tian (Hic accepit epistula a Lucio Brittanio rege, ut Christianus efficeretur per ejus mandatum). Whence the author of the first part of the "Liber Pontificalis" drew this information, it is now impossible to say. Historically speaking, the fact is quite improbable, and is rejected by all recent critics. As at the end of the second century the Roman administration was so securely established in Britain, there could no longer have been in the island any real native kings. That some tribal chief, known as king, should have applied to the Roman bishop for instruction in the Christian faith seems improbable enough at that period. The unsupported assertion of the "Liber Pontificalis", a compilation of papal biographies that in its earliest form cannot antedate the first quarter of the sixth century, is not a sufficient basis for the acceptance of this statement. By some it is considered a story intended to demonstrate the Roman origin of the British Church, and consequently the latter's natural subjection to Rome. To make this clearer they locate the origin of the legend in the course of the seventh century, during the dissensions between the primitive British Church and the AngloSaxon Church recently established from Rome. But for this hypothesis all proof is lacking. It falls before the simple fact that the first part of the "Liber Pontificalis" was compiled long before these dissensions, most probably (Duchesne) by a Roman cleric in the reign of Pope Boniface II (530-532), or (Waitz and Mommsen) early in the seventh century. Moreover, during the entire conflict that centred around the peculiar customs of the Early British Church no reference is ever made to this alleged King Lucius. Saint Bede is the first English writer (673-735) to mention the story repeatedly (Hist. Eccl., I, V; V, 24, De temporum ratione, ad an. 161), and he took it, not from native sources, but from the "Liber Pontificalis". Harnack suggests a more plausible theory (Sitzungsberichte der Berliner Akademie, 1904, I, 906-916). In the document, he holds, from which the compiler of the "Liber Pontificalis" drew his information the name found was not Britanio, but Britio. Now this is the name (Birtha- Britium) of the fortress of Edessa. The king in question is, therefore, Lucius Ælius Septimius Megas Abgar IX, of Edessa, a Christian king, as is well known. The original statement of the "Liber Pontificalis", in this hypothesis, had nothing to do with Britain. The reference was to Abgar IX of Edessa. But the compiler of the "Liber Pontificalis" changed Britio to Brittanio, and in this way made a British king of the Syrian Lucius. sees in The ninth-century "Historia Brittonum" Lucius a translation of the Celtic name Llever Maur (Great Light), says that the envoys of Lucius were Fagan and Wervan, and tells us that with this king all the other island kings (reguli Britannia) were baptized (Hist. Brittonum, xviii). Thirteenth-century chronicles add other details. The "Liber Landavensis", for example (ed. Rees, 26, 65), makes known the names of Elfan and Medwy, the envoys sent by Lucius to the pope, and transfers the king's dominions to Wales. An echo of this legend penetrated even to Switzerland. In a homily preached at Chur and preserved in an eighth- or ninth-century manuscript, St. Timothy is represented as an apostle of Gaul, whence he came to Britain and baptized there a king named Lucius, who became a missionary, went to Gaul, and finally settled at Chur, where he preached the gospel with great success. In this way Lucius, the early missionary of the Swiss district of Chur, became identified with the alleged British king of the "Liber Pontificalis". The latter work is authority for the statement that Eleutherius died 24 May, and was buried on the Vatican Hill (in Vaticano) near the body of St. Peter. His feast is celebrated 26 May. Acta SS., May, III, 363-364; Liber Pontificalis, ed. DvCHESNE, I, 136 and Introduction, cii-civ; HARNACK, Ge schichte der altchristl. Literatur, II, I, 144 sqq.; IDEM, Der Brief des britischen Königs Lucius an den Papst Eleutherus (Sitzungsberichte der Berliner Akademie, 1904), I, 906-916; LANGEN, Geschichte der römischen Kirche (Bonn, 1881), I, 157 sqq.; MAYER, Geschichte des Bistums Chur (Stans, 1907), I, 11 sqq.; CABROL, L'Angleterre chrétienne avant les Normands (Paris, 1909), 29-30; DUCHESNE, Eleuthère et le roi breton Lu cius, in Revue Celtique (1883-85), VI, 491-493; ZIMMER, The Celtic Church in Britain and Scotland, tr. MEYER (London, 1902); SMITH AND WACE, Dict. of Christian Biography, s. v.; see also under Lucius. J. P. KIRSCH. Eleutherius (Fr. ELEUTHÈRE), SAINT, Bishop of Tournai at the beginning of the sixth century. Historically there is very little known about St. Eleutherius, but he was without doubt the first Bishop of Tournai. Theodore, whom some give as his immediate predecessor, was either a bishop of Tours, whose name was placed by mistake on the episcopal list of Tournai, or simply a missionary who ministered to the Christians scattered throughout the small Frankish Kingdom of Tournai. Before he became bishop, Eleutherius lived at court with his friend Medardus, who predicted that he would attain the dignity of a count and also be elevated to the episcopate. After Clovis, King of the Franks, had been converted to Christianity, in 496, with more than 3000 of his subjects, bishops took part in the royal councils. St. Remigius, Bishop of Reims, organized the Catholic hierarchy in Northern Gaul, and it is more than likely that St. Eleutherius was named Bishop of Tournai at this time. The saint's biography in its present form was really an invention of Henri of Tournai in the twelfth century. According to this, Eleutherius was born at Tournai towards the end of the reign of Childeric, the father of Clovis, of a Christian family descended from Irenæus, who had been baptized by St. Piatus. His father's name was Terenus, and his mother's Blanda. Persecution by the tribune of the Scheldt obliged the Christians to flee from Tournai and take refuge in the village of Blandinium. The conversion of Clovis, however, enabled the small community to reassemble and build at Blandinium a church, which was dedicated to St. Peter. Theodore was made Bishop of Tournai, and Eleutherius succeeded him. Consulted by Pope Hormisdas as to the best means of eradicating the heresy which threatened nascent Christianity, Eleutherius convened a synod and publicly confounded the heretics. They vowed vengeance, and as he was on his way to the church, one day, they fell on him and, after beating him unmerci fully, left him for dead. He recovered, however, but his days were numbered. On his death-bed (529) he confided his flock to his lifelong friend, St. Medardus. The motive underlying this biography invented by Canon Henri (1141), was to prove the antiquity of the Church of Tournai, which from the end of the eleventh century had been trying to free itself from the jurisdiction of the bishops of Noyon. The sermons on the Trinity, Nativity, and the feast of the Annunciation (Bibliotheca Patrum, vol. XV), sometimes attributed to St. Eleutherius, are also of a more than doubtful authenticity. His cult, however, is well established; there is record of a recovery of his relics during the episcopate of Hedilo in 897 or 898, and a translation of them by Bishop Baudoin in 1064 or 1065, and another in 1247. Relics of this saint were also preserved in the monastery of St. Martin at Tournai, and in the cathedral at Bruges. His feast is given in martyrologies on 20 or 21 July, but is usually celebrated on the former date. The translation of his relics is commemorated 25 August. SOURCES: Vita S. Eleutherii I and Vita II in Acta SS. Belgii (Brussels, 1783), 1, 475-94; Vita Medardi, ii, in Acta SS., June, 11, 80. WORKS: HENSCHEN, De S. Eleutherio episcopo Tornacensi in Belgio commentarius prævius in Acta SS. Belgii, loc. cit., 455-75; FIEVET, Saint Eleuthère, évêque de Tournai (Tournai, 1890); KURTH, Clovis (Paris, 1901), II, 164, 246-47; WARICHEZ, Les origines de l'église de Tournai (Louvain, 1902), passim; VAN DER ESSEN, Etude critique et littéraire sur les Vita des Eleutheropolis, a titular see in Palæstina Prima. The former name of this city seems to have been Beth Gabra, "the house of the strong men", which later became Beît Djibrîn, "the house of Gabriel". Vespasian slaughtered almost all its inhabitants, according to Josephus, De Bell. Jud., IV., viii, 1, where its name is written Betaris. In A. D. 200 Septimius Severus, on his Syrian journey changed its name to Eleutheropolis, and it soon became one of the most important cities of Judea. Its special era, which figures on its coins and in many inscriptions, began 1 Jan., A.D. 200. (See Echos d'Orient, 1903, 310 sq.; 1904, 215 sq.) Its first known bishop is Macrinus (325); five others are mentioned in the fourth and two in the sixth cen tury (Lequien, Or. Christ., III, 631). In 393, during the episcopate of Zebennus, the relics of the Prophets Habakuk and Micah were found at Ceila and Tell Zakariya near Eleutheropolis (Sozom., H. E., VII, xxix). At Eleutheropolis was born St. Epiphanius, the celebrated bishop of Salamis in Cyprus; at Ad in the neighbourhood he established a monastery which is often mentioned in the polemics of St. Jerome with Rufinus and John, Bishop of Jerusalem. The city was, moreover, an important monastic centre at least till the coming of the Arabs. The latter beheaded (638) at Eleutheropolis fifty soldiers of the garrison of Gaza who had refused to apostatize. They were buried in a church built in their honour. (See Anal. Bolland., 1904, 289 sq., and Echos d'Orient, 1905, 40 sq.) The city was destroyed by the Mussulmans in '796 in the civil wars. The Crusaders erected there a fortress, in 1134, under Fulco of Anjou; the Knights of St. John, to whom it was committed, restored at this time the beautiful Byzantine church at Sandahanna. The citadel was taken in 1187 by Saladin, conquered in 1191 by Richard Lion Heart, destroyed in 1264 by Sultan Bibars, and rebuilt in 1551 by the Turks. Today Beit Djibrin is a village with about 1000 Mussulman inhabitants, on the road from Jerusalem to Gaza, in a fertile and very healthy region. The medieval fortress still stands, about 180 feet square; there are also remains of the walls, ruins of a cloister, and of a medieval church. In the neighbourhood are remarkable grottoes, which filled St. Jerome with wonderment. Some of these grottoes were used in early Christian times as places of worship; others bear Arabic inscriptions. RELAND, Palæstina (Utrecht, 1714), 749-754; SMITH, Dict. of Greek and Roman Geogr. (London, 1878) s. v. Bethograbis. S. VAILHÉ. Elevation, THE.-What we now know as par excellence the Elevation of the Mass is a rite of comparatively recent introduction. The Oriental liturgies, and notably the Byzantine, have indeed a showing of the consecrated Host to the people, with the words "Holy things to the holy", but this should rather be regarded as the counterpart of our "Ecce Agnus Dei" and as a preliminary to the Communion. Again, in the West, a lifting of the Host at the words "omnis honor et gloria", immediately before the Pater Noster, has taken place ever since the ninth century or earlier. This may very probably be looked upon as originally an invitation to adore when the great consecratory prayer of the canon extending from the Preface to the Pater Noster (see Cabrol in "Dict. d'Archéologie", I, 1558) had been brought to a conclusion. But the showing of the Sacred Host (and still more of the Chalice) to the people after the utterance of the words of Institution, "Hoc est corpus meum", is not known to have existed earlier than the close of the twelfth century. Eudes de Sully, Bishop of Paris from 1196 to 1208, seems to have been the first to direct in his episcopal statutes that after the consecratory words the Host should be "elevated so that it can be seen by all". There has, however, been a good deal of confusion upon this point in the minds of some early liturgists, owing to the practice which prevailed of lifting the bread from the altar and holding it in the hands above the chalice while consecrating it. Some degree of lifting, at the words "accepit panem in sanctas ac venerabiles manus suas", was unavoidable, and mentators spoke of their act as "elevare hostiam" many priests carried it so far that liturgical com(cf. Migne, P. L., CLXXVII, 370, and CLXXI, 1186), that this was quite a different thing from showing but a careful examination of the evidence proves the Host to the people. Moreover, the motive of this latter showing has generally been misconceived. It has often been held to be a protest against the heresy and the statements of writers at the beginning of the of Berengarius; but Berengarius died a century before, plain. The great centre of intellectual life at that thirteenth century make the whole development period was Paris, and we learn that at Paris a curious theological view was then being defended by such eminent scholars as the chancellor Peter Manducator and the professor Peter Cantor, that transubstantiation of the bread only took place when the priest at Mass had pronounced the words of consecration over both II, 124; Cæsarius of Heisterbach, "Dialogus", IX, bread and wine (see, e. g., Giraldus Cambrensis, Works, xxvii, and "Libri Miraculorum", ed. Meister, pp. 16, 17). To quote the words of Peter of Poitiers "dicunt quidam quod non facta est transubstantiatio panis in corpus donec prolata sint hæc verba 'Hic est sanguis'" (Migne, P. L., CCXI, 1245; Pope Innocent 1, "De sacro altaris mysterio", IV, 22, uses very similar language). This view, as may readily be understood, aroused considerable opposition, and notably on the part of Bishop Eudes de Sully and Stephen Langton, It seems clear that the theologians of this party, by afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury and cardinal. way of protest against the teaching of Peter Cantor, adopted the custom of adoring the Host immediately spoken, and by a natural transition they encouraged after the words "Hoc est enim corpus meum' the practice of showing it to the people for this purpose. The developments can be easily followed in the synodal ing the thirteenth century. We find mention of a decrees of France, England, and other countries durlittle bell of warning in the early years of that century, and before the end of the same century it was enjoined in many dioceses of the Continent and in England that one of the great bells of the church should be tolled at the moment of the Elevation, in order that those at work in the fields might kneel down and adore. .... were It will be readily understood from the above explanation that there was not the same motive at first for insisting on the elevation of the Chalice as well as the Host. No one at that period doubted that by the time the words of Institution had been spoken over the wine, transubstantiation had been effected in both species. We find accordingly that the elevation of the Chalice was introduced much more slowly. It was not adopted at St. Alban's Abbey until 1429, and we may say that it is not practised by the Carthusians even to this day. The elevation of the Host at Mass seems to have brought in its train a great idea of the special merit and virtue of looking upon the Body of Christ. Promises of an extravagant kind circulated freely among the people describing the privileges of him who had seen his Maker at Mass. Sudden death could not befall him. He was secure from hunger, infection, the danger of fire, etc. As a result, an extraordinary desire developed to see the Host when elevated at Mass, and this led to a variety of abuses which were rebuked by preachers and satirists. On the other hand, the same devout instinct undoubtedly fostered the introduction of processions of the Blessed Sacrament and ELEVEN the practice of our familiar Exposition and Benediction (qq. v.). 381 All the usual authorities upon the liturgical history of the Mass are somewhat unsatisfactory owing to the neglect to note the important point as to the teaching of the Paris theologians See THURSTON, The Elevation in The of the twelfth century. Tablet, 19 Oct., 26 Oct., 2 Nov., 1907. But many useful facts may be gleaned from GIORGI, De Liturgia Rom. Pont. (Rome, 1744), III; LEBRUN, Explication des prières et des cérémonies de la Messe (Paris, 1726); GIHR, Das heilige Messopfer (tr. St. Louis, 1902); THALHOFER, Liturgik (Freiburg, 1893), II. DRURY, Elevation in the Eucharist (Cambridge, 1907), is of little value. See further the bibliography of the article CANON OF HERBERT THURSTON. THE MASS. Eleven Thousand Virgins, THE. See URSULA, SAINT. Elhuyar y de Suvisa, FAUSTO DE, a distinguished mineralogist and chemist, b. at Logroño, Castile, 11 Oct., 1755; d. 6 Feb., 1833. He was professor in the School of Mines, Vergara, Biscay, from 1781 to 1785. His most celebrated work is the isolation of tungsten. Associated with his brother, Juan José, in 1783, two years after Scheele and Bergman had announced the probable existence of this metal, he isolated it, reducing it by carbon. At the present day when tungsten steel, known as high speed steel and self-hardening steel, is revolutionizing machine-shop practice, the He work of Elhuyar is of particular interest. named the metal Wolfram, a name which it still retains in the German language; the name, tungsten, meaning heavy stone, is generally used in other tongues. The Academy of Sciences of Toulouse, 4 March, 1784, received notice of this discovery. Elhuyar then spent three years in travelling, for the purpose of study, through Central Europe and went to Mexico, then called New Spain. Here he had general superintendence of the mines and founded a Royal School of Mines in 1792. Driven away by the Revolution, he returned to Spain, where he was appointed general director of mines and was busy reorganizing his department when he was seized with a fit of apoplexy and died. His works are numerous; he wrote on the theory of amalgamation, a system for the reduction of silver from its ore which received great development in Mexico. In 1818 he published memoirs on the mintage of coins. He was also the author of memoirs on the state of the mines of New Spain (now Mexico) and on the exploitation of the Spanish mines. Madrid, in 1825, he published a work on the influence of mineralogy in agriculture and chemistry. Biographies in Dictionnaire Larousse, La Grande Encyclopédie, His work on the reduction of and under tungsten and Wolfram. tungsten is described in WURTZ, Dictionnaire de chimie; WATTS, Dictionary of Chemistry; MUSPRATT, Chimie. T. O'CONOR SLOANE. At Elias (Heb. 'Eliahu, “Yahveh is God"; A.V., Elijah), the loftiest and most wonderful prophet of the O. T. What we know of his public life is sketched in a few popular narratives enshrined, for the most part, in the Third (Heb., First) Book of Kings. These narratives, which bear the stamp of an almost contemporary age, very likely took shape in Northern Israel, and are full of the most graphic and interesting details. Every part of the prophet's life therein narrated bears out the description of the writer of Ecclesiasticus: He was "as a fire, and his word burnt like a torch" (xlviii, 1). The times called for such a prophet. Under the baneful influence of his Tyrian wife Jezabel, Achab, though perhaps not intending to forsake altogether Yahveh's worship, had nevertheless erected in Samaria a temple to the Tyrian Baal (III K., xvi, 32) and introduced a multitude of foreign priests (xviii 19); doubtless he had occasionally offered sacrifices to the pagan deity, and, most of all, had allowed a bloody persecution of the prophets of Yahveh. Of Elias's origin nothing is known, except that he was a Thesbite; whether from Thisbe of Nephtali (Tob., i, 2, Gr.) or from Thesbon of Galaad, as our texts have it, is not absolutely certain, although most scholars, on the authority of the Septuagint and of Josephus, or After the brook had dried up, Elias, under Divine direction, crossed over to Sarepta, within the Tyrian dominion. There he was hospitably received by a poor widow whom the famine had reduced to her last meal (12); her charity he rewarded by increasing her store of meal and oil all the while the drought and famine prevailed, and later on by restoring her child to life (14-24). For three years there fell no rain or dew in Israel, and the land was utterly barren. Meanwhile Achab had made fruitless efforts and scoured the counto confront the king once more, and, suddenly appeartry in search of Elias. At length the latter resolved ing before Abdias, bade him summon his master (xviii, 7, sq.). When they met, Achab bitterly upIsrael. But the prophet flung back the charge: "I have braided the prophet as the cause of the misfortune of not troubled Israel, but thou and thy father's house, who have forsaken the commandments of the Lord, and have followed Baalim" (xviii, 18). Taking advantage of the discountenanced spirits of the silenced to Mount Carmel, for a decisive contest between their king, Elias bias him to summon the prophets of Baal concourse of people (see CARMEL, MOUNT) whom god and Yahveh. The ordeal took place before a great Elias, in the most forcible terms, presses to choose: "How long do you halt between two sides? If Yahveh be God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him" (xviii, 21). He then commanded the heathen prophets to invoke their deity; he himself would "call on the name of his Lord"; and the God who would answer by fire, "let him be God" (24). An altar had been erected by the Baal-worshippers and the victim laid upon it; but their cries, their wild dances and mad self-mutilations all the day long availed nothing: "there was no voice heard, nor did any one answer, nor regard them as they prayed" (29). Elias, having repaired the ruined altar of Yahveh which stood there, prepared thereon his sacrifice; then, when it was time to offer the evening oblation, as he was praying earnestly, "the fire of the Lord fell, and consumed the holocaust, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench" (38). The issue was fought and won. The people, maddened That by the success, fell at Elias's command on the pagan prophets and slew them at the brook Cison same evening the drought ceased with a heavy downpour of rain, in the midst of which the strange prophet ran before Achab to the entrance of Jezrael. Elias's triumph was short. The anger of Jezabel, who had sworn to take his life (xix, 2), compelled him to flee without delay, and take his refuge beyond the desert of Juda, in the sanctuary of Mount Horeb. There, in the wilds of the sacred mountain, broken spirited, he poured out his complaint before the Lord, the priests-where he is said to have slain the priests who strengthened him by a revelation and restored of Baal-are still in great veneration both among the his faith. Three commands are laid upon him: to Christians of all denominations and among the Mosanoint Hazael to be King of Syria, Jehu to be King lems. Every year the Druses assemble at El-Muhraka of Israel, and Eliseus to be his own successor. At once to hold a festival and offer a sacrifice in honour of Elias sets out to accomplish this new burden. On his Elias. All Mussulmans have the prophet in great way to Damascus, he meets Eliseus at the plough, and reverence; no Druse, in particular, would dare break throwing his mantle over him, makes him his faithful an oath made in the name of Elias. Not only among disciple and inseparable companion, to whom the com- them, but to some extent also among the Jews and pletion of his task will be entrusted. The treacherous Christians, many legendary tales are associated with murder of Naboth was the occasion for a new reappear- the prophet's memory. The Carmelite monks long ance of Elias at Jezrael, as a champion of the people's cherished the belief that their order could be traced rights and of social order, and to announce to Achab back in unbroken succession to Elias whom they his impending doom. Achab's house shall fall. In hailed as their founder. Vigorously opposed by the the place where the dogs licked the blood of Naboth Bollandists, especially by Papenbroeck, their claim will the dogs lick the king's blood; they shall eat Jeza- was no less vigorously upheld by the Carmelites of bel in Jezrael; their whole posterity shall perish and Flanders, until Pope Innocent XII, in 1698, deemed it their bodies be given to the fowls of the air (xxi, 20-26). advisable to silence both contending parties. Elias is Conscience-stricken, Achab quailed before the man honoured by both the Greek and Latin Churches on of God, and in view of his penance the threatened ruin 20 July. of his house was delayed. The next time we hear of Elias, it is in connexion with Ochozias, Achab's son and successor. Having received severe injuries in a fall, this prince sent messengers to the shrine of Beelzebub, god of Accaron, to inquire whether he should recover. They were intercepted by the prophet, who sent them back to their master with the intimation that his injuries would prove fatal. Several bands of men sent by the king to capture Elias were stricken by fire from heaven; finally the man of God appeared in person before Ochozias to confirm his threatening message. Another episode recorded by the chronicler (II Par., xxi, 12) relates how Joram, King of Juda, who had indulged in Baal-worship, received from Elias a letter warning him that all his house would be smitten by a plague, and that he himself was doomed to an early death. According to IV K., iii, Elias's career ended before the death of Josaphat. This statement is difficultbut not impossible-to harmonize with the preceding narrative. However this may be, Elias vanished still more mysteriously than he had appeared. Like Enoch, he was 'translated", so that he should not taste death. As he was conversing with his spiritual son Eliseus on the hills of Moab, "a fiery chariot, and fiery horses parted them both asunder, and Elias went up by a whirlwind into heaven" (IV K., ii, 11), and all the efforts to find him made by the sceptic sons of the prophets disbelieving Eliseus's recital, availed nothing. The memory of Elias has ever remained living in the minds both of Jews and Christians. According to Malachias, God preserved the prophet alive to entrust him, at the end of time, with a glorious mission (iv, 56): at the New Testament period, this mission was believed to precede immediately the Messianic Advent (Matt., xvii, 10, 12; Mark, ix, 11); according to some Christian commentators, it would consist in converting the Jews (St. Jer., in Mal., iv, 5-6); the rabbis, finally, affirm that its object will be to give the explanations and answers hitherto kept back by them. I Mach., ii, 58, extols Elias's zeal for the Law, and Ben Sira entwines in a beautiful page the narration of his actions and the description of his future mission (Ecclus., xlviii, 1-12). Elias is still in the N. T. the personification of the servant of God (Matt., xvi, 14; Luke, i, 17; ix, 8; John, i, 21). No wonder, therefore, that with Moses he appeared at Jesus' side on the day of the Transfiguration. Nor do we find only in the sacred literature and the commentaries thereof evidences of the conspicuous place Elias won for himself in the minds of after-ages. To this day the name of Jebel Mar Elyas, usually given by modern Arabs to Mount Carmel, perpetuates She memory of the man of God. Various places on the mountain: Elias's grotto; El-Khadr, the supposed school of the prophets; El-Muhraka, the traditional spot of Elias's sacrifice: Tell el-Kassis, or Mound of The old stichometrical lists and ancient ecclesiastical writers (Const. Apost., VI, 16; Origen, Comm. in Matth., xxvii, 9; Euthalius; Epiphan., Hær., xliii) mention an apocryphal "Apocalypse of Elias", citations from which are said to be found in I Cor., ii, 9, and Eph., v, 14. Lost to view since the early Christian centuries, this work was partly recovered in a Coptic translation found (1893) by Maspéro in a monastery of Upper Egypt. Other scraps, likewise in Coptic, have since been also discovered. What we possess now of this Apocalypse-and it seems that we have by far the greater part of it-was published in 1899 by G. Steindorff; the passages cited in I Cor., ii, 9, and Eph., v, 14, do not appear there; the Apocalypse, on the other hand, has a striking analogy with the Jewish "Sepher Elia". STEINDORFF, Die Apokalypse des Elias, eine unbekannte Apokalypse und Bruchstücke der Sophonias Apokalypse (Leipzig, 1899); SMITH, The Prophets of Israel (London, 1895); MEIGNAN, Les Prophètes d'Israël (Paris, 1892); CLEMEN, Die Wunderberichte über Elia und Elisa in den Büchern der Könige (Grimma, CHARLES L. SOUVAY. 1877). Elias, APOCALYPSE OF. See ELIAS; EGYPT, VI, Coptic Literature. Elias of Cortona, Minister General of the Friars Minor, b., it is said, at Bevilia near Assisi, c. 1180; d. at Cortona, 22 April, 1253. In the writings of Elias that have come down to us he styles himself "Brother Elias, Sinner", and his contemporaries without exception call him simply "Brother Elias". The name of a town was first added to his name in the fourteenth century; in Franciscan compilations like the "Chronica XXIV generalium" and the "Liber Conformitatum" Elias is described as Helias de Assisio, whereas the name of Cortona does not appear in connexion with his before the seventeenth century. It is clear in any event that Elias did not belong to the noble family of Coppi as some have asserted. From Salimbene, who knew Elias well, we learn that his family name was Bonusbaro or Bonibarone, that his father was from the neighbourhood of Bologna, and his mother an Assisian; that before becoming a friar Elias worked at his father's trade of mattress-making and also taught the children of Assisi to read the Psalter. Later on, according to Eccleston, Elias was a scriptor, or notary, at Bologna, where no doubt he applied himself to study. But he was not a cleric and never became a priest. Elias appears to have been one of the earliest companions of St. Francis of Assisi. The time and place of his joining the saint are uncertain; it may have been at Cortona in 1211, as Wadding says. Certain it is, however, that he held a place of prominence among the friars from the first. After a short sojourn, as it seems, in Tuscany, Elias was sent in 1217 as head of a band of missionaries to Palestine, and two years later he became the first provincial of the then extensive province of Syria. It was in this capacity that he received Caesar of Speyer into the order. Although we are ignorant of the nature or extent of Elias's work in the East, it would seem that the three years he spent there made a deep impression upon him. In 1220-21 Elias returned to Italy with St. Francis, who showed further confidence in him by naming him to succeed Peter of Cataneo (d. 10 March, 1221) as vicar-general of the order. Elias had held this office for five years when Francis died (3 Oct., 1226), and he then became charged with the responsibilities of the moment and the provisional government of the Friars Minor. After announcing the death of Francis and the fact of the Stigmata to the order in a beautiful letter, and superintending the temporary burial of the saint at San Giorgio, Elias at once began to lay plans for the erection of a great basilica at Assisi, to enshrine the remains of the Poverello. To this end he obtained a donation, with the authority of the pope, of the so-called Collis Inferni at the western extremity of the town, and proceeded to collect money in various ways to meet the expenses of the building. Elias thus alienated the zealots in the order, who felt entirely with St. Francis upon the question of poverty, so that at the chapter held in May, 1227, Elias was rejected in spite of his prominence, and Giovanni Parenti, provincial of Spain, was elected second general of the order. Thenceforth Elias devoted all his energies to raising the basilica in honour of St. Francis. The first stone was laid 17 July, 1228, the day following the saint's canonization, and the work advanced with such incredible speed that the lower church was finished within twenty-two months. It was consecrated 25 May, 1230, the hurried, secret, and still unexplained translation of St. Francis's body thither from San Giorgio planned by Elias having taken place a few days previously, before the general and other friars assembled for the purpose were present. Soon after this, though there is some difference of opinion as to the exact date, Elias attempted, as it seems by a kind of coup de main, to depose Parenti and seize the government of the order by force, but the attempt failed. He thereupon retired to a distant hermitage, where we are told he allowed his beard and hair to grow, wore the vilest habit, and to all appearances led a most penitential life. However this may be, Elias was elected to succeed Parenti as general at the chapter in 1232, magis tumultuose quam canonice, as a contemporary chronicler expresses it; and he continued to govern the Friars Minor for nearly seven years. During that period the order was passing through one of the crises of its earlier development. It is well known (see CONVENTUALS) that even during the lifetime of St. Francis a division had shown itself in the ranks of the friars, some being for relaxing the rigour of the rule, especially as regards the observance of poverty, and others for adhering to its literal strictness. The conduct of Elias after his election as general helped to widen this breach and fan the flames of discord in the order. In arbitrary fashion he refused to convene a chapter or to visit any of the provinces, but sent in his place "visitors", who acted rather as tax collectors-for Elias's chief need was money to complete the church and convent of S. Francesco-thus not only violating the rule himself, but causing others to do so also. In many other respects Elias abused his authority, receiving unworthy subjects into the order and confiding the most important offices to ignorant lay brothers, and when several of the early and most venerated companions of Francis withstood his highhanded methods, they were dealt with as mutineers, some being scourged, others exiled or imprisoned. Elias's manner of life made his despotism more intolerable. It seems to have been that of a powerful baron rather than of a mendicant friar. We are told that he gathered about him a household of great splendour, including secular lackies, dressed in the gayest liveries, that he kept. "a most excellent cook" for his exclusive use, that he fared sumptuously, wore splendid garments, and made his journeys to different courts on fine palfreys with rich trappings. Because of these excesses, which threatened the complete destruction of the rule, the opposition to Elias became widespread. It was organized by Aymon of Faversham, who, in conjunction with other provincials from the North, determined to have him removed, and appealed to Gregory IX. Elias excommunicated the appellants and sought to prevent their reception by the pope. But Gregory received them and, in spite of Elias, summoned a chapter at Rome. Élias resisted to the utmost and strove to browbeat his accusers, but Gregory called on him to resign. He refused to do so, and was thereupon deposed by the pope, the English provincial, Albert of Pisa, being elected general in his stead. This was in 1239. After his deposition, Elias, who still kept the titles of Custos of the Assisian Basilica and Master of the Works, seems to have busied himself anew for a time at the task of completing the church and convent of S. Francesco, but subsequently retired to Cortona. Refusing to obey either the general or the pope, Elias now openly transferred his allegiance to Frederick II, and we read of him in 1240 with the emperor's army, riding on a magnificent charger at the siege of Faenza and at that of Ravenna. Some two years before this Elias had been sent by Gregory IX as an ambassador to Frederick. He now became the sup- After a picture preserved at Assisi porter of the excommunicated emperor in his strife with Rome and was himself excommunicated by Gregory. It is said that Elias afterwards wrote a letter to the pope explaining his conduct and asking pardon, and that this letter was found in the tunic of Albert of Pisa after the latter's death. Aymon of Faversham, who had been the principal opponent of Elias, and who was elected general in succession to Albert, having died in 1244, a chapter was thereupon convened at Genoa. Elias was summoned by Innocent IV to attend it, but he failed to appear. Some say that the papal mandate never reached him. Be this as it may, Elias was excommunicated anew and expelled from the order. The news of his disgrace spread quickly "to the great scandal of the Church", and the very children might be heard singing in the streets: ELIAS OF CORTONA "Hor attorna fratt' Helya Ke pres' ha la mala via", a couplet which met the friars at every turn, so that the very name of Elias became hateful to them. It was about this time that Elias was sent by Frederick II on an important diplomatic mission to Constantinople and Cyprus. When not employed by the emperor, Elias resided at Cortona with a few friars who had remained faithful to him. He dwelt for a time in a private house there, still known as the casa di frate Elia, but in January, 1245, the people of Cortona, for whom he had obtained sundry privileges in the past, presented him with a piece of ground called the Bagno della Regina, and helped him to erect thereon the splendid church and convent dedicated to St. Francis. Soon after Blessed Giovanni da Parma became gen |