THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
lasted till the time of Solomon (I Kings viii. 1, 3). In proportion as the royal power developed, that of the elders declined. The case of Ahab (I Kings xx. 7 sqq.) was an exception. In the administration the elders had no part since the royal officers were the executives (I Kings iv. 1 sqq., xx. 15); but they constituted a part of the nobility. That they retained such influence was due to the fact that the royal government was satisfied with receiving the revenues and did not otherwise interfere with the affairs of the communities.
During the exile, the genealogical register was preserved; the settlement seems to have been by families, and the heads of the families took their places at the head of the settlements and acted for the families and the community (Ezek. xxi. 1 sqq., viii. 1; Jer. xxLx. 1). The return from the exile was by families (Ezra ii.; Neh. vii.). At the head of the families stood the chief of the fathers (Ezra i. 5, ii. 68; Neh. vii. 70). The new commonwealth was organized along those lines; the After elders of the Jews formed the national the Exile, government; they directed the building of the temple; with them the Persian governor treated (Ezra v. 3 sqq., vi. 7 sqq.). In the time of Ezra and Nehemiah the organization consisted of twelve " princes," representatives of the tribes, who dwelt at Jerusalem (Neh. xi. 1), whereas the local government of the country-communities was in the hands of city-elders and judges (Ezra x. 14). The Jerusalem college of sarim became afterward the aristocratic senate of the Gerousia, first mentioned in the time of Antiochus the Great (Josephus, Ant. XII., iii. 3; cf. I Mace, vii. 33). From I Mace. xii. 6, xiv. 20 it is clear that the " Gerousia of the nation " and " the elders of Israel " were identical. The term synedrion was first used in Herod's time, it became the common designation (Matt. v. 22; xxvi. 59) alongside of presbyterion (Luke xxii. 66; Acts xxii. 5) and boule (Acts v. 21). (I. Benzinger.)
Bibliography: 0. Seesemann, Die Aeltesten im A. T., Leipsic, 1895; Benzinger, Archaologie, pp. 296-329; Nowack, Archaologie, i. 300 sqq., 320 sqq.; J. F. McCurdy, History, Prophecy and the Monuments, vol. ii., New York, 1896; Amram, in JBL, 1900; E. Day, Social Life of the Hebrews, ib. 1901; A. Biichler, Das Synedrion in Jerusalem, Vienna, 1902; Schiirer, Geschichte, ii. 176 sqq., Eng. transl., II., ii. passim; DB, i. 676-677; EB, ii. 1906-07, iii. 2717-18; JE, v. 92.
ELECT, ELECTION. See Predestination.
ELEUTHERUS, el"iu-the'rus: Pope, c. 174- 189. He is first heard of as deacon to Pope Anicetus (c. 154-169); from his name it is probable that he was a Greek. During his pontificate the Church at Rome was little molested by the government, there being but one martyrdom (that of Apollonius, q.v.). It was much troubled, however, by heresy. Marcionites, Valentinians, and other sectaries formed influential congregations by the side of the true Church, and Eleutherus had to continue the struggle against the Montanists begun by his predecessor, Soter. Gallic Christians about 178 sent him letters on the subject by the hand of Iremeus, then a presbyter of Lyons, whom they commend warmly. Their aim was probably to exhort the pope to be steadfast against Montanism (cf. Salmon
in DCB, iii. 937-938), and their admonition may have had the more weight as the Churches of Lyons and Vienne were then undergoing severe persecution (Eusebius, Hist, cccl., v. 1-2). The Liber pontificalis gives much detailed but worthless information about Eleutherus. It includes the statement that he received a letter from a British king, Lucius by name, " that he might be made a Christian by his mandate," which is generally admitted to be a fabrication of the seventh century, devised to support the claims of the Roman party in England against the British Church (see Celtic Church in Britain and Ireland). Bede knew of the statement and refers to it in three places (De temporum ratione, 331; Hist, eccl., i. 4, v. 24), and it was often repeated and much elaborated in later times.
The first mention of the Lucius legend is in the recension of the Liber pontificalis known as the Catalogus Felicianus, written about 530. It is not in the earlier Catalogus, written shortly after 353. Gildas knows nothing of it. The more important of Bede's references (Hist, eccl., i. 4) is as follows: " In the hundred and fifty-sixth year of the incarnation of the Lord, Marcus Antoninus Verus became emperor, the fourteenth from Augustus, with his brother, Aurelius Commodus. In their time, while Eleutherus, a holy man, held the pontificate of the Roman Church, Lucius, king of the Britons, sent to him a letter, asking that he might be made a Christian by his command. And presently he attained his pious request, and the Britons retained the faith which they received, uncorrupted and entire, in peace and tranquillity, until the time of the emperor Diocletian." The Historia Britonum (end of the eighth century; see Nennius) reads Eucharistus for Eleutherus and has all the chieftains of Britain baptized with Lucius. The Liber Landavensis (twelfth century) names the messengers of Lucius and locates the narrative in Wales. At about the same time William of Malmesbury localizes it at Glastonbury. Geoffrey of Monmouth names the missionaries sent and makes them found three archbishoprics and twenty-eight bishoprics. The Welsh triads (of uncertain date) connect the story with Llandaff. A compilation of the time of Edward II. gives a letter from Eleutherus to Lucius. Later Lucius became a benefactor to the Church and the schools, and, being confused with a continental teacher of the same name, was represented as missionary and martyr.
Bibliography: Eusebius, Hist, eccl., iv. 22; v. proemium, 3-6, 22. Liber pontificalis, ed. Duchesne, i. 4-5, 136, Paris, 1886, cf. pp. cii.-civ.; J. Langen, Geschichte der rbmischen Kirche bis zum Pontifikate Leo's I., i. 157-159, Bonn, 1881; Harnack, Litteratur, II. i. 144-146; Bower, Popes, i. 15-17. For the Lucius Legend, W. Bright, Chapters of Early English Church History, pp. 3-5, Oxford, 1897; Haddan and Stubbs, Councils, i. 25-26; L. Duchesne, in Revue Celtique, vi (1870), 491-493; Chronica minora, ed. T. Mommsen in MGH, iii., Auct. ant., xiii (1898), 115-116, 164; Plummer, note to Bede's Hist, eccl, i. 4; H. Zimmer, Nennius vindicatus, pp. 141—154, Berlin, 1893.
ELEVATION OF THE HOST. See Mass.
ELI: A (high) priest at Shiloh near the close of the period of the Judges, among whom he is also reckoned. Descent from Aaron is claimed for him through Ithamar (I Sam. ii. 27 sqq.; I Chron. xxiv. 6). It was Eli who promised the granting of her petition to the praying Hannah (I Sam. i. 9, 13 sqq.), to whom she afterward entrusted Samuel, the object of that petition (verse 25 sqq.), to become his minister in his old age and then his successor. Eli seems to have been a mild, gentle bearer of the office, who had the interests of the sanctuary at heart; but he was lax in the discipline of his sons, Hophni and Phinehas, who shamelessly abused their priestly