ELVIRA, SYNOD OF, an ecclesiastical synod held in Spain, probably in 305 or 306, at Elvira, not far from or perhaps (Dale) identical with the modern Granada. There 19 bishops and 24 pres byters, from all parts of Spain, but chiefly from the south, as sembled, probably at the instigation of Hosius of Cordova, with a view to restoring order and discipline in the Church. The 81 canons which were adopted reflect with considerable fulness the internal life and external relations of the Spanish Church of the 4th cen tury. The social environment of Christians may be inferred from the canons prohibiting marriage and other intercourse with Jews, pagans and heretics, closing the offices of flamen and duurnvir to Christians, forbidding all contact with idolatry 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 peculiar privileges, a more exacting moral standard, heavier penalties for delinquency. The bishop has acquired control of the sacraments, presbyters and deacons acting only under his orders; the episcopate appears as a unit, bishops being bound to respect one another's disciplinary decrees. The following canons are worthy of special note : xxiii., enjoining celibacy upon all clerics and all who minister at the altar (the most ancient canon of celibacy) ; xxxvi., forbidding pictures in churches; xxxviii., per mitting lay baptism under certain conditions; and liii., forbidding one bishop to restore a person excommunicated by another.
See Dale, The Synod of Elvira (1882) , an exhaustive monograph; Hennecke, art. "Elvira" in Herzog-Hauck, Realencyklopadie; Hefele, History of Church Councils, Eng. tr. vol. i., pp. 131 ff.; and the reference to the Spanish Church in the General Church Histories.
EL WAD, a town in the Southern region of Algeria, 125 m. in a straight line S.S.E. of Biskra, and 190 m. W. by S. of Gabes. Pop. 8,621. El Wad is one of the most interesting places in Algeria. It is surrounded by huge hollows containing noble palm groves (67,00o palms) ; and beyond these on every side stretches the limitless desert with its great billows of sand, the encroach ments of which on the oasis are only held at bay by ceaseless toil. The town itself consists of a mass of one-storeyed stone houses, each surmounted by a little dome, clustering round the market-place with its mosque and minaret. El Wad oasis is one of a group known collectively as the Suf. Five miles N.W. is Kuinine (pop. 3,938) and 6 m. farther N.W. Guemar (pop. 6,798), an ancient fortified town noted for its manufacture of carpets with an important Zaouia or convent of the order of Tidjaniya. Linen weaving is carried on extensively in the Suf. Administratively El Wad is the capital of an annex to the territory of Tuggurt.