ELVIRA:
The ancient Illiberis; capital of the province of the same name, situated on a hill northwest of Granada, Spain, and now in ruins. It was the cradle of Spanish Christianity, and the seat of the celebrated Illiberian Council which first raised a barrier between Jew and Christian. This council, held not about 320, as Grätz thinks, but at the time of the persecutions under Diocletian, in 303 or 304, forbade Christians, on pain of excommunication, to intermarry with Jews or to have the produce of their fields blessed by Jews, to the end "that the blessing of the Church might not seem void or useless." They were also forbidden to eat or have any intercourse with Jews.
Bibliography:
- Collectio Canonum Ecclesiæ Hispaniæ, part i.: Conc. Eliberitanum, 1808;
- De los Rios, Hist. de, los Judios, i. 72 et seq.;
- Grätz, Gesch. v. 70 et seq.
