Page 8 - Easter The Untold Story

The Encyclopedia of Religion concurs: "Easter . . . may originally have been observed in conjunction with the Jewish Passover on the fourteenth day of the month Nisan. Gradually, however, it was observed everywhere on Sunday" (article "Easter").
The controversy between those who held to Nisan 14 and those who favor a fixed, annual, Easter Sunday date to mark Christ's resurrection reached the highest levels of church hierarchy.
Polycarp, a church leader in Asia Minor and a disciple of the apostle John, was a central figure in the debate. About A.D. 154, Polycarp traveled to Rome, where he urged Anicetus, the bishop of Rome, to observe Nisan 14 according to the custom of the Eastern churches. He was unsuccessful, though they agreed to part in peace.
"For neither could Anicetus persuade Polycarp not to observe it, because he [Polycarp] had always observed it with John the disciple of our Lord, and the rest of the apostles, with whom he associated; and neither did Polycarp persuade Anicetus to observe [Nisan 14], who said he was bound to maintain the practice [what has come to be known as Easter Sunday] of the presbyters before him" (Eusebius' Ecclesiastical History, book 5, chapter 24).
But the unresolved issue reached a critical stage by A.D. 190, when Victor became bishop of Rome. The spokesman for the churches in Asia Minor, the only portion of Christendom that still adhered to Nisan 14, was now Polycrates, a disciple of Polycarp, who had been martyred by the Roman government.
The Encyclopaedia Britannica records: "Victor demanded that all should adopt the usage prevailing at Rome. This Polycrates firmly refused to agree to, and urged many weighty reasons to the contrary, whereupon Victor proceeded to excommunicate Polycrates and the Christians who continued the Eastern usage" (11th edition, article "Easter").
Eusebius states that Victor wanted to "cut off whole churches of God, who observed the tradition of an ancient custom," but he was prevailed upon by other bishops to soften his approach (Ecclesiastical History, book 5, chapter 24).
"The dispute continued until the early fourth century," says Harper's Bible Dictionary, "when the Quartodecimans . . . were required by Emperor Constantine to conform to the empire-wide practice of observing Easter on the Sunday following 14 Nisan, rather than on that date itself."
The Council of Nicaea (325) fixed Easter on the first Sunday after the full moon following the Vernal Equinox.
After Nicaea, the small number of faithful – those who followed the commands and examples of Christ and the apostles about annually commemorating Christ's death on Nisan 14 – fled persecution in the urban areas of the Roman Empire.