council · 306
Around 306, before toleration, some nineteen bishops of Hispania met at Elvira near Granada. Their 81 canons are the earliest surviving body of council legislation — clergy continence (canon 33), long penances for apostasy and idolatry, and a first written glimpse of the church disciplining itself province by province.
The Synod of Elvira was an ecclesiastical synod held at Elvira in the Roman province of Hispania Baetica, now Granada, in southern Spain. Its date has not been exactly determined but is believed to be in the first quarter of the 4th century, approximately 305–6. It was one of three councils, together with the Synod of Arles (314) and the Synod of Ancyra, that first approached the character of general councils and prepared the way for the first ecumenical council. It was attended by nineteen bishops and twenty-six presbyters, mostly resident in Baetica. Deacons and laymen were also present. 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 the Protestant Reformation.
Discipline for a church living inside a pagan society — apostasy, idolatry, marriage and clergy conduct.
81 canons, the earliest surviving council legislation, including lifelong clerical continence (canon 33) and long penances for the lapsed.