From the early 4th century, the Western Roman Empire wielded increasingly weaker political, military, and financial power over its more remote regions, including the Iberian Peninsula, where Hispania was situated at. The eventual disintegration of the Empire caused various heretics, chiefly Arians, who were previously suppressed and exiled into more distant regions to gain a chance to come back. On the other hand, the invasion of Goths destroyed a great portion of Classical studies accumulated until the end of the High Patristic Age. In the early 7th century, situation began to gradually improve in Iberia, politically, culturally, and ecclesiastically. The contributor most instrumental in this process of rebirth of Europe to her former splendor and majesty was Saint Isidore of Spain (Isidorus Hispalensis / Ισίδωρος Σεβίλλης), Archbishop, Father and Doctor of the Church.
The Spanish Saint was born in Cartagena of Spain, in around 560, to Severianus and Theodora, from a former Carthaginian noble family, with certain family members holding positions up to ruler of province. Heresies, chiefly Arianism, revived themselves since the invasion of the Goths, and had become rampant at the time of adolescent age of Isidore. With the general lack of respect to culture in the society, even among the aristocrats and royals, the Carthaginian heir was destined to become the special figure in history who would bring both the Roman heritage and the Catholic Faith back to Iberia. Thanks to his culturally sophisticated parents and brother Leander, who would later become the Archbishop of Seville and took care of him after the death of their parents, Isidore was entrusted to a Monastery near Seville as a child and received an education of unparalleled quality. With both his talent and his diligence, the child prodigy mastered the seven liberal arts and sciences as well as Latin, Greek, and Hebrew in a short amount of time. Isidore studied for dual purposes, namely saving his country and people from Barbarianism and propagating the Catholic Faith. Not a lot of his life after completing his studies and before succeeding s brother as the Archbishop of Seville, but it is certain that he was very friendly and supportive to Monks, though it is likely that he did not join any religious orders.
During the early and middle 6th century, Hispania was occupied chiefly by Visigoths, Swabians, and Romans, together with a minority of Jews and Byzantines. The presence of multiple distinct racial and ethnic groups brought great religious divisions, with Romans and Swabians following Catholicism, while Visigoths following Arianism. The late 6th century, however, was the beginning of a new era of peace and unification. Liuvigild, or Leovigildo, King of Visigoth, conquered the Kingdom of Suebi, also known as the Kingdom of Swabia or Swabian Kingdom, in 586, and granted equal rights to Visigoths, Romans, and Swabians. His successor, Reccaredus I, or Recaredo I, with the unified Visigothic Kingdom, converted from Arianism and to Catholicism 587, and successfully negotiated with Leander of Seville, Isidore’s elder brother, who was the Archbishop of Seville at that time, for the convocation of the Third Council of Toledo in 589, so that Catholicism could be adopted as the state religion. Isidore participated in the Council, watching his elder brother delivering a triumphant closing sermon titled <<De Triumpho Ecclesiae Ob Conversionem Gothorum>> at the end of the Council.
On March 13, 600, Our Lord granted Leander of Seville eternal peace, and Isidore succeeded his brother as the Archbishop of Seville. Immediately after his ascension, Isidore was determined to use all resources available to encourage the assimilation of different racial and ethnic groups into the Kingdom, to promote humanistic education among not only aristocrats and clergies but also common people in order to counter the influence of the Barbarian Visigothic influence, to safeguard the people of Hispania from any
resurgence of Arianism or other heresies, and to protect Monasteries from vandalism. Eventually, Isidore anathematized those who would dare to cause damage to Monks and their Monasteries in 619. Moreover, the Saint brought Aristotelian thoughts long before the Arabs studied his thoughts and works.
Isidore participated in the First Synod of Toledo in 610, and signed a decree recognizing the status of Toledo as a metropolitan see. In the year of 619, shortly after a series of long military campaigns that incorporated a large portion of Baetica into the Visigothic Kingdom, Isidore convoked the Second Synod of Seville, presiding as the Archbishop of Seville and head of the Ecclesiastical Province of Baetica. The council anathematized Acephali, those who denied the orthodox and received Chalcedonian teachings, and set procedures for resolving Ecclesiastical issues. The Archbishop also presided over the Third Synod of Seville in 624, although the canons and decrees of the Council was not collected in various influential collections of conciliar documents. The most important council which the great scholar participated was, in doubt, the Fourth Council of Toledo in 633. Although the Archbishop of Toledo was always commonly regarded as the Primate of Spain, Isidore, at the time still acting as the Archbishop of Seville, presided over the Council and originated most of the decrees of the Council. All Bishops of Hispania attended the Council, and the Council promulgated a great number of disciplinary acts, such as the study of sacred languages for religious uses, namely Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, the study of liberal arts and sciences, medicine, and law, especially Trivium and Quadrivium, the establishment of new seminaries in cathedral cities, the pledge of the King of his support of the Church, and, most importantly, the acknowledgement of the primacy of Archbishop of Toledo in Hispania and the renewal of condemnations of Arianism.
The Fourth Council of Toledo can be viewed as the epilogue of the life of Isidore, in a sense that through this great Council, the lifelong effort of bringing peace of both the Kingdom and the Church, promoting classical education, and countering Barbarianism by Isidore was eventually recognized by both the King and the Church. The canons and decrees as well as their notes and analyses of the Councils and Synods which Saint Isidore participated in were recorded and offered by the Spanish Benedictine Cardinal Saenz (pages 321-341 and 346-403 of Volume III of <<Collectio Maxima>>, Rome, 1753), the Italian Archbishop Mansi (columns 507-532, 556-572, and 612-650 of Volume X in <<Sacra Concilia>>, Florence, 1764), and the French Jesuit Priests Labbe and Cossart (columns 1359-1382, 1403-1418, and 1445-1480 of Volume VI of <<Sacrosancta Concilia>>, Venice, 1729). It is notable that the canons and decrees of the Third Synod of Seville were collected in none of the three important conciliar collections mentioned above. On April 4, 636, having served for more than 36 years as Archbishop of Seville, Isidore received the eternal felicity from Our Lord, leaving the Catholic Church in Spain to continue thriving on his legacy.
As a scholar, Isidore devoted a great part of his life in literary activities and his works can be classified as either miscellaneous or theological. The most important and cited among his works is <<Etymologiae>>, also known as <<Origines>>, an etymological encyclopedia all known knowledge known to Europeans during the 6th century, sacred and profane, religious and natural, making him the first Christian writer to attempt to compile a summa or encyclopedia of universal knowledge. Motivated by a strong desire to promote humanist and religious education, encouraged by his ascension to the rank of Archbishop of Seville, and inspired by the idea of his great friend Braulio, Bishop of Saragossa, the scholarly Saint began to compile his magnum opus from 600 until 625. When he finished his work, Isidore dedicated his work to Braulio as an appreciation and asked for correction.
The eponymous encyclopedia was divided as twenty books. The first and second books covered Trivium, namely grammar, rhetoric, and dialectic, and the third book covered Quadrivium, namely arithmetic,
geometry, music, and astronomy. Together, the first three books built a firm foundation for the classical studies of liberal arts and sciences. The fourth and fifth books dealt with topics of law, medicine, and chronology, three transcendental disciplines widely studied by pre-Christian thinkers. The seventh and eighth books delved into Christian doctrines, followed by the ninth book on non-Christian religions and sects. The last eleven books were entirely dedicated on human arts, sciences, and societies, covering such diverse topics as zoology, agriculture, physics, chemistry, and geography.
This monumental encyclopedia quoted from around 500 works by more than 200 authors, constituted more than one-third of the works, and was very well received by later thinkers. The English and German Benedictines Bede and Hraban were both indebted not only the knowledge but also the method of the Saint, and the work remained popular throughout the Middle Ages. Examples of encyclopedias which borrowed in style and method from <<Etymologiae>> include <<Bibliotheca Mundi>> by Vincentius Burgundus and <<De Proprietatibus Rerum>> by Bartholomaeus Anglicus. Despite the numerous works written in similar structure, method, and style, <<Etymologiae>> remained a highly popular textbook and compendium for classical studies throughout the Middle Ages, so popular that several classical works were not copied anymore and thus became lost.
Two other less important miscellaneous works by Saint Isidore were <<Differentiae>> and <<De Natura Rerum>>. Similar to <<Etymologiae>>, <<Differentiae>> explained the meaning of various words and phrases, but had an additional focus on the synonyms of the terms, and <<De Natura Rerum>> offered a thorough exposition on various disciplines of human knowledge, but was centered on natural sciences, especially astronomy and geography.
The other four miscellaneous works by the noble Father of the Church treated various aspects of history. In <<Chronicon>>, the learned Doctor of the Church synthesized all human histories, both sacred and profane, and presented them in the form of timeline, with each event corresponding to the time or period during which they occurred. Another two works were focused on the lives of individual persons. Based on the two works of same name by Saint Jerome and Gennadius, <<De Viris Illustribus>> was a series of biographies of forty-seven learned Christian authors, while <<De Ortu Et Obitu Patrum>> gave a Biblical account on the lives and deaths of Old Testament figures from Adam to Maccabees, both showing the familiarity of Isidore on both Latin and Greek Fathers. The last work of this category was <<Historia>>, an account of the history of Goths, Vandals, and Swabians.
The chief of his theological works is <<Sententiae>> was divided into three books, treating on topics of both dogmas and morals, and was largely derived from the teachings of Saint Augustine and Pope Saint Gregory I, especially his <<Magna Moralia>>. The first book started with questions on God, then on His Creation and Commandments and the relationship between God and mankind, including the Incarnation of Christ, the Coming of the Holy Ghost, and things pertaining to the salvation of mankind. The second and third books offered an introduction and exposition on various aspects of Christian life, including many detailed instructions for clergies and Monks. Another important theological work is <<Mysticorum Expositiones Sacramentorum>>, which, despite its title, was an ample collection of short questions on selected books of the Old Testament based chiefly on the writings of Saint Jerome, although many important Latin and Greek authors were quoted frequently.
Two very short Biblical work are <<Allegoriae>>, which gave each Biblical figure a more allegorical and mystical interpretation, in stark contrast to the historical account in <<De Ortu Et Obitu Patrum>>, and <<Proenomia>>, which offered a short synopsis of each book in Bible.
Surprisingly, the only polemical work written by the pious Archbishop is <<Contra Iudaeos>>, divided into two books and dedicated to his sister Florentina. In the first book, the Cartagenean scholar proved the Christian truths based on the life of Christ, and in the second book, the same scholar demonstrated that the errors of both Jews and Gentiles were refuted by the Sacred Scripture, urging them to convert to the Catholic Faith.
Two of his works, namely <<De Ecclesiasticis Officiis>> and <<Regula Monachorum>>, the first of which was divided into two books, dealing with the canonical regulation and sacramental duties of clergies, and second of which outlined for regulating the monastic life, intending to reasonably relax the rules for Monks established by Saint Benedict. The rest of the works of the Late Patristic Age teacher from Spain are <<Synonyma>>, <<Epistolae>>, <<De Conflictu Vitiorum Et Virtutum>>, and <<Expositio In Canticum Canticorum>>, all of which are very short.
The first edition of <<Opera Omnia>> of Isidore was published in Paris by Bigne in 1580 in one folio tome, followed by a Madrid edition in 1599 in two folio tomes. Subsequent editions include a 1601 Paris edition and a 1617 Cologne edition. A modern edition was produced in 1778, again in Madrid in two folio tomes, but the most scholarly edition is the edition published from 1797 to 1803 in seven quarto tomes, edited by the Spanish Jesuit scholar Arévalo. Additionally, his complete works were collected in Volumes LXXXI- LXXXIV of <<Patrologia Latina>> by Migne. The collection his decretals were collected in Tome I and Tome II and his <<Etymologiae>> constituted Tome III and Tome IV, together accounting for more than half of his works. The remaining works of the Spanish Archbishop were arranged in the last three tomes, with Tome V containing his works on Scripture, Tome VI containing his works on Theology, and Tome VII containing his works on Philosophy.
All works by Isidore remained popular throughout the Medieval times and survived through numerous manuscripts, especially for his main works, which had hundreds of manuscripts available and were frequently quoted the great Medieval Scholastics, particularly on issues pertaining to natural sciences. The first printed edition of <<Etymologiae>> appeared in 1472, followed by at least 10 editions before 1530, including one in 1493, printed together with <<Sententiae>>, as well as those in 1577, and 1911, a modern edition edited by the English classical scholar Wallace Lindsay. One edition of <<Sententiae>> appeared in 1470, followed by editions in 1538, 1566, and 1593. Other notable editions include one of <<Historia>> in 1655, one of <<Chronicon>> in 1593, and one of <<De Natura Rerum>> in 1857. Numerous translations of his individual or partial works were also produced, such as the 2-volume Spanish edition of <<Etymologiae>> titled <<Etymologias>> published in 1982 and the English edition titled <<Etymologies>> in 2006.
Isidore of Spain was a unique figure. He produced the most comprehensive encyclopedia to his day as a Philosopher, defended the true Ecclesiastical teaching as a Theologian, revived classical studies as an educator, and strengthened disciplines as an Archbishop. His synthesis of the works and teachings of previous Fathers of the Church, primarily those of Saint Augustine and Pope Saint Gregory I, together with those of most important Latin and Greek Fathers, signified the end of the High Patristic Age and the beginning of the Late Patristic Age and provided ample sources for the later Scholastics. More importantly, his literary efforts brought ancient Latin and Greek thoughts and literatures back to Europe, thus foreshadowing the more influential Carolingian Renaissance during the 9th century and laying the foundation for the Scholastic Golden Age known as the High Middle Ages. As a result, the Eighth Council of Toledo convened in 653 acclaimed him the extraordinary doctor, the latest ornament of the Catholic
Church, the most learned man of the latter ages, always to be named with reverence, and approved his Canonization. For this reason, the 7th century in Hispania or Iberia was widely considered the Isidorian Renaissance, and in praise for his contribution to arts, sciences, and the Catholic Church, Pope Innocent XIII declared Isidore a Doctor of the Church in 1722.
