before its final occupation by the Portuguese in 1226. In 1570 it became an episcopal see. From 1642 until modern times it was the chief frontier fortress S. of the Tagus; and it twice withstood sieges by the Spanish, in 1658 and 1711. The French under Marshal Junot took it in March 1808, but evacuated it in August, after the conclusion of the convention of Cintra (see Peninsular War).
ELVEY, SIR GEORGE JOB (1816–1893), English organist and
composer, was born at Canterbury on the 27th of March 1816.
He was a chorister at Canterbury cathedral under Highmore
Skeats, the organist. Subsequently he became a pupil of his elder
brother, Stephen, and then studied at the Royal Academy of
Music under Cipriani Potter and Dr Crotch. In 1834 he gained
the Gresham prize medal for his anthem, “Bow down thine ear,”
and in 1835 was appointed organist of St George’s chapel,
Windsor, a post he filled for 47 years, retiring in 1882. He took
the degree of Mus. B. at Oxford in 1838, and in 1840 that of
Mus. D. Anthems of his were commissioned for the Three Choirs
Festivals of 1853 and 1857, and in 1871 he received the honour
of knighthood. He died at Windlesham in Surrey on the 9th of
December 1893. His works, which are nearly all for the Church,
include two oratorios, a great number of anthems and services,
and some pieces for the organ. A memoir of him, by his widow,
was published in 1894.
ELVIRA, SYNOD OF, an ecclesiastical synod held in Spain,
the date of which cannot be determined with exactness. The
solution of the question hinges upon the interpretation of the
canons, that is, upon whether they are to be taken as reflecting
a recent, or as pointing to an imminent, persecution. Thus
some argue for a date between 300 and 303, i.e. before the
Diocletian persecution; others for a date between 303 and 314,
after the persecution, but before the synod of Arles; still others
for a date between the synod of Arles and the council of Nicaea,
325. Mansi, Hardouin, Hefele and Dale are in substantial
agreement upon 305 or 306, and this is probably the closest
approximation possible in the present state of the evidence.
The place of meeting, Elvira, was not far from the modern
Granada, if not, as Dale thinks, actually identical with it.
There the nineteen bishops and twenty-four presbyters, from
all parts of Spain, but chiefly from the south, assembled, probably
at the instigation of Hosius of Cordova, but under the presidency
of Felix of Accis, with a view to restoring order and discipline
in the church. The eighty-one canons which were adopted
reflect with considerable fulness the internal life and external
relations of the Spanish Church of the 4th century. 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 duumvir 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.
Worthy of special note are canon 33, enjoining celibacy upon all
clerics and all who minister at the altar (the most ancient canon
of celibacy); canon 36, forbidding pictures in churches; canon
38, permitting lay baptism under certain conditions; and canon
53, forbidding one bishop to restore a person excommunicated
by another.
See Mansi ii. pp. 1-406; Hardouin i. pp. 247-258; Hefele (2nd ed.) i. pp. 148 sqq. (English translation, i. pp. 131 sqq.); Dale, The Synod of Elvira (London, 1882); and Hennecke, in Herzog-Hauck, Realencyklopädie (3rd ed.), s.v. “Elvira,” especially bibliography. (T. F. C.)
EL WAD, a town in the Algerian Sahara, 125 m. in a straight
line S.S.E. of Biskra, and 190 m. W. by S. of Gabes. Pop. (1906)
7586. El Wad is one of the most interesting places in Algeria.
It is surrounded by huge hollows containing noble palm groves;
and beyond these on every side stretches the limitless desert
with its great billows of sand, the encroachments 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. By an exception rare in Saharan settlements,
there are no defensive works save the fort containing the
government offices, which the French have built on the south
side of the town. The inhabitants are of two distinct tribes,
one, the Aduan, of Berber stock, the other a branch of the
Sha`ambah Arabs. El Wad possesses a curious currency known
as flous, consisting of obsolete copper coins of Algerian and
Tunisian dynasties. Seven flous are regarded as equal to the
French five-centime piece.
El Wad oasis is one of a group known collectively as the Suf. Five miles N.W. is Kuinine (pop. 3541) and 6 m. farther N.W. Guemar (pop. 6885), an ancient fortified town noted for its manufacture of carpets. Linen weaving is carried on extensively in the Suf. Administratively El Wad is the capital of an annexe to the territory of Tuggurt.
ELWOOD, a city of Madison county, Indiana, U.S.A., on
Duck Creek, about 38 m. N.E. of Indianapolis. Pop. (1880)
751; (1890) 2284; (1900) 12,950 (1386 foreign-born); (1910)
11,028. Elwood is served by the Lake Erie & Western and the
Pittsburg, Cincinnati, Chicago & St Louis railways, and by an
interurban electric line. Its rapid growth in population and as
a manufacturing centre was due largely to its situation in the
natural gas region; the failure of the gas supply in 1903 caused
a decrease in manufacturing, but the city gradually adjusted
itself to new conditions. It has large tin plate mills, iron and
steel foundries, saw and planing mills, wooden-ware and furniture
factories, bottling works and lamp-chimney factories, flour mills
and packing houses. In 1905 the value of the city’s factory
product was $6,111,083; in 1900 it was $9,433,513; the glass
product was valued at $223,766 in 1905, and at $1,011,803 in
1900. There are extensive brick-yards in the vicinity, and the
surrounding agricultural country furnishes large supplies of
grain, live-stock, poultry and produce, for which Elwood is the
shipping centre. The site was first settled under the name of
Quincy; the present name was adopted in 1869; and in 1891
Elwood received a city charter.
ELY, RICHARD THEODORE (1854– ), American economist,
was born at Ripley, New York, on the 13th of April 1854.
Educated at Columbia and Heidelberg universities, he held the
professorship of economics at Johns Hopkins University from
1881 to 1892, and was subsequently professor of economics at
Wisconsin University. Professor Ely took an active part in
the formation of the American Economic Association, was
secretary from 1885 to 1892 and president from 1899 to 1901.
He published a useful Introduction to Political Economy (1889);
Outlines of Economics (1893); The Labour Movement in America
(1883); Problems of To-day (1888); Social Aspects of Christianity
(1889); Socialism and Social Reform (1894); Monopolies
and Trusts (1900), and Studies in the Evolution of Industrial
Society (1903).
ELY, a cathedral city and market-town, in the Newmarket
parliamentary division of Cambridgeshire, England, 16 m.
N.N.E. of Cambridge by the Great Eastern railway. Pop.
of urban district (1901) 7713. It stands on a considerable
eminence on the west (left) bank of the Ouse, in the Isle of Ely,
which rises above the surrounding fens. Thus its situation,
before the great drainage operations of the 17th century, was
practically insular. The magnificent cathedral, towering above
the town, is a landmark far over the wide surrounding level.
The soil in the vicinity is fertile and market-gardening is carried
on, fruit and vegetables (especially asparagus) being sent to the
London markets. The town has a considerable manufacture of
tobacco pipes and earthenware, and there are in the neighbourhood
mills for the preparation of oil from flax, hemp and cole-seed.
Besides the cathedral Ely has in St Mary’s church, lying
almost under the shadow of the greater building, a fine structure
ranging in style from Norman to Perpendicular, but in the main
Early English. The sessions house and corn exchange are the
