§ 154. ST. GREGORY OF TOURS. C61
Their number attests his diligence, but their style proves the correctness of his own judgment that he was not able to write good Latin. Only one is of real importance, but that is simply inestimable, as it is the only abundant source for French history of the fifth and sixth centuries. It is the Ecclesiastical History of the Franks, in ten books,1 begun in 576, and not finished until 592. By reason of it Gregory has been styled the Herodotus of France. It was his object to tell the history of his own times for the benefit of posterity, although he was aware of his own unfitness for the task. But like the chroniclers of the period he must needs begin with Adam, and it is not till the close of the first book that the history of Gaul properly begins. The last five books tell the story of the events in Gregory's own life-time, and have therefore most value. Gregory is not a model historian, but when speaking of facts within his experi ence he is reliable in his statements, and impartial in his narra tive, although partial in his judgments.
Gregory gives at the close of his Ecclesiastical TTistory a cata logue of his writings, all of which have been preserved, with the exception of the commentary on the Psalms, of which cnlv the preface and the titles of the chapters are now extant.2 The com plete list is as follows : 3 The Miracles of St. Martin, in four books,
begun in 574, finished 594 ; the miracles were recorded bv dirCCto «
tion of Gregory's mother, who appeared to him in a vision ; The Passion of St. Julian the Martyr, written between 582 and 586 ; The Martyr's Glory, written about 586 ; The Confessor's Glory, about 588; Ilic Lives of the Fathers, written at different times and finished in 594. The last is the most interesting and important of these hagiographical works, which do not call for further men tion.4 The Course of the Stars, or as Gregory calls it, T7tc Ecclesi astical Circuit, is a liturgical work, giving the proper offices at the appearance of the most important stars.
1 Historic? ecclesiastical Francorum libri decem. Migne, LXXT. col. 159-572.
2 X. xxxi. 19. Migne, col. ,r)71-572. 3 Ibid. col. 705 pqq. * The dates given above are Monod's, /. c. pp. 41-49.
662 FOURTH PERIOE. A. D. 590-1049.
§ 155. St. Isidore of Seville.
I. ST. ISIDORTJS HISPALENSIS Opera omnia, in Migne, Tom. LXXXL-
LXXXIV. (reprint of F. Arevalo's ed. Rome, 1797-1803, 7 vols., with the addition of the Collectio canonum ascribed to Isidore). Migne's Tom. LXXXV. and LXXXVI. contain the Liturgia Mozarabica secundum regulam beati Isidori. Editions of separate works: De libris Hi. sententiarum. Konigsburg, 1826, 1827, 2 parts. De nativitate Domini, passione et resurrectione, regno atquejudicio, ed. A. Holtzmann, Carlsruhe, 1836. De natura rerum liber, ed. G. Becker, Berlin, 1857.
II. Besides the Prolegomena of Arevalo, which fill all Tom. LXXXL,
seeFrta£/s^on,LXXXIL, col. 19-56. P.B.GAMS: Kirchengeschichte von Spanien. Regensburg, 1862-1879, 5 parts. (II. 2, 102 sqq). J. C. E. BOURRET : Uecole chretienne de Seville sous la monarchic des
Visigoths. Paris, 1855. C. F. MONTALEMBERT : Les moines d' Occi dent. Paris, 1860-67, 5 vols. (II. 200-218), Eng. trans. Monks of the
West. Boston, 1872, 2 vols. (I. 421-424). HUGO HERTZBERG: Die Historien und die Chroniken des Isidorus von Sevilla, Iste, Th. Die Historien. Gottingen, 1874. " Die Chroniken " appeared in Forschungen zur deutchen Geschichte, 1875, XIV. 289-362. CHEVA LIER: Repertoire des sources historiques du moyen age. Paris, 1877, sqq. II. 112, sqq. Du PIN, VI. 1-5; CEILLIER, XI. 710-728; CLARKE, II. 364-372 ; BAHR, IV. I. pp. 270-286 ; TEUFFEL,PP. 1131- 1134; EBERT, I. 555-568.
ISIDOEE of Seville, saint and doctor of the Latin Church, was born about 560 either at Carthagena or Seville. He was the youngest child of an honored Roman family of the ortho dox Christian faith. His father's name was Severianus. His eldest brother, Leander, the well-known friend of Gregory the Great, and the successful upholder of the Catholic faith against Arianism, was archbishop of Seville, the most promi nent see in Spain, from about 579 to 600 ; another brother, Fulgentius, was bishop of Astigi (Ecija) in that diocese, where his sister, Florentina, was a nun.1 Isidore is called Senior to distinguish him from Isidore of Pax Julia, now Beja (Isidorus Pacensis), and Junior to distinguish him from Isidore of Cor dova. His parents died apparently while he was quile young.
1 Montalembert says she was the superior of forty convents and a thousand nuns (Eng. trans. I. 419). But this is mere tradition.