Isidore IMercatok (or Peccator), the supposed name of a compiler who, towards the middle of the 9th century, published the famous collection of canons known as the Psevido-Isidorian. See Canons ; Decre- tals. It is pretty generally conceded that this ^^Titer lived in the dominions of Charles the Bald, but his real name is a matter of doubt. As for his collection, it is evidently based on that of Isidore of Seville, numerous copies of which were at the time circulating in France ; but it contains besides a vast number of apocrj-phal ad-
ditions. Some of these pieces had already been in cir- culation for years, and they were not all made up by the Pseudo-Isidore. The collection of capitularies of Benedict Levita, a deacon of IMayence (who has by some been considered as the author of the Pseudo-Isid(j' rian collection), which was written about 840, contains already numerous extracts of the fictitious documents of the work of Mercator. They circulated at first only in Southern France. They remained unknown in Spain until the 16th century, and in Germany and Italy but few copies of them are to be found. Thej^ are compiled from the histories of Kufinus and Cassiodorus, the Liber Pontijicalis, the works of the fathers, decisions of the councils, regular decretals, the Bible (which, according to Kichter, he quotes from the Vulgate, revised by Khabanus Maurus), and, finally, the Koman law, of which he possessed a compendium in the Visigoth lan- guage. These two latter circumstances go far to prove that the writer must have been either a native, or at least, at the time, a resident of France. Maj-ence has sometimes been considered as the place where the pseu- do-decretals were written, and Riculf or Otgar, arch- bishops of that city, or even Benedict Levita, above al- luded to, as their author ; but this seems unlikely, the more since Rhabanus Maurus, who succeeded Otgar in 847, appears entirely unacquainted with their existence. It must have been written about the middle of the 9th century, for it contains the decrees of the council held at Paris in 829, shows a knowledge of Rhabanus Mau- rus's work against the chor-bishops written in 847-849, and was first made public at the Synod of Chiersy in 857. The history of this collection has never been fully traced out ; much may perhaps be done for it by a care- ful comparison of the numerous MS. copies of it which are still extant. Among these copies, one of the most important is the Codex Vaticanus, No. 630, written in 858-867. It is thouglit that the Capitula Angilramni, another apocryphal document of cnnon law, must also be considered as the work of the so-called Isidore Mer- cator. See, besides the works already referred to under Decretals, Centuriatores, Kcdesiustica historia, vol. vi, cap. vii, and vol. iii, cap. vii ; Blondel, Pseiido-Isido- rus et Turrianus vapulantes ; Van Espen, De Collectio- ne Isidori, Opera, vol. iii ; Zaccaria, A ntij'ebronio, vol. i, diss, iii ; Spittler, Gesch. des canonischen Rechts, p. 243 ; Kunstmann, Fragmente iiber Pseudo-Isidor (Neue Sion, 1855); Gfrorer, Untersuchung. iiber Alter. Ursprung und Za-eck d. Dekretalen d.falschen Isidoriis (Friburg, 1848) ; Same, Gesch. d. Carolinger, i, 71 ; Rosshirt, Zu den Kirch- enrechtlichen Quellen u. z. den Pseudo-Isidorischen Decre- talen (Heidelberg, 1849) ; Hoefer, Nom. Biog. Generale, xvi, 71 ; Milman, Latin Christianiti/, ii, 370 sq. ; Herzog, Real-Encyklop. xii, 337 ; Ilefcle, in "\\'etzcr und Welte, Kirchen-Lex. viii, 859. (J. H . W.)
Isidore of Moscow, a distinguished Russian bish- op, was born at Thessalouica towards the close of the 14th century. He became successively archimandrite of the convent of St.Demitri at Constantinople, coaJju- tor of the archbishop of Illyria, and, finally (in 1437). metropohtan bishop of Russia. In this capacity he at- tended, at the head of a hundred Russian bishops and priests, the Council of Florence, at which the union of the Latin and Greek churches was effected. See Flor- ence, Council of. Isidore and Bessarion played the most important part in that council. In June, 1439, having fulfilled his task, he returned to INIoscow to pro- claim the news. But the grand duke Vasili, who was displeased with the results of the council, had him thrown into prison, and condemned to be burned alive ; but on the day appointed for the execution he made his escape, and fled to Rome, where Eugene IV welcomed him as a martyr. As the union efl'ected by the Council of Blorence in" 1439 was of very short duration, Isidore was selected by the Roman pontifl", Nicholas V, as mes- senger to Constantinople, to attempt again a union of the churches, but in this mission he failed. Isidore died at Rome April 27, 1463. Having witnessed the estab-
ISIDORE
688
ISIS
lishment of Islamism at Constantinople, he gave an ac- count of it in two letters, one of which was pubhshed in ilie Lettres Turques of Reisner, vol. iv ; the second, which is dated Candia, JiUv 7, 1453, was never printed, and is probably contained in the Iliccardini Library at I'lor- ence. Some Russian annalists, cspcciaUy Nikon, give extracts of some of his sermons and iiiandaments. See Xanammikre sckoba Opcoha ; Dnrmmi i:„sj, Iskdia Bib- lloUca, vol xi; Strahl, Der Russisrh, M.tmpnht Istdor 11. .sv/h Virsiirh <]. i-ussisch-griechiavhc Kircln mit il.Rd- ini.<,-l,-K:ilnIi.-'rlin) zu vereinen (Tubiii.ux'H, bS2:i) ; Claco- nii ct ( ild.iiiii r'V(B et Res gestm Pontijinim ,t Curdina- liitm (i;oma», 1677), ii, 903; Stahttu Concilii FlurenUni (Florence, 1518); Maimbourg, Ilistoire dii Schisme des Grecs ; Theiner, Vicissitudes de VErjliie en Polofjne^ et en Russie, i, 33 ; Hoefer, \oia: Bioff. Generale, xxvi, 73 ; Neale's History of the Council of Florence,]). 59; Covel, Account of the Greek Church, p. 117.