RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Ishmael
Isidore of Seville
to build sumptuous churches than to care for the poor, and caused offense by their scandalous behavior. In patriarchal fashion, moreover, he concerned himself with all manner of human needs, nor feared, in so doing, the great of this earth. He fervently exhorted the emperor to mildness and liberality (i. 35). For the weal of the town, he addressed himself to the civil authorities (ii. 25), and interceded with their masters in behalf of slaves who fled to him for protection. Of literary training himself, he granted that the Christian, like the bee, might suck honey from the teachings of the philosophers (ii. 3).
Dogmatically orthodox, and a zealous opponent of all heresies, he directed his attention especially toward the doctrinal questions of weight for practical Christianity (sin, freedom, grace). He was of greater significance, however, as an exegete. For him the Scriptural truth was the heavenly treasure in earthen vessels. The expositor should approach his task with devout conviction; dwelling not upon separate words, but on the entire connection. Still he was given to many an arbitrary allegory: particularly in his Christological views of passages in the Old Testament. At the same time, in the exposition of the Old Testament he would not have the historical sense annulled by the mystical and prophetic; and he made attempts besides at explanations of points of grammar and subject matter. G. Kkuger.
Bibliography: An ed. of the Opera was published Paris, 1638, and in MPG, lxxviii. 103-1046, 1647-1674. Consult: ASB, Feb., i. 468-473; J. Fessler, Institutiones palrologiae, ed. B. Jungmann, ii. 2, pp. 128-143, Innsbruck, 1896; DCB, iii. 315-320; Tillemont, Memoires, xv. 97-119, 847; C. A. Heumann, De Isidori Pelusiolae, Gottingen, 1737; Fabricius-Harles, Bibliotheca Graeca, x. 480-494, Hamburg, 1807; H. A. Niemeyer, De Isidori Pelusioiae, Halle, 1825, and MPG, lxxviii. 9-102; P. B. Gluck, Isidoris Pelusiolae summa doctrinae moralis, Wurzburg, 1848; L. Bober, De arte hermeneutica Isidoris Pelusiotae, Cracow, 1878; O. Bardenhewer, Patrologie, pp. 353-354, Freiburg, 1894; KL, vi. 964-969.
ISIDORE OF SEVILLE: Isidore, archbishop of Seville and encyclopedist, was born about 560, the place unknown ; d. at Seville, Spain, Life. Apr. 4, 636. He was a scion of a distinguished Roman family which had fled from Carthagena during the Gothic invasion, and was educated, after the death of his parents, by his brother Leander, whom he succeeded, apparently about 600, as archbishop of Seville. He attended the synod held by King Gundemar in 610, and presided over those held by King Sisebut at Seville in 619 and the famous Fourth Synod of Toledo under Sisenand in 633 (see Toledo, Synods of).
Isidore's chief importance, however, was as an
author, and his learning embraced the entire range
possible in his age and country.
His In- Neither originality nor independent influence and vestigation, neither keen criticism nor Importance, elegance of presentation could be expected from him, but his manifold interest, reading, and diligence in collecting, excerpting, and compiling from all departments of theological and secular learning are unparalleled. His position in history is determined primarily by
two works, the Libri sententiarum, the first dogmatics of the Latin Church, and the Etymologiae, the source of linguistic and practical knowledge for centuries, so that he became the schoolmaster of the Middle Ages. Gradually he became the national hero of the Spanish Church, and to him were attributed the Old Spanish or Mozarabic liturgy, the collection of Spanish canons upon which was based the forgery of the pseudo-Isidore, and even the collection of the laws of the West Gothic kings. The Roman Catholic Church, despite the weakness of the bonds which then united Spain and Rome, holds that he was a pupil of Gregory the Great, that he was vicar-apostolic in Spain, received the pallium, and took part in a Roman synod. Yet it is quite possible that he did not recognize the council of 553, and that he treated Justinian merely as a heretic who sought to overthrow the Chalcedonian Creed; while he did not mention the papacy in his ecclesiastical handbook, and he was even slightly heterodox in his views of the sacraments and grace.
The works of Isidore are thus enumerated according to a list by Braulio (in MPL, Ixxxi. 15 sqq.),
which seems, in the main, to follow
His chronological order: (1) Prooemiorum
Writings, liber unus, an introduction to the Bible,
consisting of a brief prologue on the canon in general and short tables of contents of the individual books. (2) De ortu et obitu patrum, or De vita et morte sanctorum utriusque Testamenti, short biographies of eighty-five characters of the Bible, sixty-four from the Old Testament and twenty-one from the New. The authenticity of the work has been doubted, but without sufficient reason. (3) Officiorum libri duo, usually called De officiis ecclesiasticis, written about 610, one of the most important works of Isidore for theology and ecclesiastical archeology. The first book, entitled De origine officiorum, discusses the origin and the authors of ecclesiastical worship, while the second, De origine minister iorum, is devoted to the duties of the orders of clergy and various estates in life. (4) De nominibus legis et evangeliorum liber, evidently identical with the Allegoriae quaedam sanctae scripturae of the manuscripts and editions, and containing an allegorical interpretation of 129 names and passages from the Old Testament and 121 from the New. The work is of great value for the art and literature of the Middle Ages. (5) De haeresibus liber, which is probably identical with the list of Jewish and Christian heresies given in the fourth and fifth chapters of the eighth book of the Etymologiae. (6) Sententiarum libri tres, the chief theological work of its author, and the first Latin' compend of faith and morals, chiefly in excerpts from Augustine and Gregory the Great. The first book is dogmatic in content, and treats of such subjects as the qualities of God, the origin of evil, the soul, and Christ, the seven rules of exegesis, the difference between the Testaments, creeds, baptism, the sacrament, and eachatology (but with no mention of purgatory). The se> ind and third books are ethical, the former genera and the latter special. The first discusses, among other subjects, the cardinal virtues, grace, election, conversion, back-
Isidore of Seville Israel, History of