Elipando of Toledo

Elipand of Toledo (717—†805) was archbishop of Toledo at the end of the 8th century, and the main defender of adoptionism.

Defender of adoptionism

He maintained, perhaps due to the influence of Islam and the Arian Visigothic past, that Christ is the Son of God not by nature, but by adoption from the Father. He defended his thesis at the Synod of Frankfurt (794), in a memoir addressed to the Hispanic bishops, and at the Council of Aachen (800). In the latter he was confronted by Alcuin of York, who engaged in debate with Elipander.^{[citation required]}

Elipandus did not deny the dogma of the Holy Trinity, that is, he believed that the Son was eternal like the Father and that together with the Holy Spirit they formed a single person. The problem for Elipandus was that the Son had been begotten by a woman, so he could not have a divine "nature", but only a human one. So the only alternative that was possible was that the Father had adopted him as his own Son. His reasoning linked with the Christological reflections of authors from the Visigothic era such as Julián de Toledo.

Elipando was archbishop of Toledo, which at that time was subject to the emirs of Córdoba. But despite this, the prestige of the Toledo see was still maintained throughout the Iberian Peninsula, so its "adoptionist" proposal provoked a fierce response in the Kingdom of Asturias led by the monk Beato de Liébana, possibly abbot of a monastery. and very well related to Queen Adosinda. Beatus of Liébana accused Elipandus of madness, heresy and ignorance and went so far as to call him the "testicle of the Antichrist." According to Eduardo Manzano Moreno, the controversy between Elipando and Beato de Liébana was "spurred by the strong struggle between a northern church, increasingly independent, and the old Visigothic church, whose main episcopates had fallen in Andalusian territory."

The conflict worsened when Félix de Urgell, bishop of Urgell, sided with Elipando. As Urgell had just been subjected to the Carolingian Empire, the adoptionist dispute reached the court of Charlemagne and a series of eminent clerics - such as Alcuin of York, Paulinus of Aquileia or Theodulph of Orleans - with the support of the king himself and the pope, took charge. in refuting the "heresy" of Archbishop Elipando of Toledo and Bishop Félix de Ugell. A council met in Frankfurt in 794, chaired by Charlemagne himself, in which adoptionism was condemned. In one of its canons it was said that this "heresy should be radically extirpated from the Holy Church." Finally Félix de Urgell was dismissed from his diocese and confined to Lyon, where he spent the rest of his days. For his part, Elipander died around the year 805 in the Toledo headquarters without any disciple continuing his "adoptionist" thesis. As Eduardo Manzano Moreno has highlighted, "the demise of the link with the heirs of the ancient Visigoth church was thus certified, who were confined to a territory, the Andalusian, progressively marginalized from the political trends that helped shape Western Christianity."

It is stated that Elipando died on the so-called Day of the Toledo Moat, which occurred in 797. However, the seven years of difference with the date on which Elipando's death is estimated (c. 805) make this assertion impossible.