Roman era, encompassing present day France, Luxembourg and Belgium, most of Switzerland, the western part of Northern Italy, as well as the parts of the Netherlands and Germany on the left bank of the Rhine. The Gauls were the speakers of...

. An Augustalis, most likely this man, appears among a group of bishops addressed by Pope Leo I
Pope Leo I
Pope Leo I was pope from September 29, 440 to his death.He was an Italian aristocrat, and is the first pope of the Catholic Church to have been called "the Great". He is perhaps best known for having met Attila the Hun in 452, persuading him to turn back from his invasion of Italy...

 in letters dated 22 August 449 and 5 May 450, the latter of which addresses issues of jurisdiction between Arles and Vienne
Vienne, Isère
Vienne is a commune in south-eastern France, located south of Lyon, on the Rhône River. It is the second largest city after Grenoble in the Isère department, of which it is a subprefecture. The city's population was of 29,400 as of the 2001 census....

.

De ratione Paschae

See also Computus
Computus
Computus is the calculation of the date of Easter in the Christian calendar. The name has been used for this procedure since the early Middle Ages, as it was one of the most important computations of the age....

 and Epact
Epact
The epact was originally defined as the age of the moon in days on January 1, and occurs primarily in connection with tabular methods for determining the date of Easter...

.

The bishop, or another churchman named Augustalis in Gaul of the 5th century (possibly the 3rd) was the author of a tract De ratione Paschae, a table or laterculus
Laterculus
In late antiquity or the early medieval period, a laterculus is an inscribed tile, stone or terracotta tablet used for publishing certain kinds of information in list or calendar form. The term thus came to be used for the content represented by such an inscription, most often a list, register, or...

 on calculating the Paschal cycle
Paschal cycle
The Paschal cycle in the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Churches, is the cycle of the moveable feasts built around Pascha . The cycle consists of approximately ten weeks before and seven weeks after Pascha. The ten weeks before Pascha are known as the period of the Triodion...

. He is referenced in the Carthaginian Computus of 455, preserved in an 8th-century chronographical manuscript
Manuscript
A manuscript or handwrite is written information that has been manually created by someone or some people, such as a hand-written letter, as opposed to being printed or reproduced some other way...

 in the cathedral library at Lucca.

The table itself is not extant and the description of it is insufficient for reconstruction. Augustalis reckoned that the Crucifixion took place on 25 March in the year 28, on the 14th day of the moon
Lunar phase
A lunar phase or phase of the moon is the appearance of the illuminated portion of the Moon as seen by an observer, usually on Earth. The lunar phases change cyclically as the Moon orbits the Earth, according to the changing relative positions of the Earth, Moon, and Sun...

. The dating of the Passion
Passion (Christianity)
The Passion is the Christian theological term used for the events and suffering – physical, spiritual, and mental – of Jesus in the hours before and including his trial and execution by crucifixion...

 to 28 agrees with that of Prosper Tiro. The base date of Augustalis's laterculus was the year 213. It covered a hundred years, ending in 312. Augustalis worked with, or is thought sometimes even to have originated, the 84-year Metonic cycle
Metonic cycle
In astronomy and calendar studies, the Metonic cycle or Enneadecaeteris is a period of very close to 19 years which is remarkable for being very nearly a common multiple of the solar year and the synodic month...

 usually associated, like the date of March 25 for Easter
Easter
Easter is the central feast in the Christian liturgical year. According to the Canonical gospels, Jesus rose from the dead on the third day after his crucifixion. His resurrection is celebrated on Easter Day or Easter Sunday...

, with the Celtic tradition
Celtic Christianity
Celtic Christianity or Insular Christianity refers broadly to certain features of Christianity that were common, or held to be common, across the Celtic-speaking world during the Early Middle Ages...

 of Christianity in Gaul
Christianity in Gaul
The Christian Church in Gaul first appears in history in connexion with the persecution in Lyon, the religious center of Roman Gaul where the Sanctuary of the Three Gauls was located, under Marcus Aurelius in 177...

 and the Celtic Islands
British Isles
The British Isles are a group of islands off the northwest coast of continental Europe that include the islands of Great Britain and Ireland and over six thousand smaller isles. There are two sovereign states located on the islands: the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and...

, including Hibernia
Hibernia
Hibernia is the Classical Latin name for the island of Ireland. The name Hibernia was taken from Greek geographical accounts. During his exploration of northwest Europe , Pytheas of Massilia called the island Ierne . In his book Geographia Hibernia is the Classical Latin name for the island of...

(Ireland
History of Ireland 400–800
The early medieval history of Ireland, often called Early Christian Ireland, spans the 5th to 8th centuries, from the gradual emergence out of the protohistoric period to the beginning of the Viking Age...

) and Britannia
Britannia
Britannia is an ancient term for Great Britain, and also a female personification of the island. The name is Latin, and derives from the Greek form Prettanike or Brettaniai, which originally designated a collection of islands with individual names, including Albion or Great Britain. However, by the...

(Britain). This cycle is characterized by a 14th-year saltus lunae ("leap" of the moon), a day added to the epact
Epact
The epact was originally defined as the age of the moon in days on January 1, and occurs primarily in connection with tabular methods for determining the date of Easter...

 to reconcile the lunar year to the solar (compare leap year
Leap year
A leap year is a year containing one extra day in order to keep the calendar year synchronized with the astronomical or seasonal year...

).

Although the author of the Carthaginian Computus takes note of Augustalis as a man "of most sainted memory," he points out several errors in his computations.

The 19th-century German scholar Bruno Krusch placed Augustalis in the 3rd century and thought that the supputatio Romana, an 84-year Roman table, was derived from the table of Augustalis, which he further identified as the "old table" (vetus laterculus) referenced in a Paschal prologue in a manuscript at Cologne. The "old table" is more often assumed to be the 112-year table of Hippolytus. Eduard Schwartz criticized the views of Krusch, asserting that the table of Augustalis was never used in Rome and that it represented an "eccentric version" of the 84-year cycle used by the insular Celtic
Insular Celts
The Insular Celts are the speakers of Insular Celtic languages.-Pre-Celtic Britain:Little is known of the culture and language of pre-Celtic Britain, but remnants of the latter may remain in the names of some geographical features, such as the rivers Clyde, Tamar and Thames, whose etymology is...

churches. He places Augustalis in the 5th century.
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