TheSynod of Elvira (Latin:Concilium Eliberritanum,Spanish:Concilio de Elvira) was an ecclesiasticalsynod held at Elvira in theRoman province ofHispania Baetica, nowGranada in southern Spain.[1] Its date has not been exactly determined but is believed to be in the first quarter of thefourth century, approximately 305–6. It was one of three councils, together with theSynod of Arles (314) and theSynod of Ancyra, that first approached the character of general councils and prepared the way for the firstecumenical council. It was attended by nineteen bishops and twenty-six presbyters, mostly resident inBaetica. Deacons and laymen were also present.[2] Eighty-one canons are recorded, although it is believed that many were added at later dates. All concern order, discipline and conduct among the Christian community. Canon 36,forbidding the use of images in churches, became a bone of contention between Catholic and Protestant scholars after theProtestant Reformation.
It is one of a number ofpre-ecumenical ancient church councils and synods. The 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia refers to this as a "council," conveying a wider scope than a synod.[3] The Vatican refers to it using both terms.[4]
The place of meeting, Eliberri, rendered as Elvira,[5] was not far from the modernGranada, if not, as A.W. Dale[6] and Edgar Hennecke[1] think, actually identical with it. There the nineteen bishops and twenty-four presbyters, mostly fromHispania Baetica andCarthago Nova,[a] assembled, probably at the instigation ofHosius of Córdoba, but under the presidency of Felix of Accitum (Guadix) in Baetica, probably by virtue of his being the oldest bishop present,[7] with a view to restoring order and discipline in the church. The canons which were adopted reflect with considerable fullness the internal life and external relations of the Spanish Church of the 4th century. The reputation of this council drew to its canons further canons that came to be associated with the Synod of Elvira.
Victor De Clercq[8] notes "that except forHosius of Córdoba, we know practically nothing about these men, nor do we know with certainty when and why the council was held, and that the church of Spain is one of the least known in pre-constantinian [sic] times".
Maurice Meigne[9] considers that only the first twenty-one canons in the list that has been transmitted[10] were promulgated at Elvira; the remainder having been added to the collection.
The social environment ofChristians in Hispania may be inferred from the canons prohibitingmarriage and other intercourse withJews,pagans andheretics, closing the offices offlamen andduumvir to Christians, forbidding all contact withidolatry[11] and likewise participation in pagan festivals and public games. The state of morals is mirrored in the canons denouncing prevalent vices. The canons respecting the clergy exhibit the clergy as already a special class with particular privileges, as acting under a more exacting moral standard, with heavier penalties for delinquency. Thebishop has acquired control of thesacraments,presbyters anddeacons acting only under his orders; the episcopate appears as a unit, bishops being bound to respect one another's disciplinary decrees.
The canons are almost entirely concerned with the conduct of various elements of the Christian community, and have no theological content as such. Sanctions include long delays before baptism, exclusion from theEucharist for periods of months or years, or indefinitely, sometimes with an exception for the death-bed, though this is also specifically excluded in some cases. Periods ofpenance, often for sexual offences, extend to 5 or 10 years: "Canon 5. If a woman beats her servant and causes death within three days, she shall undergo seven years' penance if the injury was inflicted on purpose and five years' if it was accidental. She shall not receive communion during this penance unless she becomes ill. If so, she may receive communion."[12]
All the canons which pertain to Jews served to maintain a separation between the two communities. Canon 15 prohibited marriage with pagans, while Canon 16 prohibited marriage of Christians with Jews. Canon 78 threatens Christians who commit adultery with Jews withostracism. Canon 49 forbade the blessing of Christian crops by Jews, and Canon 50 forbade the sharing of meals by Christians and Jews.[citation needed]
Among the early canons (which are possibly the only original ones), Canon 1 forbade giving holy communion to lapsed Christians evenin articulo mortis, an unusually severe application ofNovatianist principles, which had divided the church since the recovery from mid 3rd-century persecutions: compare the severity ofCyprian of Carthage. The subject of this leading canon is a major indication for a date following recent persecution.[citation needed]
Among the later canons, of especial note are Canon 33, enjoiningcelibacy upon all clerics, married or not, and all who minister at the altar (the most ancient canon ofclerical celibacy).[13] Also relating to the subject of clerical celibacy is Canon 27, which calls for bishops and other clergy to refrain from living with women unless they are of relation.[14] This canon is believed to be condemning the practice ofSyneisaktism, or spiritual marriage, which was growing more and more popular among ascetic men and women.[citation needed]
Canon 36 states, "It has seemed good that images should not be in churches so that what is venerated and worshiped not be painted on the walls."[15][16][b] It allegedlyforbids pictures in churches (compare theIconoclastic Controversy in the East); according toPhilip Schaff this canon "has often been quoted by Protestants as an argument against image worship as idolatrous; while Roman Catholic writers explain it either as a prohibition of representations of the deity only, or as a prudential measure against heathen desecration of holy things".[17] Canon 36 was the first official statement on art by the Christian Church and so of special interest in the history of Early Christian and medieval art, even if it represents Church policy only within the limits of the synod's jurisdiction of Spain.
Canon 38, permits laybaptism under certain conditions, and Canon 53, forbids one bishop restoring a personexcommunicated by another.
Other provisions relating to images forbade Christian slave-owners from allowing their pagan slaves to keep their personal idols, or "if this is impossible to enforce, they must at least avoid the idols and remain pure. If this does not happen, they are alienated from the church" (Canon 41). Canon 60 says "If someone smashes an idol and is then punished by death, he or she may not be placed in the list of martyrs, since such action is not sanctioned by the Scriptures or by the apostles." Canon 34 says "Candles are not to be burned in a cemetery during the day. This practice is related to paganism and is harmful to Christians. Those who do this are to be denied the communion of the church". Other canons imposed "the rigorous form of fasting" every Saturday (Canon 26), forbade the baptism of chariot racers or stage performers (Canon 62), and many tightly control the reception of former pagan priests into the Christian church and clergy (Canons, 2,3,4,55).
Several canons relate only to the behaviour of women, such as Canon 67: "A woman who is baptized or is a catechumen must not associate with hairdressers or men with long hair..." Canon 81 reads: "A woman may not write to other lay Christians without her husband's consent. A woman may not receive letters of friendship addressed to her only and not to her husband as well." However married former prostitutes are not to suffer delays in baptism on that account (Canon 44).
The solution of the question of the date hinges upon the interpretation of the canons, that is, upon whether they are to be taken as reflecting a recent persecution, or as redacted in a time of peace, that is either after or before thepersecution under Diocletian. Thus the earliest investigators,Louis Duchesne[18] and Victor De Clercq,[19] argue for a date between 300 and 303, i.e. before the persecution underDiocletian; others for a date between 303 and 314, after the persecution, but before theSynod of Arles (314); a few others argue for a date between the synod of Arles and theCouncil of Nicaea, (325).Karl Josef von Hefele andRobert William Dale follow early compilers of the canonsGiovanni Domenico Mansi andJean Hardouin in agreement upon 305 or 306, while Hennecke[1] concludes that "the whole attitude points to a time of peace, not to one immediately following a persecution; the complete absence of any provisions as to the case of the lapsed is enough to preclude the modern theory as to the date".
The scanty documentation of the Synod of Elvira was first assembled by Ferdinand de Mendoza,De confirmando Concilio IIIiberitano ad Clementem VIII, 1593.
The canons are available onlinein English andin Latin (with dictionary lookup links)
Placuit picturas in ecclesia esse non debere, ne quod colitur et adoratur in parietibus depingatur.
This canon has often been urged against the veneration of images as practised in the Catholic Church.Binterim, De Rossi, andHefele interpret this prohibition as directed against the use of images in overground churches only, lest the pagans should caricature sacred scenes and ideas;Von Funk, Termel, andDom Leclerq opine that the council did not pronounce as to the liceity or non-liceity of the use of images, but as an administrative measure simply forbade them, lest new and weak converts from paganism should incur thereby any danger of relapse into idolatry, or be scandalized by certain superstitious excesses in no way approved by the ecclesiastical authority.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Elvira, Synod of".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 9 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 301.
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