er was sent through Felix, and, in answer,
Alcuin wrote the book against Elipandus, which we now have, and which
was the means of converting twenty thousand heretics in Gothic Gaul.[4]
But in spite of Emperor or Pope, of the books of Alcuin, or the
anathemas of the councils, neither Felix nor Elipandus really gave up
his new doctrines, and even the former continued to make converts.
Elipandus, though very old[5] at this time (800 A.D.), lived ten years
longer, and Felix survived him eight years;[6] and they both died
persisting in their error.[7]

[1] Fleury, v. 243, says there was no anathema; but Migne,
xcvi. 858, gives us the canon: "Anathematizata esto impia ac
nefanda haeresis Elipandi Toletanae sedis Episcopi, et Felix
(_sic_) Orgellitani, eorumque sequacium."

[2] Neander, v. 228.

[3] _Ibid._, p. 232.

[4] Froben, sec, 82. Neander says 10,000.

[5] Alcuin adv. Elip. Preface to Leidrad: "Non pro eius
tantummodo laboravi salute, quem timeo forsan citius vel morte
praereptum esse propter decrepitam in eo senectutem."

[6] Or perhaps six.

[7] No reliance can be placed in the statement of the
Pseudo-Luitprand, who, in a letter to Recemundus, speaking of
Elipandus, says: "Postquam illius erroris sui de adoptione
Christi sero et vere poenituit, ad quod manifestandum concilium
(795) episcoporum ... collegit; et coram omnibus abiurato
publice errore _fidem sanctae ecclesiae Romanae_ confessus
est." These words in italics reveal a later hand. Cp. also sec.
259 and Julianus. Alcuin, in a letter to Aquila, bishop of
Salisbury, says that Elipandus in 800 A.D. still adhered to his
error.

We have dealt somewhat at length with the Adoptionist heresy, both from
its interest and importance, and because, as mentioned above, there are
some reasons for thinking that it was the outcome of a wish to
conciliate Mohammedan opinion. It will be as well to recapitulate such
evidence as we have obtained on this point. But we must not expect to
find the traces of Mohammedan influence in the development, so much as
in the origination, of the theory. What we do find is slight enough,
amounting to no more than this:--

(_a._) That the one point, which repelled the Mohammedan from genuine
Christianity--setting aside for a moment the transcendental mystery of
the Trinity--was the Divinity of Christ. Anything, therefore, that
tended to emphasise the