(c.) Intermarriage with Jews and Moslems, which had become very common, is denounced and forbidden.[7]

(d.) The Pope cautions the Spanish Church against consecrating priests without due preparation, and speaks as if there were many false priests, wolves in sheep’s clothing, dealing havoc in the flock.

(e.) One doubtful authority,[8] who tells us that Adrian ordered Cixila, Bishop of Toledo, to hold a council and condemn Egila for not fasting on Sundays, according to the decrees of previous popes.

[1] “Chron.  Sil.,” sec. 13, who says that in 1109 a legate was in Spain holding a council at Leon.  “Chron.  Sampiri,” (Florez, xiv.), sec. 6 (a later addition), says that in 869 Alfonso IV. sent Severus and Sideric, asking the leave of Pope John VIII. to hold a council and consecrate a church.  Cp.  Mariana, vii. 8.

    [2] Mariana, viii. 6.

    [3] Isid.  Pac, sec. 77.  See Migne, vol. xcviii. pp. 339, 376,
    451.

    [4] See Victorius Aquitanus, quoted by Noris “de Paschali
    Latinorum Cyclo.” (iii. 786), apud Migne.

    [5] Dozy, ii. p. 355, note.

    [6] Florez, “Esp.  Sagr.,” v. 514:  Fleury, ii. 235.

    [7] Adrian’s Letter to the Spanish Bishops.

    [8] The Pseudo-Luitprand, sec. 236—­“Ex mandatis litterisque
    Adriani papae contra Egilanum ... nolentem Dei Sabbate a
    carnibus abstinere” (776 A.D.).

But though there was a strong party in Spain favouring the pretensions of the pope, yet many of the clergy and laity, headed by the venerable Elipandus, Bishop of Toledo (782-810), boldly resisted the encroachments of the Bishop of Rome.  Elipandus himself, as Primate of all Spain, wrote to Migetius condemning him for certain heresies, and boasts of having completely refuted and silenced him;[1] but at the same time Elipandus shewed his independence of the Roman Pontiff by characterising those who abstained from pork and things strangled as foolish and ignorant men; though Migetius in this matter was in thorough accord with the pope,[2] and could justify his views by a reference to the decision of the Church of Jerusalem in the earliest days of Christianity.[3]

Another doctrine combated by Elipandus was the unscriptural one, that it was unlawful to eat with unbelievers, or even to take food touched by them.  It was easy for him to quote texts such as:  “Not that which entereth into the mouth defileth the man; but that which proceedeth out of the mouth, this defileth the man;” [4] or “to the pure all things are pure;"[5] and to point out that Christ ate with publicans and sinners.

But the assumption which Elipandus, like his fellow-countrymen, Claudius of Turin, later, especially attacked, was that which regarded the Roman See as alone constituting the Catholic Church and the power of God.[6] This he very properly calls a heresy; and indignantly denies that Christ’s words, “Thou art Peter,” &c., apply to the Church of Rome alone, affirming that they were spoken of the whole Church.  “How,” he adds, “can the Roman Church be, as you say it is, the very power of God without spot or blemish, when we know that at least one bishop of Rome (Liberius) has been branded as a heretic by the common voice of Christendom.”