ON SAINT ISIDORE
BISHOP OF SEVILLE.
IN THE YEAR 636.
INTRODUCTORY COMMENTARY.
Isidore, Bishop of Seville in Spain (St.)
BY G. H.
§ I. Sacred cult. The Life to be given here. Whether Lucas of Tuy is the author.
Three illustrious cities of Spain rejoice in the magnificent and glorious display of the most holy Doctor Isidore. The first is Cartagena, formerly Carthago Nova, Cartagena the fatherland of Saint Isidore in the kingdom of Murcia on the Virgitanian gulf of the Mediterranean sea, adorned with a safe and most capacious harbor and an episcopal see: which was the fatherland of Saint Isidore and of his brothers, the holy Bishops Leander and Fulgentius, and of his sister Saint Florentina. Episcopal see of Seville The second is Seville, a very great city of Hispania Baetica and a most famous emporium: in which, after his brother Leander, he was made Bishop of that Metropolitan See, and there until his death lived in the most holy direction of the same, and on this April 4 passed to heavenly joy. The third is León, which gave its name to the ancient kingdom of León, situated toward the Cantabrian Ocean—there at once the see of the ancient Kings and Bishops: The body at León to which the sacred body of Saint Isidore was translated from the city of Seville under Ferdinand I, King of León and Castile. The two latter cities, Seville and León, and their dioceses sacred cult among the Spanish honor Saint Isidore with solemn veneration as their patron; and the other churches of Spain celebrate his feast under a double rite, as Doctor of the Church; and his office, as it was once accustomed to be recited, is found everywhere in all the ancient Spanish Breviaries and Missals. When Tamayo Salazar in his Hispanic Martyrology had enumerated nineteen of these, he adds that many others contain the same. There is likewise a Roman Breviary, by the authority of Pope Paul III, in a certain Roman Breviary composed by Francisco Quignonio, Cardinal of the title of Holy Cross in Jerusalem, in the year 1535, and reprinted thereafter several times, in which the Office of this Saint Isidore is prescribed, with a lesson about his life and death to be recited. And in ancient Martyrologies The memory is inscribed on this same 4th day of April in the Martyrology of Usuard in these words: "At Seville, the deposition of Saint Isidore the Bishop"; and in some manuscripts is added "and Doctor"; in other manuscripts, "especially distinguished in faith and doctrine"; likewise in other manuscripts, "a man illustrious in life and doctrine." The more recent martyrologies follow everywhere, and with them the Tables of the Roman Martyrology, in this phrase: "At Seville in Spain, Saint Isidore the Bishop, distinguished for his holiness and doctrine, who by the zeal of the Catholic faith and the observance of ecclesiastical discipline illustrated the Spains."
[2] A hitherto unpublished Life His Life and the history of his Translation, written long ago and hitherto unpublished, we give from a manuscript codex of the holy Church of Toledo, marked number 29, which in the year 1566 was most carefully transcribed by Juan Lopez de Leon and Francisco de Mendoza. That apograph is in the possession of the most illustrious Lord Nicolás Antonio, Knight of the Order of Saint James, sent to us by Nicolás Antonio and agent for His Catholic Majesty's affairs at the Roman Curia; whom we knew at Rome and experienced his singular humanity and manifold learning. He in a letter dated at Rome April 16, 1671, writes this to us: "After a long delay I redeem my promise with this letter to us by sending to you, illustrious Vindicators of the Saints, the Life of my illustrious Archbishop of the Church of Seville, Saint Isidore; and also a little book different from this, perhaps by another author, on the Translation of his venerable Body from my Seville to the city of León, with some light scholia or annotations, which are directed rather toward somehow healing certain σφάλματα of the exemplar than toward any purpose of carefully elaborating these books. I could give more copious notes, had I had abundance of time. But the care of Royal business, beyond my strength and demanding entire days for itself by a special right, carries me off from all better studies in the City: so that, scarcely finding a sufficient space for pressing on the edition of the Library of Spanish Writers, which is already panting near its goal, I could hardly discharge this brief duty of my regard toward you. You will enrich it, and will put forth a work worthy of so great a Doctor." These things a little before the aforesaid Library, which we now handle and approve in our judgments, came to light; these, I say, the aforesaid Nicolás Antonio wrote in his letter. The σφάλματα that he indicates as needing to be healed are either from his own Spanish usage, or from contraction of words not understood by the copyists, or from a word occasionally omitted: which we have corrected in our usual way, in obedience to the wish of the most learned man. The notes which he had added to the margin, and which he wished to be more copious, we collect under his name and insert in the Life, which is distinguished in our way into chapters and numbers and illustrated with a marginal synopsis, to which others to be noted follow.
[3] Concerning the authors of this Life and of the Translation the aforementioned Nicolás Antonio notes: and the relation of others about the author of the Life and of the Translation "This Life, or some epitome of it (about which I have nothing certain or settled), is said once to have been printed in the vulgar tongue. For Antonio Morales, in book 12 of his History of Spain, chapter 21, praises a Life of Saint Isidore printed in Spanish at Salamanca, and likewise a distinct history of the Translation of his holy body and of the miracles then wrought by God in his honor; of which as written by Lucas of Tuy, he says the authority is great. Yet in the Life there are many things that displease him, of which he denies that the aforesaid Lucas is the author. Nor have we anything certain about the author: for in this Toledo codex whence we transcribed the Life no writer of the same Life is praised; and the name of Lucas the Deacon (who is Lucas of Tuy) must be referred to his Chronicle, which is subjoined to the Life. Nevertheless Alfonso Morgado in book 1 of his History of the City of Seville, chapter 5, and book 4, chapter 4, believed that both the Life and the history of the Translation were by Lucas of Tuy; and again in book 5, chapter 14, he calls it a 'Divine Book.' But Francisco de Padilla, in his Ecclesiastical History, century 7, chapter 22, recognized Lucas of Tuy as author only of the book that describes the Translation and the miracles wrought at that time; as also Gil González d'Ávila in his Theater of the Church of Seville, where he treats of Saint Isidore its Archbishop. The author of the Spanish book, of whom Morales makes mention, is either anonymous or, what I rather believe, Juan de Robles (for we have never seen the book), Canon of the Collegiate Church of Saint Isidore of the city of León, whom we know to have published a little work on the Translation and miracles of the same holy Doctor; which also Lucas of Tuy the Bishop had done, the same Gil d'Ávila relates in the same place. We read somewhere that this book, titled thus: History of the Miracles of S. Isidore Archbishop of Seville, came out in the year 1525. And by his own judgment Certainly in this our little work, which we call the Life of Saint Isidore, are contained all those things which Morales considered less probable, as derogating from the faith of other more credible things, as we shall note in their places. But if you ask me what I think about the writer of this Life, whether Lucas of Tuy or another, we are led by many arguments to deny this offspring to Lucas. The style is not altogether similar in this Life and in the Chronicle of Lucas and in other writings. Lucas runs on more historically and expeditiously; whereas in the author of the Life the discourse proceeds more laboriously from affectation. Besides, the judgment or opinion of the two is not the same about things. Lucas in the preface of his Chronicle derives the name of Spain from a certain ridiculous etymology; the writer of the Life prefers to derive it from the city of Seville. Lucas in the same Preface believes Isidore's mother to have been Theodora; the author of the Life calls her Turtura. Concerning the death of King Leovigild this author speaks more harshly than the Tudensian. Other things are added, easily to be observed by those who curiously read both writings. It is true indeed that in both works, that is, in the Life and in the Chronicle, certain things are similarly contained: but these could have been transcribed from one into the other, although both books are not by the same author." Thus most learnedly, in his usual way, Nicolás Antonio: who then, so far as royal business permitted, was wholly intent on adorning the aforementioned Library of Spanish Writers, well deserves that we should be willing to acquiesce in his judgment, as one most experienced in such matters. Yet if any should contend that this Life and the History of the Translation were written by Lucas when he was younger in age, and a Canon Regular and still Deacon in the monastery of Saint Isidore at León; but that the Chronicle of the world and other things were composed by the same now older and as Bishop of Tuy and polished by a more mature judgment, concerning Lucas the Canon Regular we would not recoil from their conjecture. Certainly (as we shall say in the Notes in their place) Mariana, a man of keen genius, though less approved by some, judges that, as written by Lucas of Tuy, they are to be retained in their strength. Lucas was ordained Bishop of Tuy in the Era 1277, afterwards Bishop of Tuy or the year of Christ 1239, after the death of Saint Isidore in the year 603; he died in the Era 1288, or the year of Christ 1250, as Prudencio Sandoval, himself Bishop of Tuy, at length derives in his Antiquities of his Church, folio 148 and following. Some things which are displeasing in the Life are those related in it and in the Chronicle of the Tudensian about the coming of Mohammed into Spain, which, as we note in the same place, we have judged should be expunged. In other things the notations of the aforementioned Nicolás Antonio or our own are subjoined.
§ II. The time and place of his death: Seville, not Bologna. His monastic state: whether Benedictine or Carmelite?
[4] Other writers about him The writers of Spanish affairs treat of Saint Isidore everywhere, very many of whom Tamayo Salazar lists. We have examined various of them, especially Alfonso Morgado, Pablo Espinosa, and Rodrigo Caro, in their books on the History and Antiquities of Seville; as well as Atanasio Lobera on the History of León; and Gil d'Ávila in the Theater of the Church of Seville and of León. What Redemptus, Cleric or Archdeacon of Saint Isidore, wrote about his death is inserted below in chapter 9; and then in chapter 11 are related what were indicated by Saint Braulio of his Life and writings. But in chapter 11 is inserted an epitaph attributed to Saint Ildephonse, which is also found in the aforementioned Espinosa, where the time of his death is thus subjoined: "Isidore the Bishop of holy memory died on the second day before the Nones of April, in the Era 674." That is the year of Christ 636, He died in the year 636 on which year other writers everywhere, and especially Redemptus, agree. Saint Isidore succeeded Saint Leander his brother toward the end of the sixth century, as was shown in the Life of Leander on March 13, so that he governed the Church of Seville only about 37 years; which years Saint Ildephonse expressed in the round number as nearly 40.
[5] Concerning the proper Rule prescribed for monks by Saint Isidore,
this is treated below: that his decrees are not conformable to the Rule of Saint Benedict, and do not bind the Benedictines, Benedict Haften teaches in book 10 of his Monastic Disquisitions, tract 6, disquisition 3. But whether Saint Isidore ever professed the Rule of Saint Benedict in any monastery of the Benedictine Order, let others dispute: we, because we read nothing of the kind among the ancients, prefer to be silent about such a question. Whether he professed the Rule of Saint Benedict? Antonio Yepes, a Spanish Benedictine, in the General Chronicle of the Order of Saint Benedict, at the year 599, chapter 1, relates these things about the monastic profession of Saints Fulgentius and Isidore: "There are those who make Saint Fulgentius a monk of the Order of Saint Benedict, to whom we shall give credit when they bring us an ancient and weighty author... I also expunge Saint Isidore from the list of the Order, since the life he led and the Rule that he, the Bishop of Seville, wrote for monks suggest to me a different opinion." Meanwhile Constantine Caietanus and Arnold Wion in book 2 of The Tree of Life, page 144, assign him to the Benedictine Order; but the latter under a doubt, in these words: "Saint Isidore... as they say, a monk of our Benedictine order... was created Archbishop in the year of the Lord 603, and presided for nearly 40 years, as Saint Ildephonse is the author in Illustrious Men. He died in the year 642 or thereabouts, on the day before the Nones of April; whose body rests at Bologna in the church of the Reverend Fathers of the Celestines." Thus he. We have deduced the years of the see differently above; and that his body was translated from Seville to León, and is there preserved to this day with the highest veneration, is most certain. Saint Isidore died at Bologna?
[6] The Bolognese, by I know not what error, assert that Saint Isidore of Seville died in their city. Antonio Casali, a Celestine of Saint Stephen of Bologna, at length describes that basilica of theirs and calls it the new Jerusalem; and from page 365 explaining the Life of Saint Isidore, from a manuscript Chronicle on page 370 he addresses it thus: "Similarly also the body of the most blessed Isidore, confessor of Christ and most illustrious Doctor, rests in you: who, when he was returning from Rome, was hospitably received in this city, and, by God's permitting, was detained by a grave illness of the body: there he ended his life, and there was buried by orthodox men with the joy of the whole people." It is plainly another man So he. These words can and ought to be understood of another learned man, called Isidore, and can be discussed more accurately on September 16, on which day the same Abbot Casali adds that his feast is celebrated on account of the translation of the body. But Leander Albertus, Donato Polli, Cherubino Ghirardacci, Carolo Sigonio, Celso Falconi, Antonio Masini, and others who understood these things of Saint Isidore of Seville must be corrected. Constantine, Abbot Caietanus, in his treatise on Saint Isidore, thinks that the Bolognese, perhaps deceived by a homonymy of name, marked, believed, and called their own Isidore, a Sicilian Bishop, in place of the Sevillan. Whether a Sicilian Bishop? Certainly "Sevilla," also by others "Sivilia," which is Hispalis, and "Sicilia" do not much differ. But concerning Saint Isidore the Sicilian, all things are equally obscure; nor does Ottavio Caietanus, Constantine's brother, shed much light, who in his volume On the Lives of the Sicilian Saints, page 225, gathers some few things about the said Isidore, especially from the Kalendar of Constantius Felicius on January 15, as we said then among the Omitted, indicating others who followed Felicius without further examination.
[7] Whoever he is that rests at Bologna, he is altogether different from the Sevillan. While Benedictine writers more timidly and hesitantly ascribe him to their Order, it pleased the Carmelites to lay hands on him as on a lapsed inheritance: after Juan Bautista de Lezana, at the year 578, number 4, thought that from the very writings of Saint Isidore whether Saint Isidore was of the Carmelite Order? he had brought forth a solid argument for proving this assertion. He asks, in book 2 of the Ecclesiastical Offices, chapter 15, treating of monks: "Whence has the zeal of poverty flowed down to monks? or who was the author of this manner of life, whose habit they imitate?" and he answers: "So far as pertains to the authority of the ancient Scriptures, the princes of this purpose were Elijah and his disciple Elisha or other Prophets, who dwelt in solitude, and leaving cities, made little huts for themselves near the streams of the Jordan. Of this purpose afterwards the author in the Gospel was John, who alone inhabited the wilderness, nourished only by locusts and wild honey. And then afterwards were begotten the most noble Princes of this manner of life, Paul, Anthony, Hilarion, Macarius, and the rest of the brothers." These things Saint Isidore writes: but how from these words is it concluded that he himself was of the Carmelite Order? We for our part do not see the consequence: those see it who think it clearer than the very noonday sun that their Order (which toward the beginning of the 13th century and the rule of the second Prior Brocardus received the Rule from Blessed Albert Patriarch of Jerusalem, as will be declared on his Life on April 8) was not newly founded under the first Prior Bertholdus, but only received a new form; being itself the most ancient of all Religious Orders, indeed the source and beginning of the rest, derived not only from the Apostles and the disciples of the Apostles, but from Elijah himself, and that through an immediate and never-interrupted succession on Carmel. Which things, not relying on any solid authority of ancient monuments, so long as they are so defended, as though they could not be brought to examination except with the highest injury to the most holy Order, we prefer to hear them and to accuse the slowness of our own wit, rather than by resisting those so thinking to stir up their tongues and pens against us. Let Saint Isidore therefore be, according to them, a Carmelite; just as according to the same, Saint Paul, Saint Anthony, Saint Basil, Saint Martin, Saint Hilary, Saint Patrick, and however many other holy monks anywhere adorned the Church of God by their virtues before the spread of the Benedictine Rule, were Carmelites.
§ III. Testimonies of his excellent doctrine; benefits conferred on the Spaniards.
[8] Beyond what is related above and what will be indicated below in the Acts, here we touch on a few things which greatly augment the posthumous glory of Saint Isidore. Among these let the first place be held by the authority of the Eighth Council of Toledo, His sacred doctrine praised in the Eighth Council of Toledo held in the Era 691, that is, the year 653, and 17 years after the death of Saint Isidore. In that Council there were 52 bishops, 12 abbots, 10 vicars of bishops, 16 illustrious men of the palatine office, before whom in chapter 2 the question of rash oaths was dealt with; and after citing testimonies from the sacred Scripture and from the holy Ambrose, Augustine, and Gregory the Great, various passages drawn from the books of Saint Isidore are added, with this eulogy of him: "Also the excellent Doctor of our age, the newest ornament of the Catholic Church, the latest in age of those who went before, inferior to none in comparison of doctrine, and, what is greater, most learned at the end of ages, and to be named with reverence, Isidore." In a similar way Pope Leo IV numbers him among the other Doctors of the Church in Gratian, distinction 20, On the Books: "If," he says, by Pope Leo IV "of those whom you have mentioned, the sayings of Jerome, Augustine, Isidore, and the other similar holy Doctors be found, they are to be retained and promulgated magnanimously, or referred to the Apostolic See." So there. Concerning the same Saint Isidore, as having been or to be added to the other Doctors of the Church, Juan Mariana relates in book 6 of On Spanish Affairs, chapter 7: "Some write that when Boniface VIII the Roman Pontiff was deliberating and Boniface VIII about those who were to be honored with the name and number of Doctors of the Church, there were those who judged that Isidore should be preferred to Ambrose, or at least added as a fifth to the other four. The erudition of so great a man, easily excelling in every kind of letters, gives credit to the opinion, and because in that number two are Fathers of Italian birth, none from the West."
[9] The books written by Saint Isidore are named and praised in the Life, number 43, from Saint Braulio Bishop of Saragossa; whether he wrote the book On the Order of Creatures and to those enumerated by him, certain others subsequently known or at least ascribed to Saint Isidore are interposed. Besides these, one little work, newly brought to light, Luc d'Achery offers in the first volume of his Spicilegia, from a very ancient codex of the monastery of Saint Remigius, under this title: "On the Order of Creatures, a book addressed to Braulio Bishop of the city of Rome." Although the writers of ecclesiastical nomenclators, both old and new, make no mention of it, yet, he says, it seemed so readily to display to me the style and mind of Isidore, that I judged that no one could recall to doubt whether it was a genuine offspring of his. He suspects however in the prologue to the reader that the Spaniards desired Saragossa, formerly a chief Roman colony in Spain, to be called by the prerogative "Rome," just as the Emperors called Constantinople "Rome," though on a dissimilar ground; and therefore, for clearness' sake, after "Rome" is added "that is, Saragossa." We indeed highly esteem the judgment of a man exercised in discerning the style of ancient authors: but the more we attribute to him, the less probable his conjecture seems to us. For although Braulio professes to enumerate only those books which came to his knowledge, whereby it is given to understand that he wrote others also, how could this book not have come to his knowledge, and to whom? written at his own request in the manner of a reply, and directed to him under this epilogue: "Behold, venerable Father, to you proposing the question, I have replied summarily according to the measure of my small wit, in a compendious discourse, about the order of creatures: I shall repay the reward of this little gift by your prayers. Not that the obedience of my smallness can confer anything worthy on your veneration and authority: but the effort of obedience fulfills all things, even those which it cannot attain. Behold, in the treasury of the temple, the small gift of a poor widow's copper is preferred to the abundant gold of many rich men... Therefore you too in a like manner do not scorn the obedience of my smallness with a calm harbor of your breast; and, across the unstable waves of the chatterers, by the fear of your authority, do not be loath to guide the little ship of this present work." These and other things the author of the booklet says, as it were to a Father, with a most humble profession of obedience, very differently from the way he is accustomed to address his friend Braulio, perhaps to Pope Benedict V who was not even his equal in the episcopal rank. Why therefore, if we truly believe it was written to the Bishop of the city of Rome, not to Braulio but to Boniface, who occupied the first See of all Christendom from the year 616 to 625 as the fifth of that name? The custom of the ancients is known, of marking proper names by the initial letter alone: and when posterity wished to write these out in full, they often shed darkness on history. Acherius should believe this very thing was done here by the Rheims copyist, who finding only "B" and suspecting from other works of Isidore directed to Braulio that he too was designated here, followed the smoother path out of the difficulty; we, for our part, determine nothing here by conjecture, being not at leisure to read more attentively that whole little work.
[10] Further, what we have already said about the estimation of his doctrine, and the other things
from Braulio and the rest to be related below in the Acts, are the first foundation of that great obligation by which Spain acknowledges herself bound to Saint Isidore. Another is that by his favor various cities were recovered from the hands of the Saracens. Concerning the city of Toledo recovered by the Christians, Isidore appearing and admonishing with Saint Isidore admonishing and urging, Mariana writes in book 9, chapter 16, and more accurately Atanasio Lobera in his History of León, chapter 29, whose words are these, translated into Latin by Tamayo Salazar: "Cyprian, Bishop of León, was then a venerable man, pious, prudent, and instructed in all good works, who pursued Saint Isidore with the greatest love. Therefore when he was already desiring to cast off the burden of his years, that he might cleave to Christ, prostrate before the reliquary of the most holy Prelate, with an extended prayer he begged Isidore Toledo is rescued from the Moors that by his merits he would obtain from the Lord the loosing of his flesh. The following night the holy Confessor appearing to Cyprian signified that his petition had been received by God; as a sign of which matter, one of his servants would come the next day from Toledo to León, who would report how King Alfonso had determined to leave the city free from siege, which would be to the grave detriment of the Catholic religion; and therefore he commanded him that immediately upon hearing the servant's message he should write to the King, by no means to raise the siege but rather to persist, because the Lord had determined to deliver the city to him within fifteen days, with Isidore himself fighting valiantly at the King's side. Having said this he disappeared, and the next day, the messenger arrived, who revealed the King's plan. Having learned this, Cyprian wrote a letter to the King and disclosed whatever he had heard from the mouth of Blessed Isidore; and he sent it with his Archdeacon to Toledo. The Archdeacon arrived at the camp at the very time when the camp was already being moved; and having delivered the letter and read it, Alfonso ordered the camp to stand still, and on the day which the holy Doctor designated entered Toledo."
[11] These things Atanasio Lobera. To which must be added the victory over the Moorish Saracens obtained by the help of Saint James and Saint Isidore: which Lucas of Tuy in the Chronicle of the World, A victory over them is obtained near Mérida Era 1255, thus describes: "Alfonso, King of León, besieged the city of Mérida and took it. There was at that time a certain distinguished barbarian named Abenenfuth, who expelled the Almohades from Spain and became King of the barbarians. He was called by his people 'King of Virtue'; and having gathered an innumerable army of Moors, he came to fight with Alfonso, King of León, who was at Mérida with few men. But King Alfonso, as he was brave and spirited, made his army cross the river Guadiana by night against the Saracens. The Saracens had pitched their tents next to the castle of Alhange, and saw at dawn our battle-lines prepared for war, and they themselves arranged their battle-lines hastening to the fight. The Lord was with King Alfonso and with the Christian people, and in the encounter of that battle so many thousands of Saracens were laid low that many barbarian towns were left empty, all their inhabitants being killed in that battle; and Abenenfuth, King of the barbarians, fled grievously wounded. For in that very battle Saint James visibly appeared, with a multitude of white-clad soldiers, who were striking down the Saracens with a mighty hand. The blessed Confessor Isidore also appeared to certain persons at Zamora, before Mérida was captured and the battle took place, and said to them that he was hastening with an army of Saints to the aid of King Alfonso, and that he would deliver the said city to him and furnish him the field triumph over the Saracens." Thus Lucas of Tuy, whom Barnabas Moreno follows in book 4 of his History of Mérida, chapter 11.
[12] But more illustrious than the rest is the capture of the city of Seville itself, by which the Moors in Spain were conquered. We have the Summary of the Process on the Virtues, Sanctity, and Miracles of the most glorious, most invincible, and most holy Ferdinand III, King of Castile and León, printed at Rome in the year 1638, in which at number 8 and page 81, from the Lessons to be recited in the Office of the dedication of the Church of Seville, these things are contained: "When Ferdinand, King of Castile and León, who for the excellence of his virtues obtained the surname 'Saint,' had received a great part of Baetica under his dominion, he besieged Seville, Seville is received by King Saint Ferdinand the chief city of that province, having gathered large forces from almost all the Spanish nobility: being incited to that expedition, as it is said, by a vision from Saint Isidore. Namely, the most holy Prelate was taking care that his church, already profaned by infidels for so many centuries, should be restored to Christ." The city was captured on November 23 of the year 1248, and in the subsequent division of the fields of Seville, it is reported that his own share was allotted to Saint Isidore.
[13] We have published on February 11 the Life of Blessed Martin, Canon Regular in the city of León; who, when on account of a dispute that had arisen between the Bishop of León and the monastery of Saint Martial, had migrated to the monastery of Saint Isidore, likewise of Canons Regular, and there was hateful to his companions, Blessed Martin, recalled to his monastery withdrew to the church of Saint Martial, where he had been raised. Scarcely a few days had passed when to certain of the Canons of the monastery dedicated to his name Saint Isidore appeared, and addressed them thus: "Why have you expelled from yourselves Martin, the servant of God? Recall him to your company, and do not seek occasion of offense, but rather of joy and of holy pleasure, since you may behold among you a man who walks the path of perfection." Being therefore brought back to the monastery of Saint Isidore, when he implored his patronage that he might obtain the knowledge of letters, especially of sacred ones, Saint Isidore stood before him in visible form, holding a book in his hand, and said: "Take, Martin, the book and eat it, and commanded to swallow his codex, obtains knowledge so that you may also draw in the knowledge of sacred Scriptures by God's bestowal." Martin denied that it was lawful for him to eat this book, being bound by the law of fasting. "Eat it securely," said the holy Doctor, "for you will not for that be deprived of the reward of fasting. I am Isidore, the Patron of this monastery, sent by God that I may bless you with this gift." When at these things he stood astounded, the Saint approached closer to him, and grasping his chin, forced him to swallow the book; and suddenly he departed from his eyes. Martin obtains knowledge, and becomes famous for the fame of his doctrine; and finally, worn out with age, he departs from this life in the year 1221.
LIFE
By a Canon Regular of the monastery of Saint Isidore at León, perhaps Lucas, afterwards Bishop of Tuy.
Sent from a manuscript codex of Toledo by the most illustrious Nicolás Antonio.
Isidore, Bishop of Seville in Spain (St.)
BHL Number: 4486
FROM THE TOLEDAN MANUSCRIPT.
PROLOGUE.
[1] The illustrious merits of the most blessed Doctor of the Spains, Christ's confessor Isidore, Archbishop of Seville and Primate of Spain, dearest brothers, Saint Isidore is praised throughout the whole world the sacrosanct Church throughout the world proclaims as to be extolled with worthy praises; and the famous report everywhere and always commends him as a man festive in all things. Yet beyond that common glory of honor which he has won for himself in the assemblies of all the faithful by the great things of his merits, he is exalted with special praises in Spain, whom she has deserved to have as a second intercessor of her faith on earth after the Apostles. especially in Spain For this is that most splendid ray of the sun of justice, through whom the light of truth especially shone upon you, Iberia; and you who had been seduced by many errors or falsehoods of the Arians, Acephali, Mohammedans, and other pseudo-prophets, have through the mediating doctrine of Blessed Isidore been made the leader of equity. This is that distinguished pastor of yours and eminent bishop, who, destined to be placed at the highest sees, and to be made fruitful by eternal riches, inebriated you with such abundant a increases of the divine scriptures that, b with position transformed into success, you are no longer the last in the remotest regions but the first among the first. This is he who, after the most glorious Apostle James, conferred on you this excellence of grace, that you [are] fruitful in peoples, conspicuous in religion, most illustrious in triumphs. Indeed from the city of Seville, the See of the most holy Isidore, by a most certain presage of the event to follow, c called "Hispania," you stand out richer in divine inebriation than in earthly happiness. For although, victorious in trophies, gracious in delights, you have raised the titles of your praise to the ends of all nations, yet it is far more notable and far more glorious illustrated by his doctrine that by the most assiduous and so dutiful services, by the reverence of our Savior, by the presence of the most glorious Apostle James, and also by the presence of the most upright Father Isidore together with his most clear doctrine, all Christian religion worships you and flows to you. For beyond what fortune offered you or the force of nature granted, the dignity of apostolic prerogative has deservedly obtained that, just as by the singular privilege of grace d another Gregory succeeded the Apostle Peter at Rome, He is compared with Saint Gregory the Great so, not unequal to Gregory, another Isidore should succeed James in Spain. For the seeds of God's word which Blessed James sowed, Isidore, like a vigilant farmer, watered with the most wholesome preaching of heavenly showers; and by rooting out with the hoe of the Spirit the thorns, briars, and e the tares of depraved doctrines sown over by hostile heretics, he brought them to the cultivation of fruits of life. Gregory indeed the authority of the whole world set in the primacy of the most blessed Prince of the Apostles, at once in place and in merit; but Isidore, the equality of his merits made the judgment of the Roman Curia to profess as another Gregory. And indeed, to pursue with the due offices each of the things which, not only by the course of nature, but also those which divine providence, to an aging world, through him miraculously deigned to work for the illumination of the Church, exceeds our strength, wit, and knowledge. Yet a sinner of a most holy man, a small man of the greatest, an unlearned man of the most wise, I will touch briefly upon a few of his wonders, for the instruction of those to come (lest the works of so great a Father slip away from the hearts of the faithful with the passing courses of years), The author excuses his own thinness with what brevity I can, for the grace of charity, in the faithful annotation of my pen. For to say so much and such good things about so great and so good a man is to be ascribed to nothing but to the merits of the same good man: whose merits indeed have grown to such a f magnitude of eminence that the elegance of language yields to the matters of faith, and the matter commends the cult of truth to elegance.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER I.
Saint Isidore's illustrious and holy lineage. His instruction in letters.
[2] Son of noble parents Therefore, that the excellent Confessor Isidore might be graced with excellent beginnings, and that an illustrious origin might foreshadow him who was to be illustrious, the father of him was Severianus, Duke of the city a of Cartagena and of the Province of Spain, offspring of Theodoric King of the Goths; and his mother b was called Turtura. His most illustrious, most erudite, and distinguished brothers and fosterers in both the singularity of their character and intellect were the confessors of Christ: c Leander, Archbishop of Seville; and d Fulgentius, who by the brightness of the sacred scriptures and works irradiated the universal Church, the kind Doctor and most illustrious Bishop; brother of Saints Leander, Fulgentius, and Florentina together with the most holy Virgin e Florentina, Prioress of Virgins. f Instructed by their most serene documents, advancing in prayers, graced with the gravity of morals, he illustrated his country by his religion, his father by his prudence, his brothers by his discipline, his kinsmen by his worship, his equals by his grace, his relatives by his reward, his neighbors by his affection. The most glorious Doctor and Archbishop Leander loved the boy as his only one, and especially having him as a consolation outside his native land; and because he desired him not so much heir of fleeting riches as of his happy morals, he was also his first pupil he watched with the utmost care lest that age, which is accustomed to fall readily into evil, should find a place where it might slip into the corruption of sin. He did not spare the rod, and g "he was praised in him; he taught him and cast zeal into the enemy, and in the midst of friends he gloried in him. In his life he saw him and rejoiced, and in his death he was not grieved before his enemies. For he left one like himself behind him; a defender of the house against enemies, and returning favor to friends" (Ecclesiasticus 30:12). O most holy Father Leander, this venerable boy whom you love, whom you nurture, whom you teach, whom you instruct, whom you correct, whom you guard, is the paranymph of the heavenly Spouse, the friend of the holy Angels, the equal of the Patriarchs and Prophets, citizen of the Apostles, partner of the Martyrs, splendor of the Bishops, and to be compared proportionally with the ranks of all the Saints, as the outcome of the matter at the appropriate time will show.
[3] Therefore when he was a little child, as is read of Blessed Ambrose, and was being led by his nurse to the garden, the infant is surrounded by a swarm of bees the old woman, taken with forgetfulness, left him among the vegetables and departed. After some days, weeping for his son, Severianus the father went up to the solar, and sitting opposite the garden looked, and saw h an innumerable multitude of bees descending with a great buzzing over the boy eagerly, and from there flying to the heavens. Turned to astonishment, he quickly descended to the garden, and having called the servants, hastened to see the miracle of the thing that had happened. Approaching, they saw some of the bees entering and exiting the boy's mouth, and others on his face and whole body weaving coverings of honey and honeycomb. But when the father embraced his son with shouting and tears, the bees raised themselves to such a height in the air that they could not be seen with bodily eyes. These few things from the many that were so done with him I have set forth, that the prudent may be able to perceive from how great a perfection of virtues he began.
[4] From cowardice he abandons his studies When therefore the reverend boy Isidore had been given to the studies of letters, and, as it seemed to him, was of a less capacious intellect, moved by childish fear and dreading the blows of the Master, at a divine nod he fled not far from the city of Seville. And when, sitting down from the weariness of the journey near the edge of a certain well, thirsty, i he saw a very large stone perforated with winding holes; which, inspecting diligently, he began to turn over in his mind, who was the maker of these holes, or to what purpose they had been made. Similarly at the mouth of the well was a certain piece of wood, grooved by the continuous cutting of cords in the drawing of water. And while he was silent with himself, a certain woman came to draw water, who, wondering exceedingly at the beauty of the boy, asked what he was doing here or why such a small boy had come here alone. [but admonished that stones are hollowed by drops and wood by the pulling of ropes] For he was of wonderful beauty, splendid of face, comely of form, cheerful of aspect, joyful of countenance, humble of visage, always displaying modesty in his manners. Turning humbly to her the boy said: "O Lady, I ask that you deign to explain to me who or to what purpose the holes of this stone or the channels of this wood were made." To whom the woman said: "This stone was perforated by the frequent dripping of drops, and this wood was grooved by the frequent pulling of cords in the drawing of water." The boy, however, filled with the divine Spirit, coming back to himself, said: "And if the hardest stone is hollowed by the frequent dripping of soft water, and wood yields cut by the cuttings of cords; how much more I, a man, with the grace of God going before, by learning daily with the smallest increments, may be able to come to the augmentation of knowledge? He is persuaded to resume them O venerable Isidore, the thought of this evolution is not that of a younger boy, but of a perfect man and a wisest elder. Who was it that even before the discipline of letters in your tender years so taught you, except that Spirit of truth, who, suggesting all things to you, even chose a sanctified vessel, that you might carry the name of the Son of God before kings and princes and the children of Israel?" After this the boy with a quickened step returns to Seville, and submitted himself to the disciplines of the masters with humble devotion.
[5] Finally, so much grace was infused in him from heaven that whatever was proposed by the masters from the Scriptures, he retained eagerly with a thirsty breast; and being made not a forgetful hearer, he preserved it in the treasure-chest of his memory as destined to profit many of the faithful; and he anticipated his very doctors, as with a foreseeing intellect. At this novelty of miracle both the masters and all who were present were astonished with amazement. For being thus inflamed with the Divine spirit, learned in the seven liberal arts instructed in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew letters, formed in every kind of speech, k conspicuous in the erudition of the trivium, perfect in the eagerness of the quadrivium, illustrious in the doctrines of the philosophers, learned in divine and human laws, sweet in eloquence, most outstanding in genius, he was also most illustrious in life and doctrine for the age of his time, to the admiration of many. For thus profiting from virtue to virtue, he shone as a teacher so outstanding that, according to the quality of his speech, he was fit for erudition with all, namely Latins, Greeks, and Hebrews, wise men and the less intelligent, and vigorous in incomparable eloquence. Since therefore Blessed Isidore shone forth preeminent in almost all the sciences of mortals, which is remembered as unheard of to have happened in our times, he did not embrace the delight of the world, as that youthful age is accustomed to, but was wholly given to logical contemplation or to the practice of active matters, or to the meditation and study of divine theories. Finally, nature so distinguished him, he is compared with most learned men grace enriched him, morals advanced him, and studies stirred him, that he followed Plato in genius, Aristotle in study, Tully in eloquence, l Chalcenterus in abundance, Origen in erudition, Jerome in gravity, Augustine in doctrine, and Gregory indeed by his examples. When at the command of his brother and fosterer Leander he had sent to the same Blessed Gregory a certain letter on Blessedness, adorned with wonderful care both with the opinions of the philosophers and with the flowers of the sacred Scriptures, and Blessed Gregory had read it through, admiring both the eloquence of the words and the connection of the thoughts and the abundance of the sciences, and in spirit seeing what he was to be, he is said to have said: "Behold another Daniel"; and another, "Behold, a greater than Solomon here."
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER II.
Acquaintance with Saint Gregory the Great. The Book of Etymologies composed. Sacred knowledge employed against heresies, especially Arian.
[6] Therefore from then on Blessed Gregory, delighted by the love of seeing Blessed Isidore, was declaring the will of his mind by certain signs to the most holy Bishop Leander, joined to him by the bonds of charity. The cause of these friendships had arisen a when Leander, being unable to refute at its roots the fervor of the Arian heresy in the time of Leovigild, on account of Saint Leander's encounter with Saint Gregory had crossed over to the assembly b of Bishops at Constantinople for confirming the articles of the holy and immaculate Trinity. There was present Gregory, then a Cardinal, acting as legate of the Roman Pontiff, with whom Leander himself struck a covenant of friendship.
Eager to see him; is he suddenly and asked him to expound the Morals on Job for him, which afterwards in his Apostolate he completed with a devout mind. But when the venerable Isidore learned of Gregory's desire (which is wonderful to hear), on the night of the Lord's Nativity, translated to Rome? c as it is told, after the first lesson had been read in the Church of Seville, going out of the church, led by I know not whom, in the smallest interval of time he came to the city of Rome, and found blessed Pope Gregory singing praises to God in Matins. But Blessed Gregory, seeing him, was exceedingly glad and immediately recognized him; and therefore giving thanks, he embraced Leander, who was most dear to him, in Isidore. After the completion of the Gospel, bidding farewell to the Saint, going out of the church, he returned to Seville on that same night, and found the Clerics whom he had left celebrating the same Matins praises. But whether this was done by the merit of the most holy Gregory, or of Isidore, or in some other way, I confess I am in doubt: for it is better not to speak great things where one does not err without danger of falsehood, than to define contrary things. But I firmly hold that the blessed young man attempted very many things by the experience of knowledge, and returned them to the utility of the Church and the benefits of the faithful. For in many ways he pursued the asserters of depraved doctrines as heretics, because at these times many heresies arose, demolishing the vineyard of the Lord's inheritance, that is, the holy Church; and we do not doubt that it was brought about by divine providence He manfully attacks heresies that such an Isidore shone at that time, who should reprove their insolence not only by the testimonies of the holy scriptures but also confound them by philosophical syllogisms and protestations.
[7] For he was perfected by so great a summit of sciences that no one, I think, of the ancient philosophers by the judgment of an upright examination can be compared with him. I would from caution pass this over, if I were allowed, lest the studies of the pagans could in any way be preferred to or compared with authentic documents; that he surpassed the ancient philosophers for as the heavens are exalted above the earth, so our ways are exalted above theirs and our thoughts above their thoughts; and as much as spirit excels flesh, reason sense, faith opinion, understanding faith, the peace of God every sense, and finally the Creator every creature, so Theology surpassed all the wisdom of the world, so our philosophers all the doctrine of the gentile Philosophers. But much more Isidore, who shone perfect in the Philosophical doctrines of the ancients, and stood forth supreme in the Theological doctrines of the moderns: nevertheless (to omit for the present other most abundant volumes of this illustrious man, over which he labored with wonderful genius), this is shown in the Book of Etymologies that book which is titled Etymologies, full of everyone's admiration, worthy of all reception, solicits, testifies, and cries out that this too should not be lacking from the praises of the most holy and erudite man, that for which either the first and most skilled of the Philosophers were exalted, or the most wise Solomon is proven to have surpassed them all in knowledge and excellence; and thus he is believed to be incomparable among all the sons of men in the variety of sciences, after the Apostles.
[8] In this book you will see Isidore endowed with eloquence in the erudition of the trivium; here you will admire him perfect in the investigation of the quadrivium and in the discipline of mathematics. Here you will find him both theoretical and practical in teaching how to preserve and restore bodily health; here, by discerning d Apollo, Aesculapius, and Hippocrates, you will weigh last of all the methodical, empirical, and logical systems. Here, revisiting the institutes of e Phoroneus, Trismegistus, Solon, and Pompilius, you will find him most skilled in law; here, inserting rights and laws into edicts and decrees, you will think he instructed Justinian. Here, distinguishing ephemerides, epacts, ides, and calendars, annals and histories, through whom he runs through all sciences, profane you will prove that he drank in f Pherecydes and Josephus; here, pursuing a chronicle, you will cry out that he read Eusebius, Jerome, and Orosius. And because of Solomon it is read that he disputed from "the cedar that is in Lebanon to the hyssop that grows on the wall" (1 Kings 4:33), concerning Blessed Isidore it is found here that he marvelously treated from the first cause down to the furthest of creatures almost; and discussing the business and functions of individual things and their modes, and finally describing the nature and circumstances of all things, you will think he not only drank up Solomon but even surpassed him. Here, examining the distinctions of ether, air, waters, and earth, the natures and names of all living things, you will believe he consulted the first man. And sacred: Here you will wholly wonder at him delighted in the embraces of Rachel, while you see him occupied by study in the experiences of the ancients; here you will rejoice at him recalled by the fragrance of the mandrake-apple g to the bosom of Leah, while, delighted by the love of things above, you feel him piously wrapped up in the fruitfulness of sacred Scripture. Here with Mary sitting at the Lord's feet, you will see him to have chosen the best part; here with Martha anxious to have pressed on in frequent ministry. With which he overcame other heresies as well Here with Paul the vessel of election, caught up to the third heaven; here with the same, laboring more than all, that he might gain all, made all things to all men; here with Paul resisting to the face Peter who was preaching circumcision; here with Peter, Simon having been slain, not fearing even Nero. Here, he has conquered the doctrines of all heretics one by one; here he has received and venerates the four holy Councils. Here, h with the Council of Chalcedon he disarms the heretics Dioscorus and Eutyches; here with the First of Ephesus he shatters the impiety of Nestorius; here with that of Constantinople with Eunomius he pierces Macedonius; here with that of Nicaea he condemns the most cunning Arius, blinded with every madness.
[9] This Arius was a certain Presbyter of Alexandria, who, by lying, asserted diverse substances in the Trinity, and with impudent falsity built up that Christ was not true God Then the Arian heresy nor essentially remaining in the Father. But he who was so miserably out of his mind, and in his assertion false and treacherous, because he denied Christ to be true God, therefore by the just judgment of God burst in the midst, and all his bowels being poured out fell prostrate on his face; and, his foul mouth with which he had denied Christ being polluted, obtained a worthy punishment for his impiety even in this world from the same God and man; and about to be eternally tormented in hell-fire, he preceded many of his followers, both those already depraved and those to be depraved by his nefarious error. For the emptiness of this crime, when it pursued the faithful throughout the whole world with exiles, after the overthrow of the assemblies i, Athanasius being expelled; after the mournful laments of Italy, Eusebius of Vercelli being banished; after the damaging ruins of Gaul, Hilary being proscribed; k Leovigild, King of the Spains, with almost all the Princes of his kingdom, seduced by the error of this heresy, came into such madness that he drove into exile the most illustrious and learned Prelates of the Churches from the confines of Spain by persecution; widely raging under Leovigild and slaying very many of them with the sword, thrusting them into prison, torturing them with hunger, and afflicting them with various kinds of punishments, by savage madness he consecrated worthy martyrs to God not only in the parts of Spain, but also in Gaul and other regions: and because he was vigorous in arms, he impiously oppressed many peoples subjugated to his rule, inflicted persecution on the Catholics out of hatred of the faith, broke the privileges of the Churches, blinded with cupidity condemned the rich, and was in all things pernicious. Among all the evils he did, he drove the most holy l Masona, Bishop of Mérida, into exile; and having afflicted with many injuries the most illustrious Doctor, Leander, Archbishop of Seville, who was indefatigably insisting with special care against wicked heresies for the conversion of the Gothic nation, he drove him from the kingdom of Spain, so that the sheep, surrounded by seducers without a shepherd, might more easily be enclosed in the jaws of wolves; and he miserably subjugated himself with his Princes to the heresy of the Arians, and threatening the Roman Pontiff, he confirmed with an oath's sworn pledge that he would come for the destruction of the City of Rome and the demolition of the Church.
[10] But the venerable young man Isidore, learned in the disciplines of all sciences, inflamed with the fervor of martyrdom, ready to die for the defense of the Church, fortified beforehand with the arms of faith, a most valiant athlete against the raging furies of King Leovigild and his Princes, came forth unterrified, by the accompanying grace of Christ. Therefore the ministers of the manifold seducer now by soothing with flatteries, now by driving back with terrors, now by agitating with disputations, now by offering gifts, now by imposing torments, by whatever means they could, and solicited in various ways to defect strove to change him from his holy purpose. For they believed that a great heap would be added to their doctrines if, Isidore being overcome (who shone with both brightness of knowledge and nobility of birth, beauty of body, gravity of morals, and sweetness of eloquence), they could bend him to their assent. "Come, bravest athlete Isidore, behold now the acceptable time: in these days therefore bring forth into the midst the incomparable treasure which you gathered in boyhood, as we have heard, not to be unsealed to you alone but also to the faithful. It is the time of speaking and of scattering the stones of divine sentences, that the obstinate foreheads of enemies may be crushed, and the faith of the Catholic Church may be strengthened. For behold, the little ship of Peter is tossed in the midst by shaking waves on every side; the Church of Christ is being submerged, unless by the hand of divine succour it be led to the port of the desired shore." Amid these things the most robust athlete Isidore rejoiced in torments, and gave thanks to God, because he was held worthy to suffer contumely for the name of the Lord Jesus; and amid the baying throngs of Arians on every side, he is neither terrified by threats nor soothed by flatteries: but more and more inflamed by the fervor of charity, he triumphed over the same among the swords of heretics secure, he sent forth, both from the thunders of divine sentences and from the flashings of philosophical propositions, the burning bolts of divine oracles, undismayed, by which he darkened the sight of his raging enemies. As one of the four rivers of paradise, from his mouth the streams of grace flowed with force, by which, watering the parched land of the faithful, he led them to the greenness of faith; and he submerged in the waves of his eloquence the perfidy of the heretics confident in the boldness of their chatter and loquacity. The wretches are dulled, and are silent; they rage and are confounded; who, while they think to overcome the young man, are themselves shamefully overcome by him; and the faith of Christ, which they think entirely to root out, they grieve by the young man's persistence to sprout daily with heavenly increases.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER III.
The orthodox faith propagated through Saint Isidore; his life as one enclosed in a cell.
[11] But when the reverend Doctor Leander heard of the constancy of the most brave young man Isidore, rejoicing in the Lord, by continual prayers he begged the Lord that He who had marvelously begun in the tender youth of His servant might comfort him with heavenly strength, and through him deign kindly to grant to His church the desired triumph, the heretical enemies being laid low. He therefore sent him a letter, in which he admonishes confirmed by the letter of his brother Saint Leander that death for the Catholic faith is nothing to be feared. And the blessed young man, strengthened by the prayers of his Prelate and brother, and by exhortations and the help of letters, was neither broken in adversity nor lifted up in prosperity; but in all things, as if in the delight of banquets, appeared joyful and cheerful. Having therefore routed the madness of the Arians, he most openly declared the one and true God the Son, with the Father and the Holy Spirit eternally remaining in the unity of essence, by the authorities of the holy Scriptures, and by the reasons of the seven liberal arts, as well as by the agreements of philosophers; and he persuaded the faithful peoples to obey the Roman Pontiff, appointed by Blessed Peter in place of the faithful, and all the Prelates of the Churches sent by the same heavenly founder, confirming this by the testimonies of the divine page. He also so carried out the duties of his Prelate and brother Leander, so lightened his burdens, so clung to the footsteps of constancy, that, despising the prison, threats, torments, and sword of the persecutors, he confidently came into the presence of the most serene Prince Recared, son of the most impious King Leovigild; He preaches the faith to Prince Recared and, continually offering him the cups of the word of God, he recalled him from the Arian heresy and rendered him obedient to the teachings of the Catholic faith. But King Leovigild, the dreadful, who had surrendered himself to all vices and had blocked his ears with the thorns of diabolical error, that he might not hear the good, not only strove to combat the boldness; but so far stirred up the chief men of his whole kingdom by the sword of the spirit against it, that, by their insistent treachery, this most impious father and tyrannical parricide rose up for the death of his most pious and serene son Hermenegild, bound in chains for the Catholic faith, and after the death of Saint Hermenegild and of Leovigild the dearest friend of this Isidore (because Blessed Leander had rescued him from the Arian dregs and confirmed him in the Catholic faith); and at the obsequies of the most glorious King and Martyr, celebrated by the angelic ministry, he recognized the fault of his manifest perfidy, not from penitence but led by penance, after the example of Judas the traitor. For coming to Toledo, with heavenly judgment pressing on him, struck with a most atrocious infirmity, among tortures and wailings he vomited forth his miserable a soul together with his very intestines, to be eternally tormented, as we believe, in the most atrocious flames and worms; where his most nefarious seducer Arius had gone before him.
[12] Therefore with King Leovigild dead, it came to pass that Spain joyfully received her triumphing Leander as he returned from Cartagena; and with Recared, brother of King and Martyr Hermenegild, substituted in the Catholic kingdom, the victory of the brave Isidore is rendered; with the peace of the Church announced with the exultation of the faithful; the Arian perfidy exterminated from the confines of the whole kingdom brought back, he rejoices with due disgrace. The exiled Prelates are therefore recalled, the Churches are adorned, the most devoted faithful congratulate themselves together with the Fathers; the clemency of Almighty God is magnificently praised, who strengthened Isidore with such great constancy of virtue. But blessed Leander, by works of charity and by the word of preaching, devoutly pressed on in anxiety and in charity unfeigned for the most Christian King Recared (who had placed this same Leander over himself in place of a father), for the Gothic peoples (to whom he had always clung with his paternal affection), and for the people of Seville (over whose cares he watched more especially); and he persuaded them to believe that the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are three according to the distinction of persons, and one according to the majesty of the Godhead—God. For those who believed, he first instituted for them the precepts and b ecclesiastical offices. At that same time also the Suevi, already washed in the waters of baptism through c him, obtained Galicia. Seeing therefore Leander the admirable constancy of Isidore flashing with such great increases of virtues, I know not by what presage forestalled, lest, released by him, he should seek foreign regions for the cause of preaching or for some other reason; or because, as we believe, he had from infancy consecrated himself in mind and body as a virgin to the Lord, lest at any rate he could be stained by the light gossip among the crowds; or lest he who had stood forth most robust in the time of persecution should, lifted up by the boasting of the light breeze of human favor, be broken when placed in tranquility; in a cell, as is said, constructed by Isidore himself, he is enclosed in a cell by Saint Leander he enclosed the young man of good character. This action, both the most pious King Recared and very many Prelates of the Churches took amiss and bore with difficulty of mind; for they deemed it unjust to oppose the wishes of so great a Father. The clerics murmur by whispering, with the wonder and murmur of others the people resist by crying aloud, that the most bright lamp Isidore should not be placed under the bushel of a little cell or even of a single city; who, by the splendor of his sciences and the flashing of his good works, would suffice for the illumination of the whole world; and who, as gold in the furnace, had been proven by the beatings of the impious with punishments; he was not to be shut up in a little cell, but to be brought forth into the light of many peoples—they cried out with querulous voices.
[13] But the reverend Father Leander, as one pressed down by the weight of gravity, did not yield to the pious King Recared, nor to the Prelates of the Churches, nor to the Princes of the kingdom, nor to the whisperings of the Clerics nor to the voices of the peoples; for he himself, anticipated by the grace of the Holy Spirit, knew what he was going to do. Finally he provided him with most erudite masters in every faculty, from whom by hearing, He instructs his own masters with whom also by disputing, conferring, to whom by opposing and answering, and by questioning, if he had learned anything less, he might be able to learn it by correcting. Wonderful thing! all those who presumed to teach him of their own knowledge, marvelously taught by him, rejoiced more copiously in increases of doctrine. The venerable King Recared also sat continually next to the cell of the blessed man, and from the fountains of the Savior, flowing from the kindly Isidore, and King Recared he drew the faith of the Holy Trinity in pious draughts through the window; and not forgetful of what he heard, wishing to bring back doubled talent to the Son of God, he faithfully poured out to the peoples subject to him the cups of eternal life which he had received. e For he was endowed with the cult of religion, and far different from his father's morals: for the former was irreligious and most prompt in war; he, pious in faith and illustrious in peace. The one by the arts of arms extending the empire of the nation; made a most illustrious Prince this one gloriously raising up the same nation by the trophy of the faith. For in the very beginnings of his reign, having received the Catholic faith, he recalled the peoples of the whole nation, the stain of inveterate error wiped away, to the cult of the right faith. Then he gathered a Synod f of all the bishops for the condemnation of the Arian heresy from the various Provinces of Spain and Gaul; at which Council this same most religious Prince was present, and confirmed its acts by his presence and subscription. He, adorned with virtues, exalted with honors all those whom he knew to be dear to God, but those who were superstitious he reproved in the sight of all, that the rest might take fear: who, following not his treacherous father but Christ the Lord, shuddered at and execrated the Arian madness, and basely expelled it from his whole kingdom. So much grace did he have in his countenance, so great goodness did he bear in his mind, that flowing into all minds he drew even the evil to the affection of love for him; he was so liberal that he restored by proper right the privileges and estates of the Churches which his father had annexed to the fisc; so clement that he often lightened the tributes of the people by the bestowal of indulgence, placing his wealth in the miserable and his treasures in the needy, knowing that the kingdom had been conferred on him for this, that he might enjoy it salutarily. These things to the praise of our God and of his confessors Leander and Isidore, who deserved to obtain such a disciple from the Lord.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER IV.
The death of Saint Leander, Bishop of Seville, and the books he wrote. The succession of Saint Isidore.
[14] Therefore the enemy of the human race, seeing himself and his own being persecuted by the holy Confessors through King Recared, whom he had had subject before, the Arian heresy having been vanquished stirred up two Counts famous for their wealth and noble in birth, yet with profane minds and ignoble in morals, namely Ganvistan and Vulgernun, together with
an Arian Bishop a named Athaloc, against King Recared. They, having gathered a multitude of Franks, for the vindication of Arian madness, devastated the regions surrounding the city of Narbonne and massacred an innumerable multitude of Clerics, Religious, and Catholics, and strove to snatch the kingdom from the most pious King Recared. Against them the most glorious Recared, having sent b Claudius, Duke of Mérida, triumphed with a glorious outcome. For having struck down and scattered nearly c 60,000 of the enemies, he returned to Spain with great glory. After this, with storms removed on every side, the Lord deigned to grant his people the peace they desired. While these things were thus going on, and great tranquility was being restored to the Catholic Church by the Lord's favor, and the calamity of the Arian heresy was being shaken from the minds of almost all, and the city of Seville together with the most holy Confessors was rejoicing for the grace of such tranquility, and unceasingly returning innumerable thanks to the Lord, the same venerable Bishop Leander, called by the Lord, happened to fall sick. Saint Leander summons Saint Isidore from his cell And when he recognized that the last day of his most happy labor was soon to come, he leads his venerable brother Isidore out of his cell for the grace of consolation and blessing, and so that he might commend himself to his prayers, and asks that he be brought to him. When they reported this to blessed Isidore, whose whole mind now clung to heaven, and who preferred the small cell to all temporal riches, he drove them from him, saying: "Know, brothers, that I will by no means go out of this cell as long as my brother stands surviving in the body of this pilgrimage: for he himself confirmed this by the resolve of an oath." But blessed Leander, having continually completed the pastoral cares, after receiving the body and blood of the Lord, fell most happily asleep in the Lord. But I do not think I should long pass over this, that this most illustrious Doctor Leander d was begotten by the same father Severianus as was also Isidore, a monk by profession, and from a most strenuous monk, by much effort of the peoples, by virtue and doctrine with himself refusing, was made Bishop of the Church of Seville. This man, sweet of eloquence, most outstanding in genius, also shone most excellently in life and in doctrine; so that also, by his faith and industry, the peoples of the Spanish nation through his same blessed young brother Isidore, (as is written above), were turned back from the Arian madness to the Catholic faith. For in the pilgrimage of his exile he composed two books against the doctrines of heretics, very rich in the erudition of the holy Scriptures, in which with a vehement style he pierced and exposes Arian impiety, gravely showing, and illustrious for various books written namely, what the Catholic Church has against them, or how much she differs from them in religion and in the sacraments of faith. There is also another laudable little work of his against the institutes of the Arians, in which, their statements being proposed, he sets against them his responses. Moreover, he published for his sister Florentina a little book On the Institution of Virgins and the Contempt of the World, marked out by divisions of titles. Indeed, he also labored with no small zeal on the Ecclesiastical Offices; and on the whole Psalter in a twofold edition he composed a prayer; in sacrifices also, praises, and psalms, he composed many things in sweet-sounding verse. He also wrote many letters to Pope Gregory, and one on blessedness, in which he asked from him the Archiepiscopal pallium and the books of the Exposition of Blessed Job and the book of the Pastoral Rule; and he very frequently begged that his intercession might be made to the Lord on his behalf for the gout by which he was very much vexed. All which he obtained from blessed Pope Gregory, who loved him very tenderly. But as we said before, he sent another letter to his brother Isidore, in which he advises that death is to be feared by no one. He also sent many familiar letters to the other Bishops, and though not splendid enough in words, yet sharp in thoughts. Under the Catholic King Recared, he dies holily in the month of March acting as vicar of the Roman Pontiff in the Spains, he flourished; and in his time too he closed the term of his mortal life, e on the day before the Ides of March.
[15] Therefore with Blessed Leander translated among the Angels, the metropolis of Seville, deprived of so great a Patron, poured out prayers day and night to the Lord, Saint Isidore, by the bishops of the province that, having pity on his people, he would provide for them a most faithful Pastor who should be a successor to Blessed Leander not only in cathedral dignity but also in sanctity of morals. And the pious Lord by no means failed this petition of theirs, mercifully granting their requests. At the departure of so great a Father, the Bishops of the neighboring f dioceses also, greatly condoling, met together, with the summoning of clerics and religious, that according to the institutes of the holy Fathers they might provide a suitable Prelate for the same Church by election. And for the confirmation of their election, the most serene King Recared was present, together with the Princes and noble men of the Spains. But the people of the city, being unable to keep silent about what they had conceived in their mind, anticipating the votes of the elders, meanwhile cried out that Isidore, the worthy servant of God, was worthy of the episcopate, who in his youthful years acted manfully for the Catholic faith, and endured countless punishments from the impious for the defense of the same faith. And the will of the King and of the Bishops and Princes was the same, the agreement one, and the opinion the same; he is elected bishop and they testified that Isidore was most worthy of the episcopate, who by the example of good work and by the speech of holy preaching would educate the whole of Spain: and coming to Blessed Isidore, with humility and reverence, they make known the common will of all, urging him to undertake the burden of the archbishopric for the salvation of all Spain. But he, who avoided every high position as his own precipice, by no reason gave his assent to their desires. At this the reverend Prince and the kindly Bishops, seeing that they could make no progress by their persuasions, and unwilling is dragged from the cell no longer bearing it, having called the citizens together, came in one spirit to the same Isidore, prepared to use force. And so the peoples running together, with kindled clamor break up the cell of the blessed man, and as he resisted as well as he could, they led him with a voice of jubilation to the church. The servant of God cried out from afar, wishing to put forward a reason of excuse; but in vain, because the voices of the rejoicing peoples overcame the ears of those restraining.
[16] Considering therefore the herald of Christ that he could resist by no means, he yielded under compulsion; and with magnificent veneration was elected to be Bishop of Seville: wholly distinguished, wholly marked out, wholly famous, wholly beautiful, wholly lovable, wholly desirable; distinguished by origin, honesty, honor, and majesty; marked by nature, dignity, grace, and discipline; famous for his doctrines, eloquences, worthy is consecrated rewards, and praises; beautiful in habit, aspect, judgment, and cult; lovable in service, address, counsels, patronage; desirable in appearance, desirable in goodness, innocence, and justice; desirable in perfect charity. Such a one is chosen, such a one is selected, such a one is compelled, drawn, adopted; such a one is invested. Messengers moreover are sent to the most glorious Gregory, Pope of the venerable city of Rome, that the election having been confirmed, from the blessing of Blessed Peter the Apostle, he would deign to send the Archiepiscopal pallium to Isidore, who was most dear to him. with Saint Gregory the Great approving But holy Pope Gregory, being exceedingly glad at the election of Isidore who was dear to him, gave thanks to God; and the messengers honorably received, confirmed the election; sending g the pallium with what had been requested, he also granted that he might exercise the honor of the primacy in the Spains.
[17] Adorned therefore with the Prelate's infula, how much he lived, how great he was, how much he profited, and how much he did, let the Pontiff assert, let the Prelate affirm, let the Bishop prove, let the Bishop testify; let virtue declare the Pontiff, let knowledge proclaim the Prelate, let doctrine confess the Bishop, He excels in every kind of virtue let morals speak the Bishop. For he was always prudent, always constant, always modest, always just: prudent in discerning, prudent in choosing, prudent in loving, prudent in cleaving; constant in tolerating, constant in resisting, constant in striking, constant in pursuing; modest in desiring, modest in inquiring, modest in using, modest in sparing; just in meditating, just in speaking, just in working, just in persevering; upright everywhere, devout everywhere, useful everywhere, experienced everywhere; prompt to begin, prompt to obey, prompt to act, prompt to insist; devout to meditate, devout to speak forth, devout to pray, devout to ask, devout to obey, devout to obtain; useful to persuade, to dissuade, to dispense, useful to compensate; experienced to pluck up and build up, experienced to plant. Having always before his eyes the sufferings of the Son of God, he was not lifted up by empty glory: for, showing himself the servant of all, desiring more to be loved than feared, and more to profit than to rule, he made himself lovable and kind to all, insisting on fastings, prayers, and meditations of the holy Scriptures; taking little of the cheapest foods not for desire but for necessity; he was called sparing to himself, generous to others: he followed the same gravity of morals as before, the same humility. For he persevered most constantly the same as he had been before; and as his dignity grew, the gifts of the Holy Spirit grew in him; and so, full of authority and grace, everywhere the praise of his sanctity and a lamp lit with inextinguishable light, now not placed under a bushel but set on a candlestick, was everywhere borne on the praises of all; so that also very many of the most illustrious lamps of the Doctors, kindled more and more from good to better by his most splendid light, by the fire of the Holy Spirit gathered together, were rendered shining. Asserting himself the debtor of all, besides others radiating with this gift, there was in him as it were properly proper, namely to rejoice with those who rejoice, to weep with those who weep; and the afflictions of the wretched, taken upon himself by pious compassion, he himself felt rather than they; and he wiped them away in the giving of alms by the flowing bestowal of zeal for piety. So great was the abundance in him of giving, and such continual cheerfulness of bestowing, that in the admiration of many no one could perceive, not even his own intimates, whence so great a generosity of revenues came to him. But how generous he was throughout the whole time of his life, is reserved for God alone to know. For he had learned the most serene morals, to rejoice more in giving than in receiving; sparing to himself and in a certain way avaricious, but to all abundant, he enriched all with his munificences. In prosperity and adversity his countenance was always one; prevented by bright cheerfulness, he met all more joyfully. Elation, the enemy of all virtues, did not assert him: but showing placid humility in all things, he was held most dear to the mighty and the poor. Raised up to so great a summit of the Apostolate, he confessed himself called to the dignity of Bishop, not to the chair but to the care; not to honor but to burden; not to rule but to serve; not to empty the purses of subjects but to root out crimes; not to rest but to labor; not to seek out dishes and cups of various flavors, but to show and urge divine precepts on the peoples, and to providently administer the temporal aid to the poor of Christ—no less by works than by words.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER V.
His care in the instruction of clerics, monks, laity. His journey to Rome. Rain obtained. The dead raised.
[17] But about the care of clerics and students he was so solicitous that by the very vehemence of his vigilance they proved the Father of each one. For it seemed little to him to provide for neighboring cleric-students; rather he even called them from everywhere, that he might have more to whom to impart his benefits, whom he himself would educate in the pages of the holy Scriptures, he instructs clerics gathered from everywhere and provide abundantly with temporal sustenance. Therefore the clerics came running, thirsting not only to hear but also to see so great a Father; whom he most kindly received with paternal affection, and exhorted them not to depart from him before they should shine brightly, instructed in the law of God, as those who would profit themselves and the Catholic Church; and that he might remove from them the occasion of vacating in idleness, outside the city of Seville he built a monastery of wonderful beauty, from which no student was given license to go out before four years. But some of those who seemed richer, and compels to studies and refused to be in the monastery, whom by the spirit of truth he foresaw would be powerful in the Church of God in work and word, lest finding an occasion, musing in vain matters through vagrancy, they should recall their mind from study, he bound with iron shackles. From the college of these, as a Lucifer, shone forth the most holy a Ildephonse, as well as the glorious Braulio, Bishop of Saragossa. And because he could not always personally continue teaching them as he wished, with many cares arising, wherever he saw teachers diligent in the law of God and fit for the wars of spiritual combat, various masters being employed extolling them with many honors, he humbly besought that, not unmindful of his desired labor, they would continue in effective work in teaching the scholars. For it seemed to him that wicked heresies could not be rooted out from the Lord's vineyard, unless the clerics and religious, by the reputation of sanctity and by the insistence of preaching, urged the peoples on. For the fuel and occasion of all evil and heresy was the lapse of morals of clerics and religious, and the sluggish contempt of the knowledge of the Scriptures. He exercised extraordinary care over monks and nuns Over the religious also, monks, hermits, and those renouncing the world according to the rules of the Fathers, he watched with the highest care, lest any of them should be sunk in want, or perish from the lack of the word of God, and compelled by necessity, seeking through various places, the stones of the Sanctuary should be scattered; and the color of the finest gold, namely the resolution of holy men, should be changed, and by wandering they should forget holy conversation, and allured and drawn away by concupiscences, should be wrapped up in secular cares; and with the regular reins loosened, should submit themselves to the servitude of the devil. Like a mother loving an only son, so joined in charity to all, he opened the bosom of benevolence to each of them. As a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, so he protected them from the face of evils; lest, driven by adverse assaults or pressed by straits of want, with paternal protection removed, they should be afflicted beyond what the rule demands. Like an eagle stirring up its young to fly, he animated them by pious admonitions to heavenly desires; he himself first, clinging to heavenly works, flying over them, following the example of that most holy Apostle Paul, lest perchance, while without the exaggeration of works he preached to others, caught by the Gospel judgment, "speaking and not doing," he should be made reprobate (1 Cor. 9:27; Matt. 5:19). For which brother of the holy congregations, pressed by affliction of mind or body, was sick, without him coming to the remedies of health? Who, scandalized by the temptations of the enemy, was burned, without him with pastoral zeal pouring out the water of holy preaching from above? He bore the burdens of his subjects, deeming it worthy that he alone be troubled in the anxieties of the world, so that, with disturbance removed, the holy men, having food and clothing, should strive to please God alone; believing that by their intercessions, if anything was lacking to him, he would merit it. Although, considering both his own salvation and that of others, he avoided as far as possible the presence of women; yet whatever nuns or religious women he saw persevering in God's praises, he venerated with wondrous affection; and lest they lack abundance of temporal or spiritual things, he provided by assiduous bestowals. He founds various monasteries Through the region of Spain therefore he built many and beautiful monasteries: in which he gathered troops of religious of either sex, to the praise and glory of the divine name. He also handed down to them a Rule b which he himself had composed according to the institutes of the Apostles, which according to the variety of place and the strength of God's servants he most fittingly tempered; and writes a rule for them teaching each one to stand in the grade and grace in which he was called, and in the office which he exercised in the world (provided it is honest), in the monastery also, according to the command of his Superior, if need be, humbly to serve.
[18] Not content to profit one province alone, he who believed himself born for the utility of all the faithful, going out through the cities and regions, sounding forth in the sacred trumpets of the New and Old Testament, he helps other Christians throughout the world animated the elect to heavenly desires, or against the rulers of this darkness of the world exhorted to spiritual wars. Everywhere the trumpet of the Gospel resounds, everywhere Christ is announced, everywhere the praises of the Holy Trinity resound, and there is none who can hide himself from its heat, since into all the earth the sound of the Confessor has gone out. For those whom he could not illuminate by the presence of his body, he strengthened with letters and messengers sent. Whatever unbecoming, whatever uncomposed, whatever deformed, but most of all contrary to the law of God he met with, his eye did not spare; and, anxious lest by growing it should be increased, as quickly as possible by resisting at the beginnings, he strove to destroy and root it out from the Christian people. But also the Apostolic sanctions and the decrees of the holy Fathers, and especially the institutions of the holy Roman Church, he established in all the Churches of the Spains. He handed down heavenly and human things now as a vigorous legislator; he gave laws agreeing with modesty and honesty, presenting himself as a burning fire in consuming the groves of crimes, and the coldest water in cooling the fires of temptations. Finally, what city, what wilderness, what c march, did not feel the benefits of this Doctor? Traversing therefore the servant of God, refreshing the minds of the faithful with the food of the word of God, relieving the poor of Christ with alms, and diligently pursuing the doctrines of heretics in all the provinces of the Spains; he came to the illustrious city of Rome, with the supreme Pontiff humbly requesting it. With how great honor and reverence he was received by the Roman Pontiff and the Cardinals, Setting out for Rome, he is received most courteously it is not for our weakness to treat; but from the duties and the obediences of love shown toward him, the reader can easily conjecture. For the burden of the whole curia being placed upon him, all kindly offered themselves to him as to a pious father, without prejudice to Apostolic excellence, so that, if he should wish, men most noble by birth, famous in morals, distinguished in dignity, would supply the parts of servants, and with what humility they could would minister; the most prudent men deeming it worthy that, because for the Catholic faith and the honor of the Roman Church, despising the torments of the Princes, he had exposed himself to death, and by many sentences of the Scriptures had proved her the mother of all Churches, he should be venerated by the same Romans with condign honor. It pleased all also that the Prelates of the Church should convene in a holy d Synod, that if anything dishonorable or ambiguous were found, it might be corrected with the same most holy Isidore; He is said to have been present at some Synod whom with the highest desire they would have kept in the Roman Curia for their own adornment, had they not recognized, with his pointing out, that this would be to the detriment of the Church. The Synod therefore being dismissed, he ordered in the Roman Curia whatever he willed, and all being dismissed with sorrow, he returned to Spain with the greatest honor and Apostolic gifts. For they had experienced that he shone, among other virtues, with the spirit of prophecy, and so seemed to evangelize rather than foretell many things about the future, as if they had been historically done. But at his return, there was great joy and exultation in the Church of the Spains.
[19] But when the holy Doctor was drawing near to the borders of Gaul, the Lord wonderfully magnified his dealings with his Saint. For when the provinces of Gaul and Spain were laboring under excessive drought of air, and from the lack of rain the fruits, In Gaul in great drought trees, and herbs were drying up, and men from the very intemperance endured grave affliction of body; hearing of the arrival of the holy Bishop, joyful and eager, confident of the accustomed piety of the Lord, who always worked wonders in his servant, from each city they came to meet him with crosses and lamps, asking that he would deign to pour out prayers for them to the Lord. The people of Narbonne, as he drew near, cried out, saying: "O pious Doctor of the Spains, Isidore, by your holy prayers poured out to the Lord, rescue us from the imminent dangers: you have come, longed for; through you let the accustomed benefits be bestowed from the Lord everywhere." But the most blessed Doctor, as he was ready in compassion, commanded silence; and set before the hungering peoples the food of the word of God, admonishing them that together with him, calling upon the mercy of the Lord, by the faith of the Holy Trinity going before and with every hesitation laid aside, they should ask the benefits of the Son of God. Then the holy man, asked to pour out prayers lifting his hands to heaven, prayed the Lord that, for the glory of his holy name, he would deign to bestow on his people the remission of their sins, the health of body, the temperance of air, the bestowal of rain, and the abundance of fruits they longed for. O wondrous virtue of the prayer of the holy! For although the serenity of the air was excessive, and all things were steaming with the heat of the sun, after sudden roars of thunder and close strokes of lightning, such an inundation of waters followed that no one saw a comparison of this rain in times past. But the blessed Confessor, shaken on every side by the strokes of lightning, soon obtains rains seemed wholly on fire. And all, terrified with fear of death, leaving the Saint, fled to the churches. But those who, being sick, had come borne on the shoulders of carriers, seeking the help of the blessed Father, forgetful of their own weakness even by fleeing from the rest
ran ahead as if with merit: for all by the intercession of Blessed Isidore had been restored to their former soundness. He heals the sick The rest, weighing up the miracle wrought by God in the health of the sick, animated with strength, wished to approach the Saint; but there was no one who dared to go forward beyond the doors, being prevented both by the flashing lightning and the inundation of rains. The herald of Christ therefore waited until the showers ceased; and the whole multitude ran together to him, praising in the Saint the wonders of our Savior. But the blessed Pontiff kindly exhorted them, saying: "Behold, brothers, how much the unstained faith of the most holy Trinity obtains. In the name of the undivided Trinity you have asked to be rescued from three or more perils, and three or more benefits have been bestowed on you by the Lord, namely health of body, temperance of air, and exuberant abundance of fruits; and besides, what is more sacred and more to be dearly embraced, if you will keep the faith unblemished, you will obtain the pardon of sins and the prize of eternal reward. Now therefore, strengthen your hearts in the love of Christ the Son of God, and exhorts to sincere faith and to embracing virtues and let yourselves by no means be deceived by seducers, who compass sea and dry land to make one proselyte, to be horribly burned in eternal flames. They are wolves most greedy in unhappy voracity, who come only to slay and destroy, disfiguring their faces that they may appear to men as fasting, and by this an easier approach to deceiving is found for them." Having preached these and similar things, the Saint came to the lodging to refresh his wearied members. Meanwhile the people through the neighborhoods and streets praising the wonders of our God, cursing and detesting those who would deny the Son of God and of the Virgin, our Lord Jesus Christ, even in thought to be true God, remaining with the Father and the Holy Spirit forever. e
[20] When the kindly Doctor drew near to the city of Seville, there came to meet him a multitude of peoples of both sexes, of Clerics, scholars, monks, and laymen, who in hymns and praises, in the voice of exultation and rejoicing, received him with great joy. As all were running together, that they might touch the fringes of the holy Father, from the pressure of the crowds, a certain pregnant woman, suffocated, breathed out her spirit. Seeing this, the holy man, as he was abounding in the bowels of mercy, He raises a pregnant woman from death wept copiously, pouring out silently words of prayer to the Lord. But after a little space, the woman rose, saying with a loud voice: "Blessed are you, holy Father Isidore, and blessed is the speech of your mouth: for by your holy prayers I and him whom I bear in the womb are not only restored to this present life, but are even rescued from the hand of the enemy." The people, turning to the woman, asked how it had happened to her. To whom she said: "As my soul and that of my son who is in the womb was going out of the body, a troop of demons was present, who were preparing with fiery bonds to carry us away to the places of punishment; and with our most glorious Father praying for us, a voice was heard saying, 'Let the souls of these return to their bodies, because Isidore the friend of God prays for them.' Hearing which, one of the holy Angels, who are always with the most blessed Doctor Isidore, led us back to the body." All the people therefore raising their voice to heaven, sounding out praises to the Most High more clearly, led him into the city. For the Lord bestowed such peace on the Church through him, and brought such terror to all the children of superstition, that with every heretical perversity thoroughly rooted out from the Spains, no one was to be found who would or dared to name a heresy. And that the most holy man might not pass over untried any work of mercy, if any of the girls of the world were compelled through poverty to lead an infamous life, the minister of God, most quickly anticipating, exercises works of charity rescinded the miserable vows, handing her over to marriage or to the monastery according to her choice. If he found any of the laity willing in the law of the Lord, he venerated them with exceeding affection, and amicably enrolled them among his private acquaintances. He freed almost innumerable persons worn out by the squalor of prison or even captives, by large gifts bestowed; and those ensnared by foreign debt, by paying money to the creditors, he made both parties rejoice. The restoring of peace between those who disagreed was also his greatest care; and now by building churches, now by restoring monasteries, now by renewing bridges, he remained a diligent worker of truth; often proposing to his own that saying of Solomon: "Idleness has taught much evil" (Ecclesiasticus 33:29). So much love for him kept Kings and Princes bound He is loved by Kings and Princes on account of the Apostolic authority he exercised, that they venerated him humbly as a most holy father, and carried out with the highest devotion whatever was commanded by him. Hence you would see in the Princes the flourishing obedience of monks, while he who had incurred the offense of the King or of any Prince, and could not be reconciled to him through other means, as a last refuge securely approached Isidore. What sinner sorrowful, kind to all troubled, or undermined with despair, ever came to him, and did not, with strength at once regained from the words of grace which flowed from his mellifluous mouth, animated with the hope of pardon and grace, joyful and cheerful and made just through the contrition of mind, giving thanks, go away filled with good things? Whoever came to him of whatever profession, by the assiduity of his sight and the use of his speech and the example of good work, rested from the ambition of temporal things; and kindled by the light of truth, burned with desire of the eternal light. How great a virtue he stood forth, and sparkling with the flashing of miracles, if all the joints of the human body were turned into a tongue, they would not dare to tell. He publishes various books Moreover, providing for the utility of those to come, he published illustrious books with almost innumerable sentences and words, which it is long to enumerate; yet Blessed Braulio Bishop of Saragossa enumerates some of them in part. After he had published in writing the alphabet f of the judges of Papias, the alphabet of verbs, the alphabet of Theological distinctions, and the alphabet of books, making an end of prayer, he wrote an alphabet of prayer, lamenting the future errors of the Gothic nation and at the same time their overthrow, in which he daily sang psalms to the Lord, which in this work we have seen fit to note.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER VI.
The Alphabet of Prayer, to repel the temptations of the adversary, and to merit the grace of God.
A, in 24 stanzas Hear, O Christ, the sad weeping and bitter song Which my contrite and smitten spirit sings. Behold the floods of tears, and hearken to my groaning.
To Thee, grievously wounded, lifting up my voice with weeping, Deep sighs from the depths of my heart I send forth, If perhaps appeased Thou mayest pardon by prayers.
Lighten the calamities of the grievous burden, Which presses me long and impiously crushes me, Nor departs, that I may resume the breath of life.
Thou hast heavy-handedly laid Thy plague upon me more strongly, Crushing my flesh, by the holy vengeance of scourges, With sword, filth, pestilence, and the prison of darkness.
From these things I learn the truth, that Thou mayest slay the impious; But I ask, after the discipline, give me pardon appeased; Because Thou desirest not the death of the wicked, but life.
With the comforter taken away, shut up by the square stone, I groan mourning and sigh, crying "Have mercy"; I knock asking all day, but Thou ever delayest.
From Thy ancient mercy do not depart, I beseech; For if Thou command me to follow the rigor of justice, I am given over to a thousand pains, worthy of a thousand deaths.
My years in sorrow, my life in groans, Made vile I have consumed; spare me, Lord, I can bear no more, I beg for help.
This is bitter but light, because it passes away; But more bitter and grievous is what is irrevocable, Where there is no end of punishments, nor rest from sorrow.
There a burning flame will burn the bodies of the damned, Whom he shall take shall hope no return, At whose fear I waste away, I melt with dread.
When Thou shalt come, a just judge and witness, To render just reward to the merits of each, On what grounds Thou shalt decide to save me, Thou wilt find no work.
Iniquity will be abominable before Thee; For none of the unclean shall be joined with Thee; How then shall I, a stinking goat, be joined with the clean sheep?
Before Thee justice shall not even be secure to the just; Which, if Thou examinest strictly, it too is sin, Alas for me, where shall I appear entangled in vice.
Good or evil being weighed; this part shall claim the worker On whichever side of the balance the moment shall incline. What shall I do, if the weight of evil cast me to the left?
The wicked shall behold the good, with blessedness Who have obtained glory, and shall grieve sharply, That they did not live so justly that they might be free.
They shall raise up a wailing and a monstrous roaring, Making great lamentation, bitter and strong, Such as never was made or said or seen.
I shall not be safe in the bosom of the dry land, or of the poles, or of the sea: Which shall melt and flow away with the heat of fires. Where, wretch, shall I hide myself? whither shall I flee from Thee?
By Thy immensity the circuit of the world is enclosed: Thou fillest heaven and earth, and without Thee nothing is; He who has Thee not appeased, whither shall he flee when Thou art angry?
I am pressed on every side by afflictions, hemmed in by straits: My mind is tossed in mourning, my heart swims in tears; Nor is there any rest from the driven fear to my soul.
Taking up the arms of the penitent, sackcloth and hair-shirt, I knock at the ears of mercy, at the bowels of clemency, Pouring in words of prayers and sorrows with tears.
Hear my prayers and be appeased, which my sick mind brings forth; Consider my sorrows, apply the poultices, Because I am Thy creation and Thy formation.
Look now, merciful God, at the afflictions I endure; Remove the contrition, and restrain the scourges; Do not, I pray, angry, crush me and grind me to pieces.
Take me from the mire of the dregs of all sins; Do not disdain to cleanse me, before Thou examinest; And I shall not then be unclean, if Thou now purify me.
Thou dost receive sinners, but those whom Thou now justifiest; Thou dost look upon many like Peter, and they repent weeping: And so Thou bringest back those fallen to hell to the heavens.
Having nothing of good, what shall I object against evils? My conscience, shaken with fear of punishments, trembles letter B with 7 stanzas While it dreads to undergo endless dangers.
O good God, I pray, now help one about to perish; Now deliver me from eternal wrath and from death, That clemency may save him whom justice punishes.
Thou hast shown the kindness of goodness to many who did not deserve it, And hast granted pardon to their sins; Do not defraud me alone of what Thou hast given to many.
Thou art appeased, soothed by the confession of the humble, And Thou art quickly bent to forgive at the voice of one weeping, Accustomed to counsel the tears of the penitent.
Kind Father, forgive what, recognizing, I confess; I declare my evil, do not, avenger, cover it; Receive the confession, and grant indulgence.
Thy hand is not short, that Thou canst not save; Thou art great in pardoning: hence I cry out, "Forgive"; Have mercy, lest Thou destroy; spare, lest Thou kill.
With a double scourge, I beg, do not strike me; Temper Thy wrath a little, have patience; Because I am very wretched, but Thou art more merciful.
Turn to pity, restore grace; Do not will to extinguish life together with sin; Preserve the blessing, grant the received pardon.
As much as pleases Thee, wear down my flesh for its sin; For I shall willingly accept temporal plagues: Only I beg Thee, do not, in Thy indignation, inflict eternal ones.
Take away delays, visit me, nay come from Lebanon; Rise, say to the captive, "Come forth," to the wretched; Relieve him thrust into prison, lay open him now hidden.
The cunning foe has conquered me: which I now consider; A great evil I, wretch, did in the will of the flesh; Stretch forth now Thy hand, and succor the wretched.
Afflict me here with sorrows, afflict me with mournings; By scourges purge me now, that Thou mayest not punish in the future; Punish the flesh that sinned, let the soul be redeemed.
Resolve, clemently pious one, to seek the lost, By what wonderful kindness Thou gatherest up the outcast, And convertest back those turned away, correctest those wandering.
I lament that I have erred, a profane sinner and prodigal, Losing the goods of my country in meretricious love; Hence to Thee, vile, needy, and smitten, I return.
Behold me, unworthy, I cry out, in the place of sons, Because refusing the admonitions of Thy fatherhood, Wandering through whatever devious ways I have flowed and run.
I beseech Thee, that Thou allow me to do good after evils; May I have by Thy gift in my home what to offer, With which, being taken from the left, I may pass to the right.
I, wretch, did evil in folly; I provoked Thee to wrath by dread crimes; Rightly, stunned in heart, I am worn out with great grief.
I am not afraid to approach Thee with confession and tears; Receive the profession, be mindless of the guilt; And with paternal kindness take away, I pray, my error.
If however Thou strikest with plagues, still judging me, Strike me, as Thou chastisest and rebukest those whom Thou lovest, But mercifully, to correct, not to kill.
As the grievous guilt deserves, do not so rage; Temper Thy severity, cease to strike; Lest, constrained by a continual plague, I despair and perish.
This I ask of Thee meanwhile, that Thou let me not be violently overwhelmed by the temptations By which I am from time to time perverted; Lest, wretch, I fall conquered, I beg for help.
Hence I ask Thee, do not permit me to be overwhelmed by the enemy; For I shall not be able to bear the temptations of demons, If Thou shalt cease to bridle their malice.
Thence I beg Thee, kind Father, bent down, Be appeased ever so little, that Thou mayest grant pardon here; For subdued by long punishment, I have become very wretched.
Do not place my flesh in eternal sorrow, And compel my soul cruelly to depart; Give an end to my torments, let my spirit rest.
I mourn confused the evils which I remember I have done; I pour forth prayers and lament, saddened in mind; I beg that Thou deny not the desired pardon to the penitent.
Tears indeed do not suffice against sin: But what I cannot expiate with continual weeping, I pray, take away by Thy mercy, and supply by Thy clemency.
By Thy pity make the unjust just, The bright out of the dark, the shining out of the horrid, The innocent out of the wicked, the living out of the dead.
Having pity, now put away the offenses of my crime; And rescuing Thy creature from the hand of the devil, Remember Thy formation, and be appeasable.
Do not give over Thy work to the ruin of death, O Lord, On account of carnal sin, which Thou hast foretold can be Washed away by lamentation and pardoned.
No fault is so grievous that there is no pardon for it; Thou saidst every sin may be forgiven to men, Except only the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit.
Altogether confiding, I believe that, unwilling to destroy, Thou hast subjected me to the scourges which are to correct, That, cleansed from every fault, I might return to grace.
I have sinned against Thee, I have sinned, and I have transgressed wickedly; But do not destroy the converted, and grant what I ask, And cleanse me before death, and redeem me while I live.
Do not ask who I was, but who I desire to be; Do not, I pray, reckon me damnable for my old guilt; Look upon my purpose in correcting, and relax the debt.
Receive, Lord Father, the little servant fallen in flight. From the error of destruction, with Thee seeking, may I return, And from the evil one be made a worthy servant.
Loose, O Christ, the bonds of my feet, the ligatures of my sins; Unbar the thrust-in threshold of the dark prison; Lay open now to the light the buried, the pilgrim to his country.
Thou art God, the author of light, King of eternal glory, Whom no speech encloses, nor do shadows obscure; Now hear, Lord, the wretched one crying to Thee.
Visit now, Christ God, the little servant whom Thou createdst; Let me bewail what I have done in the world; Grant me eternal light as I desire.
O Christ, who art rich in the kindness of graces, I pray Thou give fruit and merit to the living; Lest, foreseeing me sterile, Thou shouldest cut me down afterwards.
Do not join me to the devil to death with the impious, Nor suffer me to be overwhelmed in the abyss of hell, Thou who camest that Thou mightest redeem believers from death.
Glory now, watchful, I shall sing, finishing the alphabet, To Thee, Father, and to the Son, and to the renowned Paraclete, Conclusion To whom is praise and power through eternal ages. Amen.
These things it has pleased us to insert in the series of this narration; that from them one may conjecture how, while he shone in the eyes of the divine majesty with so great signs, how humble he was considered by himself; not walking in great things nor in things wonderful above him, enumerating the sufferings of his body; not that he should boast, lifted up by these, but that he should admonish the followers of Christ not to be lifted up in pride, nor cast down in adversity; but to be raised up in the hope of pardon to heavenly things.
CHAPTER VII.
Letters to various persons.
Besides, the letter which he wrote to Saint Masona, Archbishop of Mérida, on the restoration of Prelates after the lapse of the flesh, when Saint Masona with humble insistence was asking for it, we amplify in this work; because it is very useful not only to Bishops and Ecclesiastical persons, but also to all who return to God through repentance.
§ I. To Saint Masona, Archbishop of Mérida.
[21] a "To the holy and meritoriously blessed Lord, Masona the Bishop, Isidore. When your servant, the religious man b Vincent, came to us, he brought us letters of your dignity, in which the recognition of your well-being was nonetheless most plain, especially through that bearer, whose tongue was a living letter. Wherefore, having rendered thanks for your well-being to our God, so far as our mediocrity was able, instead of an inquiry we were zealous, asking that with the suffrages of your merits we might commend you to the divine sight. But as to what your venerable Paternity made known in the letters: no difference is to be understood in the opinions of the decrees, because elsewhere in this matter it is read the same way in the canon of Ancyra, chapter c 23, the fallen after penance are to be restored that after a bodily fall, the degree of honor is to be restored after penance; but elsewhere it is read that after such a crime the merit of the ancient order is by no means to be repaired. For this diversity is thus to be distinguished: for the canon commands those to return to the former grades of their office whose penance the satisfaction of penance or the worthy confession of sins has preceded; but on the contrary, those who are not corrected from the vice of corruption, and who even strive to claim this very carnal crime which they commit by a certain superstitious temerity, receive neither the grade of honor nor the grace of communion. Therefore each sentence is thus to be interpreted; since it is necessary that those be restored to the place of honor who through penance merit reconciliation of the divine kindness; and these deservedly obtain the state of the taken-away dignity, who are known to have received through the amendment of penance the remedy of life. It is shown from Ezekiel Lest this perhaps be more ambiguous, it is confirmed by the sentence of divine authority. For Ezekiel the Prophet, under the figure of the prevarication of Jerusalem, shows that after the satisfaction of penance the former honor may be restored: 'Be confounded,' he says, 'Judah, and bear your ignominy'; and a little after, 'And you and your daughters, return to your antiquity' (Ezekiel 16:52). By saying 'Be confounded,' he shows that after the confusion, that is, the work of sin, one ought to blush, and for the crimes committed to submerge his modest forehead prostrate on the ground, because he had committed a work worthy of confusion; and then he commands that, after the ignominy, that is, d the delight, he should return to the antiquity of his office or dignity. Therefore, as long as someone, after the work of his confusion, is confounded, and bears the ignominy, and laments his deposition with humility, according to the Prophet he can be recalled to the former state. And John the Evangelist writes among other similar things to the Angel of the Church of Ephesus: 'Remember whence you have fallen, and do penance, and do your first works; otherwise I will come to you, Apocalypse of St. John and will move your candlestick out of its place' (Apoc. 2:5). By 'the Angel' he shows the Prelate of the Church, that is, the Priest, according to Malachi, who says: 'The lips of the Priest keep knowledge, and the law shall be sought from his mouth, because he is the angel of the Lord of hosts.' The Prelate fallen into vice is therefore warned by the Evangelist to remember whence he has fallen, and do penance, and do his first works, that his candlestick be not moved; for by 'candlestick' is understood the doctrine of the Priest, or the honor of the power which he exercises, according to what is written in Samuel on the condemnation of Eli: 'His eyes were dimmed, nor could he see the lamp of God before it was extinguished' (1 Kings 3:3). For he had been the lamp of God when, powerful in priestly dignity, he shone with the brightness of justice; and he showed it extinguished..."
the Prophet asserts, when on account of the crime of his sons he lost the power and the light of the merits of the priesthood. Therefore the candlestick or lamp of the Priest (which is understood as the charisma of honor) is then, according to John, completely extinguished or moved, when after the fall of transgression, penance being neglected, the committed crimes are not wiped away. For he did not say, 'Because you have fallen, I will move your candlestick'; but, Proverbs of Solomon 'Unless you do penance I will move your candlestick'; therefore, for any Prelate sinning, if the penance of the fault comes first, the restoration of his merit certainly follows. And in Proverbs: 'He that hides his sins shall not prosper: but he who shall confess and forsake them shall obtain mercy' (Proverbs 28:13). For even the fact that the judgment of the Canons commands the penitent after seven years to return to his former state, and the Canons of the Fathers the holy Fathers decreed not by the choice of their own will, but rather by the sentence of divine judgment. For it is read that Miriam the sister of Moses, the prophetess, when she had incurred the offense of detraction against Moses, was immediately struck with leprosy; and when Moses asked that she might be cleansed, God commanded her to go out of the camp for seven days, and after her cleansing again to be admitted into the camp (Numbers 12). Therefore Miriam the sister of Aaron is understood as the flesh of the Priest, who, when by the crimes of pride he is stained with the foulest contagions of corruptions, is cast out of the camp for seven days, that is, out of the college of the holy Church for seven years; within which, after the cleansing of his crimes, he receives the merit of his place or former dignity. Behold, as far as I could, I have explained the ancient sentence of the Council of Ancyra, plainly full of authority, with sacred testimonies; showing that he can be restored to his former order who through the satisfaction of penance knows how to weep for his own crimes; but he who does not weep for what he has done, but commits things to be wept for without any shame of religion or fear of divine judgment, can in no way be restored to his former grade. At the end of this letter I thought this should be added: that whenever a discordant sentence is found in the acts of Councils, the opinion of that council is rather to be held whose authority is older."
He also published many letters on the questions of many persons, which, if we have not noted in full, we have yet seen fit to note in part; that the virtue and power of the Saint may be made known in them to the world, and the faithful of Christ may be instructed.
ANNOTATIONS.
§ II. To Braulio his disciple.
[22] "To the most beloved in Christ the Lord, Braulio the Archdeacon, Isidore. While you, dearest son, receive the letters of your friend, do not delay to embrace them in place of your friend: for this is the second consolation between those who are absent, that if he who is loved is not present, letters embrace us instead of him. He sends him a ring and a cloak But we have sent you a ring on account of our love, and a cloak on account of the cloak of our friendships, whence antiquity drew this word. Therefore pray for me, that the Lord may inspire in you that I may deserve still in this life to see you: and him whom you have saddened by going away, you may at some time make glad again by showing yourself in person. I have sent a quaternion of the Rules through Maurentius the Primicerius. For the rest, most beloved Lord and dearest son, I desire always to know of your welfare."
§ III. Braulio, Bishop of Saragossa, to Isidore.
[23] "To my Lord, as truly lord and elect of Christ, Isidore, chief of Bishops, Braulio, worst of sinners, useless servant of the saints of God. The inner and spiritual man is wont to be filled with joy, when he performs the inquiry of his lover. On which account my desire now is, most reverend Lord, (unless the wall of my faults stand in the way), that you benignly embrace my inquiry, and patiently receive the accusation of my complaints. For I do both: I fulfill the duty of inquiry, and I send to you the necessities of our causes against you. That you may most benignly receive this into your hearing, at the entrance of my discourse and prostrate at the door, I ask from the summit of your Apostolate; and although the charge of calumny wavers where there is intercession of tears, since tears are not signs of calumny; yet let the tears also be liable to charge, I wish; but both on account of the free presumption of love, not on account of the rashness of arrogance. But now I begin the cause. It is the seventh year, if I am not mistaken, Saint Braulio asks that the books of Origins be sent to him since I remember having asked for the books of Origins composed by you, and in various and diverse ways, both when present I was frustrated, and to me absent you wrote nothing back, but with subtle delays, now that they were not yet finished, now that they were not yet written, now that our letters had been lost, and opposing many other things, we have come to this day and remain without the effect of our petition. For this reason I too will turn prayers into a complaint, that what by supplication I could not obtain, I may be able to obtain by provoking with accusations. For outcry is often wont to profit a beggar. Therefore why, I ask, my Lord, do you not grant me what you are asked? Know one thing: I will not let it go, as if pretending that I do not want your utterances; but I will seek, until I either receive or extract them—at the command of the most pious Redeemer, 'Seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you' (Luke 11:9). I have sought, and I seek, and now I knock; whence also I cry out that you may open. For the discovery of this argument consoles me, because you despised the one asking, you will perhaps hear the one accusing. Hence I also urge to one who knows, and not with foolish boasting do I, foolish, presume to suggest anything new to the perfect (2 Cor. 11:19). Yet I do not blush, unlearned, to speak to the most eloquent, mindful of the Apostolic precept, by which you are commanded willingly to bear with the unlearned. Wherefore receive the grounds of my accusation. Why, I ask, do you still retain the distribution of talents and the dispensation of food committed to you? Now loose your hand: share it with your servants, lest they perish from want of hunger, since you know what the creditor when he comes will demand back from you. Whatever you shall give us will not be diminished to you: remember that a multitude was satisfied with a few loaves, and the quantity of remaining fragments exceeded the size of the loaves. Do you think that the gift conferred on you was given only on your account? It is both yours and ours; it is common, not private; and who even mad would presume to say that you should rejoice in your own privately, who know how to rejoice blamelessly only in the common? For when God has granted you to exercise the stewardship of his treasury and of the riches of salvation, of wisdom and knowledge, why do you not with a generous hand pour out what is not lessened by giving? Or since in the members of the supreme head each one so possesses in the other what he does not receive, that he knows what he has is possessable by the other, are you perhaps sparing to us because what you might receive from us in return you do not find? But if you give to one who has, you bring back the fruit of a very small reward: but if you give to him who has not, you fulfill the Gospel precepts, that it may be returned to you in the reward of the just (Luke 14:14). And I also am bitten by my conscience, in that I know in myself nothing communicable of good, since we are commanded through charity to serve one another, and each one to dispense to each other the grace which he has received, as good dispensers of the manifold grace of God; and to each one, as the Lord has divided the measure of faith in the one structure of members, he ought to communicate it to the other parts: because one and the same Spirit works all these things, dividing to each as he wills. But I return to the one and peculiar help which I set forth, namely to importunity, a friend to those friendly long deprived of friendship and adorned with no grace of honorable members. Therefore hear my voice so many lands intervening: Return what you owe; for you are the servant of servants and of Christians, that there you may be the greater among us. And since you know the cause of the grace conferred on you in the present, disdain not to share it with thirsting souls, and those tortured with hunger for knowledge. I am not at least one who, running to the things enjoined, cannot obey the other members of the Church—namely, the judgment of obedience having been examined—nor by obeying please the ruling primacy of the head. For even if I know that I am of the less honorable members, let it suffice that it is certain you have received from the head on my behalf: nor is it worthy of you that I should lack, the least though, yet redeemed by the blood of Christ. For the head does not say to the feet, 'You are not necessary to me': since those which seem to be the weaker members of the body are the more necessary; and those which we think to be the less noble, upon these we bestow more abundant honor; and those which are our less honorable parts have the greater honor. So therefore our Creator..."
and dispenser regulates all things, that when in one person the divine gifts, which he has not received in himself, are granted to another to be possessed, love may be increased: for then the manifold grace is well dispensed, when the received gift is also believed to belong to those who do not have it; when it is thought to have been given for the sake of him for whom it is expended. This chapter of the Apostle, set forth by us in part, the prudence of your holiness knows most well: that you fit it wholly, and that you without doubt know better what I have summarily touched upon, is hidden from no one. And so this only remains, which I also greatly ask, that you grant what I have petitioned; and if not for me, at least for that charity divinely imparted; for the sake of which, as you know, we are commanded to do all things, and without which all things are nothing. And if I have poured out rather than spoken anything superfluous, anything negligent, anything with less humility, receive all kindly, I pray, forgive all, pray that God may forgive all. Therefore I also make known that the books of the Etymologies and those complete and corrected which I ask of you, Lord, although I know that they are already had by many truncated and gnawed, therefore I ask that you deign to send them to me transcribed and completely emended and well fitted together; lest, seized by eagerness for what is wrong, I be compelled to take vices instead of virtues from others. But I desire, although you need nothing and it is said that unsolicited wares reek, that the kind condescension of your benignity give us commands in that which we can and are strong, and that you make use of our service—indeed, that you enjoy the love which is God. These things being completed, I had questions on the sacred and divine pages, the exposition of which the light of your heart would open to me, if nevertheless you command us to shine again and to unlock the obscure things of the divine law. Nor, if I shall have received these things which I ask, will I be silent about those: but you open the ways for obtaining confidence, when at this first front you shall not have confounded me with the stings of modesty, and shall have given my cowardice place for pardon: in that you shall not have ordered him whom you loved, however undeservedly, to be rejected; because it seems very shameful and base, if one not yet satisfied with love is found to withdraw from him whom he loved. But by the service of my servitude I pay my dues of salvation, and I ask the piety of your most holy power, that you may deign to pray for me, so that daily by your intercession you may gain my wavering soul, and lead it to the port of eternal tranquility, rescued from miseries and from scandals. It was sweet to me, Lord, to speak to you and, as though placed before you, to see the face of your countenance. Therefore I did not avoid verbosity, and perhaps incurred rashness: but either this, or something else I ought to do; only that what you would not by humility, at least you may grant by the importunity of the tumultuous. Behold how much boldness the grace of your benevolence has given me: and therefore if anything in this has displeased your paternity, let it impute it to itself, which is so loved that it removes fear; for perfect love casts out fear. He commends the election of a Bishop of Tarragona Trusting also in a special grace, to my special Lord, in whom the strength of the holy Church consists, I suggest: that because Eusebius the Metropolitan has departed, you have the care of mercy, and suggest this to your son, the King our Lord, that he may place over that see one whose holiness of doctrine may be a pattern of life to others. And this your son Prasens I commend in all things to your most blessed power, that we may deserve to be enlightened by your eloquence through him, both concerning the things we have suggested and concerning those of which we have complained above. Amen."
§ IV. To Saint Braulio.
[24] "To my Lord and servant of God, Braulio, Bishop of Saragossa, Isidore. The letters of your holiness found me in the city of Toledo: for I had been moved on account of the Council. Although the command of the Prince warned me while on the way to return, I nevertheless, because I was nearer to his presence than to returning, preferred rather not to interrupt the course of the journey. I came to the presence of the Prince; I found Prasens your Deacon: through him, receiving your utterances, I embraced and read them, and for your safety I gave thanks to God; desiring with every desire, He sends the books of the Etymologies although weak and weary, yet having confidence through Christ of seeing you in this life; because hope does not confound through the love which is poured forth in our hearts. I sent the codex of the Etymologies with other codices from the journey, and although unemended on account of weakness, yet I had been zealous to offer it to you to emend, if you had come to the appointed place of the Council. And he answers about the Bishop of Tarragona Concerning the appointment of the Bishop of Tarragona, I have not felt the opinion of the King to be that which you seek; but he himself where he more certainly will turn his mind is still uncertain to him. But I ask that for my sins you may deign to be an intercessor before God, that by your entreaty our transgressions may be blotted out and our crimes remitted. Likewise with my hand: 'Pray for us, most blessed lord Brother.'"
§ V. To Saint Eugenius, Archbishop of Toledo.
[25] "To my dearest Lord and illustrious in virtues, Eugenius the Bishop, Isidore. Receiving the letters of your holiness through the messenger Verecundus, we render thanks to the Creator of all things, because he deigns to preserve the soundness of your mind and body for His holy Church; and ready as far as we can to satisfy what is asked, we beseech to be raised up from oppressing afflictions by the Lord through the suffrages of your prayers. But because in certain questions your venerable fraternity, [He teaches that a censure inflicted by a superior cannot be loosed by an inferior] although you do not ignore what you have asked, compelled me to answer; the orthodox Fathers, by the authority of the Holy Spirit going before, decreed that a knot of a greater sentence, except in the article of death, can by no means be untied by one of lesser rank; but rather a sentence pronounced by an inferior, by right intervening, may be annulled by a superior. But otherwise, as your prudence knows, let anyone assert, a perverse thing will arise, namely the boast of the axe against him who cuts with it. But as to what is urged about the parity of the Apostles, Peter stands out above the rest, who deserved to hear from the Lord: 'You shall be called Cephas,' 'You are Peter,' etc. (John 1:42; Matthew 16:18). And not from any other, but from the very Son of God and of the Virgin, he first received the honor of the Pontificate in the Church of Christ: to whom also, after the resurrection of the Son of God, it was said by the same, 'Feed my lambs' (John 21:15); by the name of lambs noting the Prelates of the Churches. Whose dignity of power, although transferred to all Catholic Bishops, yet more specially remains forever to the Roman Bishop, by a certain singular privilege, as to a head higher than the other members. He therefore who does not reverently exhibit to him the obedience due, cut off from the head, makes himself liable to the schism of the Acephali: and the higher pre-eminence given to Saint Peter from among the Roman Pontiffs as that saying of Saint Athanasius on the faith of the Holy Trinity the holy Church approves and guards as an article of the Catholic faith; which unless one shall have faithfully and firmly believed, he cannot be saved. These things I have briefly set forth to your sweetest charity, considering that saying of the philosopher, 'Few things suffice the wise.'"
§ VI. To Leofred, Bishop of Córdoba.
[26] "To my Lord, the servant of God Leofred the Bishop, Isidore. Having read your… letters, I rejoiced that I learned of your desired welfare by the report. For those things which in what follows the discourse of your eloquence has sought to make known, I give thanks to God, that you expend the solicitude of the pastoral office, and inquire how the Ecclesiastical offices should be ordered. And although all things are known to your prudence, yet because you consult me with paternal affection, I shall as far as I can set forth about all the ranks of the Church, and speak what pertains to each. For to the Door-keeper pertain the keys of the church, He explains the duties of the door-keeper that he may close and open the temple of God and guard all things that are within and without, admit the faithful, reject the excommunicated and the unfaithful. Acolyte To the Acolyte pertains the preparation of the lights in the sanctuary; he carries the candle, he at the pulpit prepares b the chalice for the Eucharist. To the Exorcist it belongs to retain the exorcisms in memory, Exorcist to impose hands upon the energumens and catechumens in exorcising. To the Psalmist pertains the office of singing, Psalmist to say benedictions, psalms, praises, the responsories of the sacrifice, and whatever pertains to the skill of singing. To the Lector pertains to pronounce Lessons and to preach the Prophets to the peoples. To the Subdeacon pertains Subdeacon to bring the chalice and paten to the altar of Christ and to hand them over to the Levites; to hold also the cruet, and basin, and hand-towel, and to offer water to the Bishop and Priests or Levites for the washing of their hands before the altar. To the Deacon pertains to assist the Priests, Deacon and to minister in all the things which are done in the sacraments of Christ, namely in baptism, in chrism; to bring in the offerings on the paten and chalice, to arrange on the altar, to set and vest the table of the Lord, to carry the Cross, to preach the Gospel and the Apostle; for as to the Lectors it is commanded to preach the Old Testament, so to the Deacons the New. To him also pertains the office of prayers, the recitation of names; he admonishes the people to have their ears toward the Lord; d he exhorts to pray, he proclaims peace, Presbyter he announces. To the Presbyter pertains to confect the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of the Lord on the altar, to say the prayers, and to bless the people. Bishop To the Bishop pertains the consecration of Basilicas, the unction of the altar, the confection of Chrism; he establishes the aforesaid offices and ecclesiastical orders, he blesses holy Virgins; and although each presides over individual things, yet he is the chief ordainer in all. These are the orders and ministries of the Clerics, and under him which however by Pontifical authority are divided among the care of the Archdeacon and the solicitude of the Primicerius and of the Treasurer. To the Archdeacon pertains to command the Subdeacons and Levites, to whom these mysteries pertain, Archdeacon the ordering of the vesting of the altar by the Levites, the care of incense and sacrifice, of bringing to the altar the things necessary for the sacrifice; the care of which of the Levites should read the Apostle and the Gospel, who should say the prayers or responsories, who should sing on the Lord's days or on the festivities of solemnities. Also the care of parishioners and the ordering and disputes pertain to his care: for repairing the diocesan churches he suggests to the Priest; he himself inquires into the parishes with the Bishop's order, and the ornaments or three e of the Basilicas of the parishes; he brings the acts of ecclesiastical liberties to the Bishop. The money collected from the communion he himself receives, and to the Bishop he brings it, and distributes the proper portions to the Clerics. By the Archdeacon the excesses of Deacons are reported to the Bishop: he announces to the Priest in the sanctuary the days of fasts and solemnities; by him it is proclaimed publicly in the church: but when the Archdeacon is absent, the Deacon fulfills his office. But the Archpresbyter knows that he is under the Archdeacon, and obeys his precepts, Archpresbyter as those of his Bishop: and that it specially belongs to his ministry to take care of all the Presbyters placed in order, to stand continually in the church, and when the absence of his Bishop occurs,
he himself in his stead may celebrate the solemnities of Masses, and say the Collects, or to whomever he shall enjoin it. Primicerius To the Primicerius belong the Acolytes, Exorcists, Psalmists, and Lectors: also to give the signal for the office of the clerics, for the honor of life; and the office f of singing and performing diligently; which of the clerics should say the lessons, psalm, praises, offertory, and responsories: also the order and manner of psalmody in choir according to the solemnity and time; also the order for bearing the lights; if anything necessary is needed for the repair of the Basilicas which are in the city, he announces it to the Priest. The letters of the Bishop for the days of fasts he directs to the parishioners. Those clerics whom he knows to offend he himself restrains; but those whom he cannot amend, he brings their excesses to the knowledge of the Bishop; he appoints the basilicarii and disposes of the registers. But when the Primicerius is absent, the things that are said he himself should carry out who is next to him either by law or in erudition. To the Treasurer belongs g the ordering of the doorkeepers of the basilicas, the preparation of incense, Treasurer of the lights in the sanctuary and in the sacrifices. Let therefore the Church of God hold what it has received from the fathers, not turning aside to the right or to the left, tending toward the fatherland."
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER VIII.
The Synod of Seville. A heretic converted, a blind man illuminated. Letters to various persons.
[27] Let these suffice at present out of almost innumerable matters: for if we should wish to touch on all the things that come to mind about him, time will sooner fail us than the abundance. For exercising himself in these holy works all the time of his life, the fame of his knowledge and virtues filled all regions. And so many noble and most skilled, desiring to see the longed-for Isidore, From everywhere they flock to Saint Isidore: healthy and sick came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of another Solomon. Some came that they might perceive from him salutary doctrine; others, that they might see him doing wonders in the name of the Lord; the sick came that they might be healed of their infirmities, because the power of God went out from him and healed all; but others, erring, came tempting him, presuming of themselves, if perchance they could catch him in speech. Of whose perverse emulation, at the time when the Bishops were coming together to a Synod at Seville, there came b Gregory, contrary in substance to his c name, a Bishop of the heresy of the Acephali, loquacious in words, even a heretic disputing concerning the faith eloquent in tongue, most prompt in paralogistic syllogisms, most acute in disputations; who, like a most rapid river, tore from the garden of the holy Church many of the faithful who seemed chosen, resisting him, and infallibly drew them with him to the ruin of death. For he denied that in Christ there were two substances, and asserted that He was not true God from God the Father remaining before times, but only a pure man. When he had come to Blessed Isidore, he asked that in a common audience the faculty of daring to enter a contest of disputation with him should be granted him; hoping that, if he could not conquer him, yet neither could he by any means be conquered by him; and this would fall out to the overthrow of many, if it would go as the heretic had noted beforehand. But the blessed Confessor, foreseeing that this would be dispensed by the Lord for the utility of the Catholic Church, kindly assenting to his petitions, appointed a day. He called together the faithful, judges are chosen, who, the parties being heard, might give a worthy sentence for the victor against the loser. Who is refuted What more? The contest is entered; and with the testimonies of diverse Scriptures concurring, the heretic yielded to the Bishop, because he could not resist the wisdom and the spirit who was speaking. Therefore wondering at the doctrine of the Lord, he did not wait for the sentence of the Judges to be pronounced, acclaiming himself conquered with his own mouth.
[28] But as the peoples with the Bishops and Clergy were praising God with pious devotion because the robber of the Christians, who deceived them day and night, had been laid low, a certain blind man stood by, complaining with importunate voices: "Alas," he said, "kind Doctor Isidore, long it is since I heard the fame of your holiness: but now standing by, deprived of your goodness, I do not deserve to see you." But Gregory, beholding him, begged Blessed Isidore, who was feigning ignorance, to hand him the pontifical glove which he held in his hand. Having obtained it, in the sight of all he rose a faithful man; and touching the eyes of the blind man with it, he said in a clear voice: the blind man is illuminated at the touch of his glove "May the Lord Jesus Christ, who through Blessed Isidore has illumined the eyes of my heart, deign by his holy merits to illumine the eyes of your body for the confirmation of the faith." When he had said this, blood bursting from the eyelids of the blind man, he received sight, with the peoples thereupon shouting in the jubilation of praise. The blessed Bishop, scarcely obtaining silence, taught that Christ Jesus must be worshipped as true God and true man, and that in the one person of the same there were two substances, namely divine and human: divine, because to God the Father he always remains co-eternal; human, because he began to be of today from an unstained mother Virgin.
Letters of Saint Isidore to Braulio.
[29] d "Because I cannot enjoy seeing you with the eyes of the flesh, let me at least enjoy the conversation, that this may be my consolation, to learn by letters that he whom I desire to see is whole. Both would be good, if I were allowed: but let me at least be refreshed in mind concerning you, if I am not able by bodily sight. Saint Braulio asks that some of Saint Augustine be sent to him When we were together, I asked you to send me the sixth decade of Saint Augustine: I ask that you make it known to me in some way. We have sent you the little book of Synonyms, not because it is of any utility, but because you had wanted it. I commend this boy, and I commend myself also, that you may pray for me, a wretched one; because I languish greatly, both from the infirmities of the flesh and from the guilt of mind: in both I ask your protection, because by myself I merit nothing. For the rest, I ask, while the life of the bearer gives the opportunity for him to return to us, that you command us to be cheered by your eloquences. In other things with every desire I desire now to see your face, and would that God would at some time fulfill my wish and to see the same man before I die. But at present I beseech that commending me to God by your prayers, you may fulfill my hope in this life, and in the future grant me fellowship of your blessedness. And in his own hand: 'Pray for us, most blessed Lord brother…'"
Letter of Braulio to Saint Isidore.
[30] Saint Braulio "O pious Lord and most excellent of men, late is my inquiry and late given to me is the opportunity of writing, because, with my sins pressing on me, not only with the evil of sterility or want, but also with pestilence and hostility, I have been hindered by a horrible inroad, lest I should inquire. But now, even if bound by a thousand necessities, a thousand cares, after a long time of misery, as if roused from the weight of an importunate sleep, so to speak, I presume to pay the service of greeting by the utterances of this my suggestion; and prostrate in humility of heart and body, to implore the most excellent power of your blessedness, that you may command your peculiar servant, thus panting for his address whom for the sake of sacred condescension you have always received, to be held commended to the end. For I (Christ knows) am tortured with a grave pain, that in so long a space of time I do not even now deserve to see your countenance. But I hope in him who does not forget to have mercy nor casts away to the end, that he will hear the prayer of the poor, and present me, a wretch, to your sight. I suggest indeed, and with every supplication I beg, that the book of Etymologies, He asks for the book of Etymologies which we have already heard, by the Lord's favor, to be finished, you would command, mindful of your promise, to be sent to your servant. Because, as I am conscious to myself, you have labored much there in great part at the request of your servant. And therefore be first munificent to me, so in the assemblies of the Saints you may be both happy and first. The acts of the Synod also, in which Sintharius is found, if not purified, yet refined by the fire of your examination, and the acts of the Synod I ask may be sent to us quickly by your prompting from your son, the Lord King. For our petition also so asked his glory, because in the council there is much need of investigating the truth. For the rest, I beg the piety of the most high Creator that he may command the crown of your blessedness to be preserved for a long time for the integrity of the faith and the state of his Church; and that he may render me, amid the barking and various and innumerable perils of the present world, guarded by the grace of your intercession; and that the most sacred Trinity, at your prayer, may make me, hidden in the bosom of your memory, safe from every tempest of sin. And in his own hand: 'I, your servant Braulio, to my Lord Isidore: in the Lord, may I enjoy you, a lamp burning and not fading.'"
Response of Saint Isidore.
[31] "Because I know that you are whole, I gave thanks to Christ, and would that, having learned of his health, I might behold him and have sight of him in this body. But what has happened to me for my sins I will make plain: that I was not worthy to read through your eloquences. He grieves that his letter perished For immediately as I received your f note, a boy of the King came to me: I gave to my chamberlain that note, and at once walked to the Prince, that afterwards I might read it through and write a reply. Returning from the palace of the King, I not only did not find your writings, but also whatever else was in the papers was lost; and therefore (the Lord knows) I mourned my deserving, because I did not read through your utterance. But I ask, whatever occasion shall come, write to me again, and do not take away from me the grace of your word: that what I lost by my fault I may..."
receive again through your grace. And in his own hand: 'Pray for us, most blessed Lord.'"
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER IX.
The Synod held at Toledo. His illustrious preparation for a happy death in his illness.
[32] Since therefore the glorious Doctor Isidore was sparkling with various signs of miracles, and the fame of his holiness was diffused throughout almost the whole world; by the spirit of prophecy, Foreknowing his death with which he most illustriously shone, he signified the day of his death to his disciples long before. The cry of the scholars is raised, the mourning of the monks is supported, the sobs of the nuns break out, and the joy of the people is turned into grief. But the blessed Confessor, bearing that same solicitude which he had always had for the flock of God's Church, He presides over the Council of Toledo commanded all the bishops, abbots, and princes of Spain to be called to the Synod of Toledo; desiring with the greatest effort that before he should pass from the body, he might leave the clerical order in fraternal concord, and the lay in perpetual peace. When they had come to the Synod, first he exhorted that they should persevere in the faith of the holy Trinity, setting forth this distinction concerning the unity of essence and the variety of persons: namely, one in essence and nature, indivisible, true God, of whom Moses says, "Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God is one God" (Deut. 6:14); And he explains the mystery of the Holy Trinity and of the Incarnation who is by no means to be divided by the faithful even in thought, lest they be rolled in the labyrinth of error; who is everywhere whole and entire, through essence or through presence of majesty, which is the same thing; within all things, but not enclosed; outside all things, but not excluded; not however locally: who, though he is most simple according to the divinity of majesty, is nevertheless triune according to the distinction of persons: the Father unbegotten, always omnipotent; the Son only-begotten of the Father, always inseparably born; and the Spirit of both, always inseparably proceeding from the Father and the Son; whence also they are one. Moreover, in the one person of Christ we profess two nativities and natures; one eternal from the Father, according to which remaining equal to God the Father, he is immortal and impassible; the other temporal from the mother, assumed with the soul, according to which for our sake he deigned to suffer and to die; whence true God and true man in one person. But what it is to beget, to be born, or to proceed, if we do not grasp this with the bosom of the mind, let us grasp it with the bosom of faith; and we shall be saved. All wicked heresies He puts to flight the heresy of the Acephali abhorring no less than his own precipice, he enervated and anathematized; most of all the execrable and hateful sect of Arius, as well as the wicked superstition of the Acephalites: which he himself by vehement watchfulness, with the support of the zeal of his brother and predecessor Leander, perspicuous in sanctity and doctrine, pursuing them with the swords of the word of God, expelled, confounded, and utterly enervated from all Spain and the Gauls. b Also to the Roman Pontiff He defends the authority of the Roman Pontiff substituted in the place of the blessed Apostle Peter, because he is the head of the Church of God in things which pertain to God, he approved by the most illustrious testimonies of the holy Scriptures that obedience must be rendered by all the faithful; by which also testifying he forbade that the members should ever be separated from their head, threatening a curse on those wishing to presume. To Kings and Princes he appointed laws; to the Priests of the Church of Christ he handed down the Catholic rule of faith; c he set forth the offices and grades of all orders, showed the rights of sacred things to citizens, and communicated to all the household people of the faith the discipline of the Christian religion. At the last, when all these things had been approved by all, another Moses and in our times a lawgiver, with a prophetic mouth he went on, saying: "When you remain in these traditions with a pure heart, in this present life you will enjoy peace and goods, and in eternal glory you will rejoice with perpetual praise; but when you shall have abandoned these precepts, wondrous evils shall seize you, and the Gothic nation shall fall by famine and by the sword of enemies and by pestilence. But when you shall be converted to the Lord your God, diligently seeking these things, your seed shall possess the gates of their enemies, and your glory shall be greater than ever it was." After this, having received the blessing, bidding farewell to the Saint, all returned to their own.
[33] But the blessed Isidore the Primate, making a delay for several days at Toledo, indefatigably persisted in the word of holy preaching. And although he built many monasteries for the servants of God with wonderful workmanship, while he was at Toledo, he was content with a very small cell. From there, returning to Seville, when d the nature of his soul subtly provided for the body wearied by continual illness, e (although even to the admiration of many he had always used generous distribution of alms) so great an alms was distributed by him on continual days, for six months or more, He distributes very many alms more than was his custom, to monks, scholars, and the poor; so that from the rising of the sun to the evening he remained occupied in distributing to the poor much of his substance. After these things, worn out with the infirmity of illness, while a fever was gaining strength in his body, and his weakened stomach rejected food, so that he might leave to his own an example of penance he grew strong for penance, [that what he had always taught his own by words, he might also openly accomplish for all in deed, and might say with the Apostle, "Be imitators of me, as I also am of Christ" (1 Cor. 11:1). And so the Clergy being called together, [Sick, in the presence of two bishops, he is carried to the church of Saint Vincent] and all the people, he had himself borne by his disciples on a couch to the church,] and the holy Bishop John, of reverend life, and the illustrious man, the most blessed Bishop Epartius whom the sanctity of their lives had bound to him by the bond of friendship, he ordered to be present immediately. And when he was being brought from his cell to the church of Saint Vincent the Martyr, all the bands of Clerics [scholars, monks, nuns, of whom the holy Confessor had been the Doctor and supporter], and of all the peoples of that city, with the mourning of all with cries and great wailing, received him; tearing the hairs of their head, rending their beards, faces, and clothes; so that if anyone had an iron breast, he was forthwith wholly dissolved into tears and lamentation.
[34] And when, in the church of the aforesaid Martyr, near the railing of the altar, he was placed in the midst of the choir, he commanded the crowds of women to stand at a distance, so that in receiving penance, the presence only of men, not of women, might be seen around him. And while by his aforesaid Bishops [who with the rest, who had come to this sad though holy spectacle, were dissolved in inconsolable lamentations] he was enveloped in ashes f and sackcloth, spreading his hands to heaven, thus he began, saying: "You, God, who know the hearts of men, and when the publican, placed far off, smote his breast, deigned to forgive his sins; who deigned to raise Lazarus, sleeping after the dissolution of his flesh on the fourth day, from the tomb, and willed to receive him into the bosom of the Patriarch Abraham; receive this confession of mine; He pours out prayers to God and the sins, which I have innumerably contracted, remove from your eyes. Remember not evils, and do not recall the faults of my youth. You, Lord, did not place penance upon the just who have not sinned against you; but upon me, a sinner, who have sinned above the number of the sands of the sea. Let not the ancient enemy find in me anything to punish. You know that, since unhappy I came to this burden rather than to this honor in this holy Church unworthily, I never ceased to sin; but I labored to do evil. But because you said, 'In whatever hour the sinner shall be converted from his ways, He asks pardon of his sins I shall deliver all his iniquities to oblivion,' mindful of this your precept, I cry, with hope and confidence, to you, whose heaven I am not worthy to behold for the multitude of sins that dwell in me. Be present and receive my prayer, and grant me, a sinner, the pardon I have asked. For if the heavens are not clean in your sight, how much more I, a man, who have drunk iniquities like waters, and taken up the bars g of sin." These things being finished, he received from those very Pontiffs the life-giving sacrifice of the Body and Blood of the Lord, judging himself unworthy with deep groaning of heart.
[35] Then he begged pardon of those same Bishops and whoever were of the clergy, and of all the peoples giving us in all things an example of humility, saying: "I beseech you, He commends himself to the prayers of all most holy lord Priests of mine, and the holy congregation of clerics and people, that for me, an unhappy one and full of the filth of sin, your prayer may be directed to the Lord; that I, who by merit am not worthy, may deserve at least by your intercession, with clemency having been obtained, to obtain the pardon of my offenses. Forgive me, unworthy, what I have committed against each of you; if I have despised anyone in hatred, And he asks pardon for his faults if I have injured anyone in anger." h [You see the exemplar of the virtues, on whom by paternal solicitude the need of all depended, when you behold the master thus asking pardon of his own subjects; because this is more gracious than simple love, which profits those who fear the offended for some reason. Labor to imitate as far as you can the humility of so great a Doctor to be followed; for the highest kind of humility is to subject oneself to one's lesser; and the holy or chaste fear of God which remains forever and ever is, without an elated heart, not to prefer oneself to anyone. Then the blessed Confessor added:] "Forgive, I pray, now at least, my Lords, at my earnest petition; nay, if I have offended in anything, even to the penitent." And while all with a loud voice with tears asked for pardon for him [although it was objected by some that he who shone at the summit of sanctity should be aided not by the prayers of sinners, but conversely that they should be helped by his intercession, who had consecrated himself to the Lord in integrity of mind and body from his earliest age. And while all narrate his singular virtues], He commends mutual charity he again admonished those standing around, saying: "Most holy Lord Bishops, and all who are present, I ask and beseech that you may exhibit charity to one another, not returning evil for evil, nor willing to be whisperers among the people; that, connected by the bond of love, the ravenous wolf may not find anything left of you which he may carry off." When therefore he had remitted the bonds or documents of debtors to each one, which seemed almost innumerable, which also...
grew to become an indication of his outstanding goodness, with strength renewed by divine power, he began to press on, with the rich feast of heavenly food, and set before the peoples such copious dishes of the divine mystery; and to reveal joyfully to all the day on which he would be born to life, on which he desired with the Apostle "to be dissolved and to be with Christ"; so that you would undoubtedly assert that he had always been present in spirit at the eternal banquets. And, although seized with grave illness, but stronger and more powerful the more he was weakened, he preached in word and by example so constantly, so prudently, so abundantly, that, hastening to heavenly things himself, he also compelled those present to hasten. These things therefore being done], he ordered the remaining money to be given soon to the needy and poor. [But also this especially illuminates the title of his praise, that he, herald and bearer of the Lord's peace, was eager to be kissed by all, and to receive the peace which he preached by mouth and by morals; With a kiss he receives all as a sign of love while, as an imitator of the Author, he gave a kiss to each of those standing around, saying:] "i If from your whole heart you shall have forgiven the adverse or perverse things I have hitherto brought upon you, the Almighty Creator forgives all your offenses, so that the water of the sacred font, which today the devout people will receive, may be for you unto the remission of sins; and this kiss between me and you may remain in testimony of things to come." When all these things were finished, he returned to his cell. k
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER X.
The death, burial, and epitaph of Saint Isidore: various encomia.
[36] Also on three other continuous days, similarly by the clergy and the innumerable host of the peoples (who grew daily in number, For the last three days he wished to be led to the church wishing to see the exit of the holy Father, lamentable to them, but delightful to the heavenly court), he was likewise led to the church, and poured out the words of holy preaching to the thirsting, and joyfully longed to welcome the Lord returning from the nuptials, as if proceeding to meet Christ with his desired lamp and to the celebrated nuptial feast invited by the heavenly court; surrounded by a throng of Bishops, Clerics, Princes, and peoples. But on the fourth day after the day of his confession or penance, standing in the church, having finished his sermon to the people, spreading his hands to heaven and blessing all, commending to God the flock hitherto entrusted to him, he handed over his holy spirit to the Lord, And having given the others his blessing, he dies leaving us the most precious pearl of his body, to be embraced with due veneration. But as the people see the soul of the Pontiff released from the case of the body, they send forth voices and wails to heaven, bewailing the death of so great a Father with the most bitter sobs. The city of Seville is flooded with weeping; the Bishops lament their Pastor, the Princes their Teacher, the Clerics their Doctor, the monks and nuns their Rector and Supporter, the poor their Father and Defender, with sad countenance showing forth the bitterness of heart, inconsolably bewailing. Soon the mourning of all is turned into joy because of the miracles Not long after, mourning is turned into joy, bitterness into sweetness, the voice of mourners into praise, despair into consolation, because the Saint did not suffer them to be saddened so long. For from his body flowed such fragrance, surpassing the odor of all aromatic spices, that all who were present seemed to enjoy heavenly blessedness. The sick of various illnesses came together, who not only by the touch of the holy Body, but even by the smell alone, are restored to their former health. To the so remarkable gifts of the merits of this singular man to be more richly accumulated, and more copiously exaggerated, comes a fortieth number of years, consecrated by a manifold sacrament; in the space of which, functioning and ended, with God's grace most fully dwelling and cooperating in him, he evidently showed that the sacrament of the mystical number marked for him the summit of perfection. Let the attention of your charity, most beloved brothers, consider, let it mark how great this Saint was among the Saints, how admirable, how praiseworthy, how magnificent, and how glorious. For one of the Saints illuminates the blind, another cleanses the lepers, He excels in the gifts distributed among the various Saints another looses the organs of the dumb, another restores hearing to the deaf, another strengthens the step of the lame, another recalls a deceased corpse to life, another preserves unharmed from a deadly touch or draught, another heals those afflicted with any disease: for to each one, as the Apostle says, "is given the manifestation of the Spirit for profit" (1 Cor. 12:7). "To one indeed by the Spirit is given the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit; to another faith in the same Spirit; to another the grace of healings in one Spirit; to another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another the discerning of spirits; to another the grace of tongues; to another the interpretation of speeches; but all these things are worked by one and the same Spirit": by whose gift, by whose favor, by whose grace, by whose bounty, by whose instinct, by whose inspiration, being filled, the elect Confessor of God Isidore so fully shone with all these gifts of graces, And he is filled with them with these gifts of charisms, that when the Apostle described them by enumerating, he seemed to have directed the sight of his mind to Isidore; into whom the gifts of all the preceding just should flow together, and from whom, derived to those following, should diminish.
[37] But blessed Isidore fell asleep in the Era 660 a, in the year from the incarnation of the Lord 622, surpassing all in sound doctrine and sound counsel, and abundant in works of charity, an elder of good days; his eyes did not grow dim, and his teeth were not moved from their place. Finally, that the Saint's body might be buried with due honor, there was one will of all, the same vows, and the same desire. And because the most holy Doctor Leander had, before he passed from the body, desired that this most blessed brother of his should be buried next to him; and the glorious Virgin Florentina, their sister, had desired the same thing of herself with the highest longing: they honorably placed the tomb of the most holy body of Isidore in the middle, Between Saint Leander and Saint Florentina the body of the Saint was buried joining it on one side to the tomb of Saint Leander and on the other to that of Saint Florentina, and adorning it with much gold and silver of chased work. Meanwhile there were many illumined by the divine gift, who saw the Saint's soul borne up on high by a multitude of Angels in the voice of praise and jubilation; and Christ the Son of God, with an innumerable multitude of Saints, coming to meet him. A certain man also, whose self-control of life seemed sufficiently imitable, He is seen gloriously carried to heaven who loved the same Confessor above all things, when, with sorrow emerging by chance, refusing to be consoled, he was anxious, testified that he had been caught up in ecstasy, and asserted that he had seen this excellent Pastor holding the primacy among the crowds of Innocents, whom Herod slaughtered for the name of Christ, with the palm of martyrdom, the aureole of virginity, the crown of confession, saying to him: "For I am ready to bring help to all who implore Christ's aid for me." By which vision, he always seemed joyful and cheerful, but yet in some way always anxious, sighing for the presence of the Father. But why should I note the miracles of the most perfect man, why should I magnify his virtues, why should I preach his knowledge, why should I commend his doctrine, why should I extol his morals? for in an Apostolic man, indeed an Apostle of Christ after the Apostles, why should you seek the concord of virtues? when in him you may see by evident reasoning the prudence of Noah, the fortitude of Abraham, the temperance of Isaac, the He himself is compared with the foremost Saints justice of Jacob, the patience of Job. Whence in Isidore should you wonder at the eminence of the praises of knowledge? since in him you may wonder at the presence of Moses and Elijah. Why should you prefer the grace of doctrine? in whom you will find the truth of the doctor of the Gentiles abounding, his discipline fervent with the spirit, his zeal abounding in knowledge. Why should you glorify the brightness of his morals? in whom you will see the torments of Stephen and the steadfastness of the other followers of Christ holding the primacy.
[38] But because we must not at present linger in these things, lest a prolonged reading generate weariness in the hearer, let us return to our purpose. In the meantime, behold many most skilled Clerics and scholars in verses and poems, recognizing him as a Doctor, extolling the magnificent deeds of the pious Father from the gift received from him; among whom, the honor of the Clergy, Blessed Ildephonse, Archbishop of Toledo of illustrious sanctity, who had drunk the purest streams of doctrine from the breast of his master, for the adornment of his Master in the part of the Church where the holy Doctors rested
caused their deeds to be depicted with wonderful workmanship, The epitaph placed by Saint Ildephonse and on the silver cross, which lay above the tombs of the Saints, marked this poem: b
This kindly Cross bears the bodies of the twin brothers, Leander and Isidore, and in order of the equal seers. The third, Florentina the sister, eternally devout: O how composed a partner! here she worthily rests. Isidore in the middle separates the members of the two. What kind of men they were, reader, inquire from their books: You will learn, and that they all spoke rightly, Certain of hope, full of faith, dear above all things. You will see the faithful grown by their doctrines, And what impious laws held, given back to the Lord. And that you may believe sublime men always to live, Looking upward, strive to see them painted.
Likewise another:
In praise of the Church, to Christ the King of glory Let us sing continually: And to the Virgin's only Son, in Davidic song Let us solemnly sing.
The glory of Isidore, with memorial voice of song Let them sound of his merits: Let the heap of praises grow, let the people congratulate, And the angelic choirs:
Shining forth in our times in his morals, In the Lord's words; Faithful, he extolled the faith; by faith expelled the stain Of heretical error.
Born at Cartagena, from his origin at all Wise as a child, His doctrine is praised Through the ends of Spain he poured out the fountain of wisdom, Doing marvels.
While at Seville he ruled as Primate, he taught the law, A Spaniard taught Spain; Pre-eminent in doctrine, preaching the Crucified, Putting to flight c idolatry;
Most noble in lineage, he stood unmoved In the magnificent deeds of God; Aspiring to the reward of heavenly joys, Despising temporal things.
By the brightness of his works, a fruitful exemplar He gave himself to the Clergy: sincere faith Varying nothing from what is certain, wholly longing for heaven, He subdued vices;
The doctrines of the Romans through the climes of the world, He restored more widely; Hesperus restored Hesperia, Lucifer the Church, He adorned more clearly.
The orthodox man confounded Arius, the dread adversary, With the pebble of reason As a hammer; the gall-bitter enemy yielded, Conquered in the open.
Let the devotion of the Iberian Clergy, with full joy, Honor the father of the fatherland. By contemplating his doctrines let the climes of the world praise The Doctor of the Church.
The ornament of Archbishops, the mirror of Priests, He wrote, learnedly composing, About the Catholic faith, wondrous poems, writing of books Heaping books upon books.
His miracles Being unable to refute, was sad to yield To the spotless man.
As he sincerely believed, so he sincerely gave The form of repentance; Perspicuous in learning, effective in example, The Doctor of the multitude.
What could one fully set forth or prescribe About the titles of his deeds? The tongue would not suffice, the right hand would fail, In writing them one by one.
Let us therefore entreat him, of whose sanctity It is firmly believed; He is invoked by the poet with his brothers That from the snares of the enemy and from vices He may defend us eternally.
O suppressor of crimes, the Lord for us By your prayer reconcile: In hope may you cherish us, remove harmful things, May you expiate all stains;
Whom with you we cultivate, we ask the suffrages of your brother Leander, May he hear our prayers, hearing let him receive them, In eternal memory.
Of Doctor Fulgentius, companion of these brothers, We wish to remember; Whom through the merit of his life, we ask To be solicitous for our salvation.
The distinguished Virgin Florentina as a companion, With her brothers we seek, That she may come as a helper, and soothe the offenses Into which we have fallen;
And may the Lord also will to assuage them; Amen, let the Clergy sing.
By the intercession of the Virgin, may he cleanse from the stain of crime Those whom sin defiles.
For us may this so celebrated Virgin, the darkness being driven away, Call off the vices.
That He who rules all things by wondrous power, May place us in heaven. Amen.
[40] The blessed Confessor died e on the day of the Nones of April, in the times of the most Christian f Cintila King of Spain, and g Heraclius Emperor of the Romans—namely that Heraclius who restored and exalted the Lord's Cross, which the impious King Chosroes had carried off from its place, at Jerusalem. Holy death He concluded no will; because, although abundant in worldly goods, in Christ, yet because he was poor in spirit, all that he possessed, before he migrated from the world, he distributed to the poor and needy. But this too marked the true love of all toward the Father, that two lamps burning almost continually and almost inextinguishable, Lamps at the tomb which are said to have been made by him by natural art, one at the head and one at the feet, they placed in hidden places, whence the most holy body might enjoy as it were continual light.
[41] Meanwhile, dearest brothers, it is worthy that this most holy Doctor should be venerated with praises and acclamations by every church; but most of all of the Spains, which more specially than others shone with his most wholesome doctrine. Summary of his virtues For who would extol a man venerable with every praise in infancy, praiseworthy with everyone's veneration in boyhood, in adolescence full of so many virtues, in youth conspicuous with such goodness, in the Episcopate most illustrious with so many miracles, in old age discharged with such praiseworthy preaching, in old age adorned with such an imitable exit, and at the end glorified with such a wonderful passage? Who would not proclaim him most acceptable in the sight of the eternal King, who adorned the office of the episcopate with life and morals, his fame with virtues, his grace with signs, his discipline with progresses, his praises with knowledge, his days with increases, and his end with such great glory? Nay, when the most blessed man was still weighed down with the weariness of the bodily mass, and thirsting for the living fountain in spirit, desired nothing in heaven, nothing on earth besides Him; how great he was in the eyes of the divine Majesty, how dear to God, how acceptable to the Angels, how lovable to men, how famous for miracles, how splendid for virtues, how magnificent for signs, how worthy of glorious praise, how abundant in the gifts of merits with God, how conspicuous for the magnificence of his gifts among men; the whole world has experienced in the revived and, to be wondered at by all ages, grace of his virtues in the lifeless body. For how much and of what kind the earth, mother and nurse of transient things, brought forth, cherished, and held Isidore—a man however who knew nothing earthly, nothing fleeting, indeed, to speak more expressly, whom it held clinging continually in mind and work in heaven—heaven itself bears witness, the earth has felt, the air cries out, the utility of waters proves, healings declare; while at the commands of the divine will, always appeased by Isidore's merits, and prompt at his prayers, they favor the prayers and services of those who piously ask, and serve their conveniences, for the instruction of the Church and the praise of Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns unto ages of ages. Amen.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER XI.
The abridgment of Braulio, Bishop of Saragossa, on the life of Saint Isidore, Doctor of the Spains.
[42] Isidore, an illustrious man [by nation a Carthaginian, begotten by the father Severianus, a most noble Duke of that same country], Archbishop of the Church of Seville, [Primate of Spain, brother of the most holy Bishops and Confessors Leander and Fulgentius, and of the most holy Florentina, Virgin, Prioress of Virgins], and most holy successor to Saint Leander. [That most blessed man, from boyhood given to the studies of letters, instructed in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew letters, He was learned in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew formed in every kind of speech, conspicuous in the erudition of the trivium, perfect in the eagerness of the quadrivium, fully learned in divine and human laws, sweet of eloquence, most outstanding in genius, also most illustrious in life and doctrine, and deservedly called by all "Doctor of the Spains." For thus profiting from virtue to virtue, he shone as an excellent Doctor, so that according to the quality of his speech he was fit for erudition and vigorous with incomparable eloquence to all, namely Latins, Greeks, and Hebrews, wise men and the less intelligent. and famous for eloquence For he obtained so abundant a flow of delightfulness in speaking that the wonderful abundance of his speech turned the hearers into astonishment at him; so that what was heard, he who had heard it commended to memory without often repeating it.
[43] But how great he was in wisdom, from his various studies and elaborate little works one can very easily understand, being prudent. Finally, of those which came to our notice, I have recorded these. He published two books of Differences, in which with subtle discrimination he distinguished by meaning those things which are uttered in confused usage. He published two books of Differences One book of Proemia, One of Proemia in which he distinguished in a brief annotation what each book of holy Scripture contains. One book on the Rise and Death of the Fathers, in which he noted with summary brevity their deeds, their dignity, and their death On the Death of the Fathers and burial. To his brother Fulgentius the Bishop, Two of Offices two books of Offices, in which with an interpretative style, not without the authority of the elders, he drew out the origins of the offices, why each is performed in the Church of God. Two books of Synonyms, Two of Synonyms in which, with the order of reason intervening, he raised up an exhortation for the consolation of the soul and for hope of obtaining pardon. One book on the Nature of Things, to King Sisebut, in which, One on Nature of Things from the investigation both of the ecclesiastical Doctors and also of the philosophers, he resolved certain obscure things about the elements. One book on Numbers, One on Numbers in which he touched on the discipline of arithmetic because of the numbers inserted in the Ecclesiastical Scriptures. One book on the Names of the Law and the Gospels, One on Names in which he shows what the mentioned persons mystically signify. One book on Heretics and Heresies, One on Heresies in which, following the examples of his elders, with what brevity he could, he collected dispersed matters. Three books of Sentences, which he adorned with flowers from the moral books of Pope Gregory. Three of Sentences A book of Chronicles from the beginning of the world down to his own time, he collected with exceeding brevity. One of Chronicles Two books against the Jews, at the request of his sister Florentina, Prioress of Virgins, in which he approved all that the Catholic faith believes from testimonies of the Law and the Prophets Two books Against the Jews. [On the eternal Nativity of Christ from the Father, and the temporal from the Mother, from the testimonies of Isaiah, one book. The books of Morals, at the request of Blessed Pope Gregory, he compendiously abridged; The Morals of Saint Gregory abridged, on the Song of Songs, On Illustrious Men the Song of Songs he elucidated in a second exposition.] On Illustrious Men, one book. Then we ourselves suggested these: one book on the Rule of the Religious, which he most fittingly tempered for the usage of his country and the strength of the regulars: on the Origin of the Goths and the Kingdom of the Suevi and Vandals, a historical book: The Rule of Monks two books of Questions; which whoever reads will recognize the furniture of the old treatises. Book one on the Goths, Suevi, and Vandals He compiled a Library, [c a fourth of the Psalter...]
a translation he published: on the books of Moses, and the Psalter, and the four Gospels he sweated with no small zeal an exposition: Two books of Questions in canonical and civil law also he composed very great instruments.] Also a Codex of Etymologies of very great size, distinguished by him in titles, not books; 20 books of Etymologies which, because he made it at my request, although he left it imperfect, I nevertheless divided into twenty books; which work, belonging to every kind of philosophy, whoever shall read through with frequent visitation, will deservedly be not ignorant of divine and human things. There the elegance of diverse arts is enclosed, and whatever things should be known are briefly collected. There are also many other books of this holy man, inscribed in God's Church with much ornament, and other books with which he clearly fortified her; whom God, after so many defects of Spain, raised up in the latest times, I believe d to restore the wisdom of the ancients, which, on account of exceeding antiquity, had almost failed in human minds; lest the Christian people should grow old any longer in ignorance or rusticity. Therefore he opened the series of times and the ages of the world to a people who did not know, he showed the rights of sacred things, to Priests he set forth the ecclesiastical offices and the grades of all orders, by which he is profitable to every state of men to Kings and Princes he established laws, to judges he forbade avarice, to citizens and to all the household peoples of the faith he imparted the discipline of the Christian religion, the filth of the Arian heresy from all Spain by pursuing it with the swords of the word of God he eliminated, the wicked heresy of the Acephalites he confounded and destroyed; and puts heresy to flight for, having overcome Gregory the bishop of the aforesaid heresy, and having refuted him by the testimonies of the Saints and the authority of the Scriptures, he taught that in Christ there are two natures, namely the divine and the human. Finally, he made plain by writing the names, kinds, offices, causes of sees, places, regions, of all divine and human things, and whatever was obscure and almost now removed from human minds. He shone endowed with such inebriation of sciences that not only in our times, but also from the time of the Apostles or before, except for the first man and Solomon, no one has stood forth before him in the variety of sciences, as we believe. He flourished in the times of e Kings Recared, Liuva, Witteric, Gundemar, Sisebut, Suintila, and Sisenand, whom he himself rescued from Arian madness and confirmed in the Catholic faith.
[44] He was moreover illustrious in the spirit of prophecy, generous in alms, His virtue and doctrine are praised outstanding in hospitality, strict in heart, truthful in opinion, just in judgment, assiduous in preaching, joyful in exhortation, zealous in gaining souls for God, exceedingly ready in the exposition of Scriptures, provident in counsel, humble in habit, sober at table, devout in prayer, illustrious in honesty, always ready to die for the Church and the defense of truth, and conspicuous in every goodness. Besides, he was the father of Clerics, the teacher and supporter of monks and nuns, the consoler of the mourning, the guardian of orphans and widows, the relief of the oppressed, the defender of citizens, the wearer-down of the proud, the pursuer and hammer of heretics; and what more? He was made the mirror of all goods to the world, and therefore now without end he reigns with Christ. With what river of eloquence, and with what darts of the testimonies of the divine Scriptures or of the Fathers he destroyed and enervated all the wicked heresies of all, the synodal acts performed in his presence at Seville or at Toledo declare; in which he proved, with the clearest testimonies of Scriptures, both that the Roman Pontiff, substituted by the faithful in the place of the blessed Apostle Peter, must be obeyed; and that the one God must be served in the Trinity of Persons. He died in the times of the Emperor Heraclius and the most Christian King Suintila of Spain—namely that Heraclius who restored and exalted the Lord's Cross, which the impious King Chosroes had carried off, at Jerusalem in its own place. And Blessed Isidore fell asleep with his Fathers in the Era 660, Time of death surpassing all in sound doctrine and sound counsel, and abundant in works of charity, and shining with diverse signs of miracles; in whom a certain antiquity vindicated itself, or rather our time imagined in him the knowledge and miracles of antiquity: to whom, as by a certain added praise, that philosophical saying is not undeservedly fitted by us: "We," he says, "wandering in our city like strangers, your books have brought home, that we can at length know who and where we are." He held the Episcopate for forty years, and the fame of the one who died and was buried in a good old age, joined to the choirs of the Angels. The city of Seville is afflicted with weariness and the cleansing of mourning, while, bereaved of so great a Father, it is led into the lot of the most voracious robber. Meanwhile, dearest brothers, it is worthy that every Church extol this most holy Confessor Isidore with praises, but most of all of the Spains, which more specially than others shone with his most wholesome doctrine. For as Gregory the Doctor succeeded Peter at Rome, so Blessed Isidore succeeded the Apostle James in the parts of Spain in doctrine. For the seeds of eternal life which the most blessed James sowed, this most blessed Isidore sufficiently watered with the word of preaching, as one of the four rivers of Paradise; and he illumined all Spain, both by the example of good work and by the fame of sanctity, as the most splendid ray of the sun. His intercession with God is to be sought Therefore let us earnestly entreat this most holy Confessor that for us wretched sinners, who are still placed in the dangers of this life, he may stand as an assiduous intercessor before God; that we who embrace his holy doctrine with pious love may in the present be rescued from the threatening dangers, and after this life may by his holy intercessions deserve to reach the fellowship of God's elect. Amen.
ANNOTATIONS.
HISTORY OF THE TRANSLATION
From the same Toledan manuscript.
Isidore, Bishop of Seville in Spain (St.)
BHL Number: 4491
FROM THE TOLEDAN MANUSCRIPT.
PROLOGUE.
The secrets of supreme wisdom, which many cannot worthily investigate but none indeed find, in so great an excellence of depth, while hearts widen to the desires of it by searching, by not finding what they investigate they straiten the sight of the mind. Wonderfully the reason of supreme counsel has taught that what is ordained from above not unjustly by Wisdom herself, the immortal, is rightly unknown to us still mortal; because the divine disposition in the omnipotence of its sublimity, although it can be circumscribed by no prudence of mind, yet makes present to all to whom it has given being out of nothing, that all things are subject to the laws of its justice, while it humbles the reprobate with punishment, and exalts the Saints with glory. Whose illustrious patronages are indeed present to the Catholic Church, while the faithful, protected by their merits, also hold the cities they inhabit famous with frequent miracles. To the city of León Of which the city of León, beloved from ancient times by the Kings of Spain, because it was noble and famous by royal faith, glories that it venerates the excellent Confessor Isidore as its Patron; by the rays of whose doctrine the universal Church shines; who as the mirror of sanctity and honesty lives by fame and merits throughout the same space of the world. Which, since it is Priestly and Royal, The body of Saint Isidore was carried is also worthy to receive the wonderful body of the most worthy Confessor of Christ, Doctor of the Spains, Isidore, with royal pomp, in a royal hall, to venerate, and by a certain gift of right to possess. Which same Seville, which he ruled while living in the body, and in which also, with the savagery of the Pagans persisting, he lay hidden after his death for many times, could not hold concealed. By what order, in what time, by what persons this public gift, whose course of events is indicated this defense of the fatherland, was translated to the city of León, from the aforesaid Seville, which had been happy and glorious by the doctrine of the same Apostolic man, and shone as the first Metropolitan See of Spain, from which Spain took its name—a city peopled by King Hispanus—the veneration of so great a Confessor invites us to hand down with a faithful pen.
CHAPTER I.
The greatest part of Spain occupied by the Saracens; the principal part recovered little by little.
[2] With Saint Gregory the Pope happily governing the Church of God, and the most Christian King Recared nobly ruling the kingdom of the Goths in the Spains, under the Emperor Heraclius, who restored to its place Jerusalem the Lord's Cross, which the impious King Chosroes had carried off, with the madness of the Arians prevailing almost throughout the whole world, the Doctor of the Spains Isidore, Archbishop of Seville, a most bright star in the darkness, shone to the faithful; who confirmed the Gothic nation in the Catholic faith, and utterly eliminated from the Spaniards the heresy of the Arians and Acephalites, established laws for the Gothic kings, handed down the ecclesiastical rule to the Priests of the Church of Christ, According to Saint Isidore's prophecy and with prophetic mouth testified, saying: "When you shall persevere in these traditions with a pure heart, in this present life you shall enjoy peace and goods, and in eternal glory you shall be crowned with perpetual praise; but when you shall have abandoned these precepts, wondrous evils shall seize you, and the Gothic nation shall fall by famine and by the sword of enemies and by pestilence. But when you shall be turned to the Lord, diligently seeking these things, your seed shall possess the gates of their enemies, and your glory shall be greater than ever it was." But after his passing, the Kings of the Spains and the Priests, following the footsteps of the holy Pastor, clinging to his salutary institutes according to their strength, kept the flock committed to them...
happily governed; until the shameful a Witiza unhappily obtained the kingdom of the Spains. Who, since he was disgraceful in morals, When King Witiza lived impiously compelled even others to be subject to his depraved acts. For with all divine religion set aside and the instructions of the holy Doctor Isidore despised, and with the bridle of chastity loosened, lest the holy Church should rise against him for so great a crime, the lascivious King commanded the Bishops, Presbyters, Deacons, and all the ministers of the holy altar to have carnal wives. And the Bishops and the other Prelates of the Church were despised; the sacraments were held as nothing, the doors of the most holy Church being closed; the synodal institutions of the holy Father Isidore were scorned; the Councils were dissolved; the sacred Canons were set aside; finally, whatever was sober and honorable was reckoned as nothing for the sake of introduced pleasures. Therefore with the tyrant Witiza cut off from the Roman Church in this and in other supports of pride, and dead, b Roderick the son of Theodofred succeeded in the kingdom of the Goths, not unlike Witiza in life and morals; and by his example Roderick who did not, as he ought, uproot the wicked shrubs, but entangled in luxury, increased it more and more by dissolution. By these things almighty God was provoked to wrath (for with merit and in an ineffable way, always efficacious in its counsels, Divine providence dispenses increases with detriments, and restores damages with damages), c in the 75th year after the passing of the most holy Isidore, because the Priests and Kings had deserted him, correcting with the rod of indignation all the nations of Spain by a just judgment, A part of Spain is occupied by the Saracens (according to what the holy Doctor Isidore had foretold) were handed over to be struck by the Gentile sword. For through the sons of Witiza and Count Julian of Tangier, with d Ulit, the most powerful King of Africa, the Saracens from across the sea, crossing that sea which washes the city of Seville, first e took that city, and then occupied the Provinces of Baetica and Lusitania. King Roderick, having gathered the Gothic army, met them armed. But because the aforesaid King, with the divine religion neglected, had surrendered himself to the dominion of the vices, he was at once turned to flight, and the whole army was almost completely destroyed by the sword f. The Saracens thereafter, wandering far and wide, perpetrated innumerable and horrid slaughters; how many killings and how many massacres they made of our men, the overthrown camps and the broken walls of ancient cities testify. At that time all Spain mourned, with monasteries destroyed, bishoprics overthrown, books of the sacred law burned, the treasures of the Churches plundered, all the inhabitants consumed by the sword, flame, and famine.
[3] At length the piety of God, which is not wont to destroy those whom it corrects to the point of extermination, Pelagius the King conquered them but to correct by mercifully scourging, strengthened the courage of a certain g Pelagius, who was born of royal lineage; and against the Saracens, at a place called h the Cave of Holy Mary, he rebelled and declared war on them. How in that conflict the divine hand fought for our men, can be seen from this: that the arrow-points shot by the Saracens, he turned back upon them; and a certain rock, by God's command cut away, fell and crushed and killed no small i multitude of the Saracens. And whoever should wish fully to know, let him strive to read the lamentable history of those times. From that time the Spaniards once again seeking the divine precepts handed down to them by Blessed Isidore, the glory and the kingdom of the Gothic nation began, slowly and little by little, like a shrub sprouting from a living root; and by the industry of the kings, born of royal lineage, who nobly governed the summit of the kingdom, it grew at each moment. Whom the Kings following For they were famous in arms and strength, outstanding in mercy and justice, devoted to the sacred religion; who, pursuing the enemies of the cross of Christ manfully with the two-edged sword, restored the former religion renewed bishoprics, founded monasteries and enriched them with treasures, adorned them with gold and gems and books, and according to their strength enlarged the glory of the Christian name. k And Charles the famous King of France also, admonished by a vision by the Blessed Apostle James, with the illustrious race of the Franks, The same Saracens Charlemagne conquered exercising zeal for the law of God, by triumphant vengeance drove the Saracens from the borders of Poitou and Gascony, and came through the heights of the Pyrenees as far as Saragossa in the time of l Alfonso the Great, King of León, and for the cause of love joined to the same King Alfonso in marriage his m most noble cousin. Also when the most Christian King Charles visited the threshold of Blessed James the Apostle for the grace of praying, by his more sound counsel King Alfonso, with the assent of the Roman Pope, adorned the church of the Apostle Saint James with metropolitan honor; and determined that both he himself and all the Clergy of Spain should live according to the Rule of the holy Father Isidore; so that this might be the raising-up of Spain, whose neglect had been the cause of her fall.
[4] Moreover, King Alfonso, destroying the Ishmaelite people with a dire cutting-down, Alfonso the Great gloriously enlarged the honor of Christ's Church, and rested in peace. From whose illustrious stock arose the most illustrious man n Ferdinand, son of a Holy King; and Ferdinand the Great who joined to himself as consort of his scepter the most serene Queen Lady Sancha, daughter of King Alfonso; who, by a certain special prudence of mind, not second to the Queen of the South, solicitous for the governance of the kingdom, sometimes supplied the place of the King and husband; and thus was subject to her husband, that she was sharer of labor in the kingdom. But King Ferdinand, as he possessed the scepters of the kingdom, and received the insignia of the royal diadem, adorned the scepter with upright morals. With drawn sword against the enemies of Christ, knowing not to be conquered but to conquer, he enlarged the bounds of his empire, obtaining frequent triumphs. o To the summit of his happiness, Queen Sancha approaches him with kindly speeches, that in the city of León he would prepare for himself and his descendants a fitting burial-place, which also with the Relics of Saints, for the protection of himself and his own both in the present and in the future life, he would strive to adorn. For this city excels in the nobility of its site, because it is pleasant in lands, Who builds a burial-place at León for himself and his holy wife healthy in air, watered by rivers, fertile in meadows and gardens, delightful in mountains and fountains, wooded with trees, and most fit for the habitation of religious men. For King Ferdinand had determined at [p] Saint Facundus, whom he always held dear, or [q] in the church of Saint Peter of Arlanza, to commit his body to burial. Afterwards Queen Sancha, because in the royal cemetery of León in the church of [r] Saint John the Baptist [s] her grandfather King Bermudo, Ordoño, and her father King Alfonso of worthy memory, as well as her most serene brother King Bermudo, rested, labored according to her strength that she too and her husband with them might rest after death. King Ferdinand therefore, assenting to the petition of his most faithful wife, appointed masons to give assiduous labor for so worthy a work.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER II.
The body of Saint Justa is asked for; and that of Saint Isidore is obtained; his previous apparitions.
[5] Meanwhile the King with his venerable wife, whose desire was the same and the highest, considering how he might obtain at least one of the bodies of the holy Martyrs who had been slain for the name of Christ in the city of Seville, with affairs being arranged in the borders, when the first opportunity of time came, having gathered an innumerable army, King Ferdinand I set out with hostility into the provinces of Baetica and Lusitania. After the fields of the barbarians had been depopulated and very many villas burned, a Benabet, the King of Seville, met him with great gifts, beseeching him for the sake of friendship and the honor of his kingdom that he would not persecute himself and his kingdom, Receiving the King of Seville as tributary but would deem him, like the other Kings of Spain, a subjugated tributary. But King Ferdinand, by custom having pity on human miseries, being moved by the prayers of the aged barbarian, ordered all suitable men to be summoned from the winter quarters, with whose counsel he might dispose what end to impose on the supplications of the King of the Moors. The prudent men therefore, by the dispensation of heavenly counsel, suggested to him that he receive the barbarian with gifts, and, as it sat in his mind, ask for the body of b Blessed Justa the Martyr, who of old at Seville went to Christ with the crown of virginity and martyrdom, He asks for the body of Saint Justa V. and M. to be translated to the city of León; which was done. To whose petition, as the Catholic Ferdinand willed, he gave his assent...
Benabet, and promised to give him the body of Saint Justa. This promise being received, and the promise made after he had come to León gloriously from that expedition, and the courtly nobles (each by his own ingenuity deciding who was worthy to be sent for so most holy a work) were present to this business, each by providential counsel, as seemed best to each, to satisfy the royal mind; at length the aforesaid King, whose secret prudence administered laws and rights to his peoples with God as author, summoned to himself a man of reverend sanctity, named Albitus, who from the c monastery of Samos, which as Abbot he had vigorously ruled by heavenly rule, by divine providence had been made Bishop of the city of León; and d inimitable in prudence, faith, and liberality, e Ordoño, Bishop of Astorga, together with f Count Munio, and Ferdinand and Gonzalo, nobles of his palace, he sends Albitus and Ordoño, bishops, for it with an armed force (for this reason, because the rebels against the Catholic faith consider the faithful of Christ as their enemies), the most prudent King, foreseeing in mind, lest any ambush of those lying in wait should harm them, sent them to Seville to bring back the body of the aforesaid Virgin: who coming, revealed the cause of their legation to King Benabet.
[6] The Pagan King g therefore, receiving them with the greatest honor, and summoning the Primates of his kingdom, declared what was the petition of the Catholic Prince, What the King of Seville and asked them to state what their opinion should be on this. "For reason," he said, "does not allow so great a majesty, which is preeminent and illustrious above the other kings of the country, to be despised." And the gentile men, although not reborn by the sacred font, as though from the sense of their own intelligence, said thus to their King: "Venerable King, although we are held by the gentile religion, we are protected by the merits of this Virgin and of other Martyrs; nor does hostile attack disturb this city, with these assisting. Therefore do not suffer this light of the country, this guardian of your kingdom, to be translated elsewhere; for this will be a humiliation to all subjected to your rule." Therefore the gentile Prince, considering the useful counsel of the Nobles, said to the Legates that he was not able to satisfy the petition of King Ferdinand in the body of the Martyr, saying: he pretended to permit searching "I know plainly that I promised your Lord what you say; but neither I nor anyone of my people can show you the body which you seek; seek yourselves (for it is lawful), and when found, take it and depart."
[7] This answer being received, the venerable Bishop Albitus secretly addressed his companions thus: "As you see, O companions of the journey, unless Divine mercy relieves us, we shall depart frustrated in our labor. It therefore seems necessary, most beloved, that we seek help from God, After a thrice three-day fast to whom nothing is impossible, and for this three days let us insist on fastings and prayers, that the divine majesty may deign to reveal to us the hidden treasure of the holy body." The exhortation of the holy Bishop pleased all, and they spent three three-day periods in fastings and prayers. And now the day of the third three-day had fallen, and the fourth night had come, when the holy Bishop Albitus was unceasingly insisting on prayers. Saint Isidore appears to Albitus Meanwhile, while sitting in his cell, ruminating psalms, and sustaining his wearied limbs a little, from the excessive labor of vigils, he was oppressed with sleep; and there appeared to him a certain man adorned with venerable gray hair, clothed with the pontifical infula, who addressed him with such words: "I know that you have come with your companions to translate from here and bring back the body of the most blessed Virgin Justa; and although it is not the divine will that this city should be left desolate by the departure of this Virgin, yet the divine goodness will not send you back empty: for my body is given to you, which take and carry away, and return in security to your own. and he assigns his own body to be carried away When the reverend Albitus asked him who it was who enjoined such admonitions on him, he said: "I am Isidore, Doctor of the Spains, the Bishop of this city"; and having said this, he vanished from the eyes of him who beheld him. The Bishop, waking, began to rejoice at the vision, and to entreat the Lord more attentively, demanding that, if this vision were from God, it might be made known more fully a second and a third time; but if not, that it should depart. which he does again and again So praying, he again fell asleep; and behold, the same man appearing, spoke not unlike the previous words, and again vanished. The Pontiff, awakening again, more eagerly implored a threefold admonition of the vision from the Lord; who, while he prayed more earnestly to the Lord, was seized a third time by sleep, and the aforesaid man, as once and twice, appeared to him; and what he had said before, he repeated a third time; and with the pastoral staff which he held in his hand, striking the ground three times, he showed the place in which the treasure of his holy body lay hidden, saying: "Here, here, here, you will find my body; and that you may not think that you are deluded by a fantastic vision, this will be to you a sign of my truthful speech: and he reveals the place of his body as soon as you shall have brought my body out of the ground, you will be seized with an affliction of body, and you will come to us with the crown of justice, and the heavenly court will receive you happy, and the city of León will rejoice in me as patron." When he had finished speaking, the vision was taken away.
[8] Rising therefore from sleep, the Bishop, certain about so great a vision, but rather joyful about his own calling, describes the series of this revelation to Bishop Ordoño, who for the visitation of the most glorious Confessor presents praises to the heavenly King, yet sad for the imminent death of his companion. And in the morning venerable Albitus exhorts his companions, saying: "It behooves you, most beloved, with the revelation made known to his companions to adore with inclined minds and lowered faces the omnipotence of the supreme Father; who has deigned to go before us with his grace, and has not allowed the labor of our journey to be frustrated. For by the divine nod we are forbidden to carry away from here the members of the blessed and God-dedicated Virgin Justa; but we shall bring back no lesser gifts, when we shall carry the body of the most blessed Isidore, who obtained the infula of the priesthood in this city and adorned all Spain by his work and word." He said this, and revealed the order of the vision in sequence. Hearing which, they render immense thanks to God, and at once approach the King of the Saracens, and reveal all things to him in order. Hearing these things, although unfaithful, yet weighing the power of God, the barbarian was afraid; and answered them: "Even if I grant you Isidore, with whom shall I remain here?" Seeing this, his counselors summon the elders of the city and the worshippers of the Catholic faith, the body is asked of the King diligently inquiring who this Isidore was, of whom such talk was going among the Christians. But the faithful of Christ themselves, h whom the very celebrated fame of the city had given there as natives by the successions of generation, believing the Confessor of Christ to be their protection amid so great a dominion of the Gentiles, could not console themselves over his translation; with whom, if they had freedom thence, they rather wished to migrate. Yet, anxious on the Saracens' command, they made known by clouded countenance also that which was theirs, namely the sign of their grief, that this was the greatest Doctor of the Church, Isidore, formerly Metropolitan Bishop of this city, and at the consent of the Nobles heard, it is granted adorned by the Roman Pope Gregory with the archiepiscopal pallium, an enemy in all things of their Mohammed, who also in the time of his preaching had been i shamefully cast out by him from Spain. Hearing this, the Hagarenes, judging the Confessor of Christ from his first beginnings to be their adversary, wishing to drive out the enemy, suggest to their King that it was not right for him to despise men of such authority, though he was much disturbed by it, that he should give leave to search for the members of the Confessor.
[9] I shall speak of astonishing things, almost unheard of from the first times, since the kindly Bishops, when by heavenly revelation they came to the church in which the holy body rested, and sought his tomb, from the marks of the staff the marks of the Staff, with which the holy Confessor by triple striking had shown the place of his monument, were found in the very soil of the earth. Finally, human minds, because they are considered doubtful or impatient, digging in different parts of the pavement, sought the most precious talent for themselves; only the Pontiffs praying next to the tomb, whom the force of sleep overcame upon the stone itself of the tomb, to whom the Confessor of Christ Isidore, clothed in the infula, presents himself, and by a new appearance of Saint Isidore declaring to them that the fulfillment of their petition was at hand: "Behold," he says, "according to the prayer of your mind, you will find my body in this monument, and Spain will rejoice in me as Patron, but more the city of León: and you, Albitus, returning, will put off the man; but be consoled, because the heavenly court will receive you happy." The kindly Bishops therefore, rejoiced by such a revelation, summon their companions; and urge them to rejoice in such a revelation, and without delay to open the holy tomb: the body found gives forth sweet fragrance And when it was uncovered, such fragrance of sweetest odor streamed forth that it sprinkled the hairs of the head, the beards, and the clothes of all who were present, as with a mist and the dew of nectar and balsam. There were present then, both from the Christians and from the Saracens, a great crowd; sending up voices to the stars in praise of God and his Confessor Isidore he is famous for miracles, with the highest devotion; among whom were two blind, and several mute, lame, and those languishing with various infirmities, who all were immediately restored to their former soundness. But the blessed body was covered with a wooden case made of juniper.
[10] But immediately as it was unsealed, sickness seized the reverend man Bishop Albitus; yet, wrapping the most holy members in clean linen cloths, he entrusted them, in a sealed cypress vessel, together with the reverend Bishop Ordoño. And feeling that his last day was at hand, he took to his bed. For no reason of the mind could consider that the most blessed Isidore had falsely foretold this sign to him, over whom, reigning with Christ, no falsity could have dominion. Albitus is seized with illness Therefore the mind of Bishop Albitus, which was now wholly in the heavens, considering that putrefaction of this flesh was the mother of vice and sin, and that the one and only hope of pardon, with prone desire, ran to the laver of penance. To the most reverend Bishop Ordoño present (whose deep heart, by reason of the imminent absence of the Holy Pontiff, the infinity of grief had besieged), whatever he had committed by the deception of the enemy of the human race or by his own fault, He confesses his sins to Ordoño drawing sighs from the depth of his mind, he presented to him with faithful relation; and begged him that by his assiduous intercession the supernal majesty might be propitious to him. Then, having been strengthened with the holy viaticum, he dies what the Christian Faith holds as its fortification and invincible defense against the deceits of the enemy, having received the viaticum of the soul, the very price of our redemption, on the seventh day he rendered his spirit to Christ, with the faithful present in throngs.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER III.
The body of Saint Isidore carried from Seville to León. Benefits received.
[11] But Ordoño, Bishop of Astorga, and the whole army, having received the body of Blessed Isidore and the body of Bishop Albitus of León, hastened to return, rejoicing. But while the body of the most blessed Isidore was being placed in a wooden litter, The body is covered by the King of Seville with a silk curtain the aforesaid King of the Saracens Benabet cast over his body a silk curtain woven with wonderful workmanship, and drawing great sighs from the depths of his breast, said: "Behold, Isidore, venerable man, you depart hence; yet you yourself know how matters stand between you and me; wherefore I beg you always to be mindful of me." I ask, Brothers, with what reverence of honor the a King of the Saints and of the Saints embraces Isidore, when to such and so solemn a veneration of his relics the Maker of heaven and earth bent the mind of the gentile and barbarian leader, so that into the praises of the follower of Christ a blasphemer against Christ burst forth, and the persecutor of the Saints grieved over the departure of the Saint, and the robber of the Christians adorned the obsequies of the Confessor of Christ with truly royal gifts. Yet many think otherwise, namely that the Saint of God appeared to him, and taught him the Catholic faith through a vision. and it is taken from Seville toward León This glorification of the holy Confessor being presented, bidding farewell to the King, by whose gifts they had been honorably endowed, the reverend Bishop Ordoño and the aforesaid nobles direct their steps to their own, rejoicing over the Patron bestowed on them from heaven.
[12] But the returning legates declared in faithful words the things done to the most serene King Ferdinand. At the arrival of the holy body the most illustrious King showed an inexplicable pomp: for our simplicity cannot explain how great an immensity of joy had clung to the King; who, rejoicing that the protection of so great a Confessor was present to him, burst forth wholly into praises of Christ. But although he glories to enjoy these favors of the illustrious Doctor Isidore, yet indirectly the death of Bishop Albitus wounded his mind, whom he had always venerated with wonderful love: which death was precious in the sight of the Lord. Therefore with a crown of nobles and with an armed force the King went out very far to meet them, as far as the river b Duero, He is received at the river Duero by King Ferdinand with his sons as companions, the very glory of the kingdom, c Sancho, Alfonso, and García. There royal sublimity, for joy drawing tears, gives innumerable praises to the Creator of things; the present great crowd leads a dance, the earth resounds with the voice of those glorifying God. But how great endearments of heavenly clemency, and how great a frequency of signs followed the case of the sacred body throughout the whole interval of the journey to the city of León, who will explain? But also how great and how magnificent was the apparatus of the religious princes, with the highest devotion; how great the applause of the clergy, with the people rejoicing in spiritual joy; how great finally the gathering of both sexes; borne on his own shoulders and those of his sons without prejudice to the excellence of the most glorious King Ferdinand, who, as if renouncing his temporal privilege, rejoiced to carry the sod of the most holy Confessor with his most illustrious sons on his shoulders, with bare feet, like David playing before the ark of the covenant with his servants; so that the humbler he seemed to the people, the more glorious he might be held before God, and, by the providence of Divine clemency, he prepared for himself and his descendants both kingdoms forever. With the Queen and daughters accompanying But Queen Sancha his wife, having at her sides d her daughters Urraca and Elvira, the beauty of the kingdom and the highest dignity of a mother, was present to the illustrious Confessor on the bank of the river Duero. Archbishops also, Bishops, and Abbots, with other bishops and clergy of the kingdom the clerical and monastic orders, all are present, clothed in sacred vestments, with candles preceding and the other insignia of the church, magnificently praising God for the Patron bestowed upon them. A blind man is illuminated And that the jubilation might grow greater and the praise be enlarged, a certain blind man named Eusebius, while he gave his hand to the reliquary, suddenly light shone to his eyes.
[13] But when they came to the gate of the city, which is called "of the Arch," a seditious altercation arose in the crowd; many resisting, that in the church of Saint John the Baptist the body of Bishop Albitus ought to be buried. There was present then at this most celebrated solemnity a venerable man, e Dominic, Abbot of the monastery of Silos, the bodies placed on horses are brought, Albitus's to the church of Saint Mary, whose holiness was proclaimed by all as of graces. He earnestly desired to impose a peaceful end to the dissenting contention, without prejudice to either side. When to him the votes of all converged, pouring forth prayers to the Lord, and invoking the most holy Doctor Isidore, he commanded that the bodies of the Saints be placed on horses, and where the body of Bishop Albitus should come, without the guidance of man, it should be committed to burial. He himself, with a small blow of his rod striking the horses once at the entrance of the city, by the angelic leading (as we believe) of the irrational animals bearing the pious burden (because the Pontifical church was not to be widowed of its Bishop), the horse which bore the body of Saint Albitus came by a direct route to that same church of the holy Mother of God; but the horses which bore the holy body of Isidore came to the church of Saint John the Baptist, f and in a certain lake, very harmful to the city, Saint Isidore's to Saint John the Baptist's stood: whom they could by no means draw from there, until they blocked up the same lake with stones and earth. When it was blocked up, they saw suddenly on solid ground the horses which they thought were dying. Whence, astonished, they glorify the magnificence of the Confessor; by which miracle all amazed, by the revelation of the same Confessor, they bring him to the church of the ever-Virgin Mary, until the body of Saint Bishop Albitus might be honorably committed to burial. g After this the most illustrious King Ferdinand, having gathered the Archbishops, all the Abbots, and the noble men of his kingdom, brought the members of the most holy Doctor Isidore with hymns and praises to the church of Saint John the Baptist, in which now they are venerated by the faithful; and they determined to consecrate it in the honor of the holy Bishop Isidore, and to celebrate the day of the translation and dedication festively every year, h on the tenth of the Kalends of January. The translation took place in the Era 1101, in the year from the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ 1063, Indiction 1, Concurrent 3. The King and Queen with their children minister at the banquet With so great devotion in that festivity the most illustrious King shone, with his whole house, for reverence of the holy and blessed Confessor, given to humility, that when it came to the banquet, to religious men, with royal pride put aside, in the place of servants, with his own hands he set forth delicate foods; Queen Sancha too, as if sensing that a blessed end had been set to her pious desires, with cheerful devotion, with her sons and daughters, to the rest of the multitude, after the manner of handmaidens, humbly expended every service.
[14] To the praise of the holy Pontiff also that seems to pertain, that when the city of León was failing from drought and sterility, and the poisoned region was producing innumerable animals, Fruitfulness is added to the dominion of León a copious outpouring of rains wholly drove away all the noxious things, with the fruitfulness of the earth granted, so that nothing of the kind has otherwise been seen since in that same region. But also this is venerable with how much wonder of astonishment, that even the elements, mourning, lamented the Province deprived of so excellent a Patron; and not only denied natural benefits to its increases, but to this extent drew out the losses of their grief, that with contrary pursuits to their natural support they strongly rose up against the country; to the inhabitants of which, for being deprived of so great and so distinguished a Father by reason of perverse merits rising up, they imputed it. And it is withdrawn from the dominion of Seville For although above the other provinces of Spain the clemency of heaven has shown favor to the Baetican soil, and the pleasantness of places, as of a watered fruitful paradise, smiles on the innate fruitfulness of all things that are born; so much the country lamented itself bereaved of such a Father, and showed the bereavement of so great a Father by such detriments, that, discolored and withered with the unwonted rigor of sudden rains, although, because of the warm vapor of the sea, it is never wont to suffer the burning of ice, yet in that year in which the blessed members were taken away from there, it was so scorched with burning ice, that neither in the vineyards, nor in the olive-groves, nor in the fig-orchards, any fruit remained; and the city of Seville with manifest indications declared, indeed proclaimed, that it had been provided for from heaven by the merits of such and so great a Patron, and that the great things of the province and so many benefits are withdrawn only by the absence of those relics.
[15] But in the place where the body of the holy Doctor Isidore, in a golden and jeweled tomb, is venerated with worthy honor by the faithful people, so many miracles are wrought, that if anyone should commit them to writing, he would produce not a few volumes of books. And of how great merit in the presence of the Creator of things the glorious intercession of Christ's Confessor Isidore bears itself, Very many miracles are wrought at the tomb the assiduity of signs which is done there declares to the peoples. There you lose your strength, Blindness; for those eyes which you besiege, deprived of light, the pious intervention of the most blessed Isidore illuminates: the members which the worst plague or strong fever dissolves, you, Holy Confessor, by prayers poured forth give to health, the peril of illness far driven away: those whom the dissolution of members enervates from their wonted strength of vigor, at the tomb of the Saint, by their prayers, stand happy with firm steps. There the deaf or dumb arriving, restored by his merits to health, rejoicing return home: the city rejoices that it has obtained defense, the region fruitfulness, and the expulsion of serpents, by the prayers of the pious Doctor. For these are your works, Christ, who have crowned the illustrious Confessor Isidore, whom you have crowned with glory and honor in the heavens, illustrious with miracles on earth. May his Holy intervention, and the sacred celebration of the present day of translation, assiduously commend us to the King above, whose patronages also here this Confessor may confer upon us, the joys of salvation and peace, by the grace of Jesus Christ, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit reigns without time, unto ages of ages. Amen. i
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER IV.
The virtues and death of King Ferdinand the Great. Relics preserved in the church of Saint Isidore.
[16] But after the arrival of the body of the gracious Pontiff Isidore, [Ferdinand honors the same church of Saint Isidore by bringing in the body of Saint Vincent the Martyr] the most illustrious King Ferdinand, striving to adorn the same royal hall with the relics of various saints (at the suggestion of Queen Sancha, he himself no less burning with this desire), after the multitude of holy pledges gathered in the same place, translated the body of Saint a Vincent the Martyr, brother of the holy Martyrs Sabina and Christeta, from b Ávila to León, c and associated with the body of Isidore, doctor of the Spains, the reliquary of the most holy Martyr Vincent with the most fitting honor he could. But also keeping the Christian religion, which he had devoutly embraced from infancy, and with other ornaments with the highest devotion, he adorned the church which he had newly constructed and had had dedicated with the highest reverence in honor of the holy Bishop Isidore, with great beauty of gold and silver and precious stones, with perpetual privileges of security, and with silken curtains. He frequented the church eagerly in the morning and evening at the nocturnal hours and at the time of the sacred offices; sometimes with the clerics, modulating his voice, seeking turns as cantor, he exulted mightily in the praise of God. He loved the poor and pilgrims, Generous toward the poor and monks and took great care in receiving them, and showed with incredible humility great reverence to the clerical order. To this end, wherever he had learned that monks or women consecrated to God were living, pitying their want, he was accustomed either to come himself to console them, or to send ample money: for always with diligent care he provided that, from the spoils of his victories, to the praise of God and of Saints Isidore and Vincent, and distributes spoils among them and of the most blessed Apostle James, who made him victorious, the better part should be distributed through monasteries and to Christ's poor. What more? Nor did Ferdinand, the pious and most excellent Prince, in the whole course of his life love anything more dearly than that the principal churches of his kingdom should, by his gifts, flourish with their ancient authority, and that all through him should not only be at peace and defended, but also by his labors adorned and enriched.
[17] Flourishing therefore in these virtues, with a ready band he set out to ravage the towns of the province of Celtiberia and to plunder the villages of the infidels. in besieging Valencia And when he had tarried there a long time, having devastated with fire and sword all that was outside the fortifications, he approached the city of Valencia, which he would soon have taken by storm, had he not been overtaken by illness and laid low. Yet when all the cities and castles of the province of Celtiberia had been received in surrender, the gracious Doctor Isidore appeared to him, he is warned by Saint Isidore of the day of his death and made known that the day of his departure was at hand; and in that very weakness of body, in the month of December, he came to León. [cc] For he entered the city on the ninth of the Kalends of January, on Saturday, and according to custom adored the bodies of Saints Isidore and Vincent on bent knees, asking that, since now the terrible hour of death was hanging over him, by their intervention with the angelic choirs, and having returned to León his soul, freed from the power of darkness, might be presented unharmed before the tribunal of Christ his Redeemer. Moreover in that very famous night of the Lord's Nativity, when the clerics according to festive custom were chanting the Christmas Matins, the Catholic King was present among them, and with what strength he could, joyfully sang together with them even to the last verse d of these Matins, "He has come to us" (which at that time they chanted in the Toledan manner), with the choir responding: "Be instructed, all at the Nativity of Christ he takes part in the Office you who judge the earth." Which came not unfittingly to the most serene King Ferdinand. e Then, when the clear day of the Nativity of the Son of God was dawning upon the whole world, where he sees himself failing in his members, and communicates he asks that Mass be sung; and having received the participation of the Body and Blood of Christ, he is led to his bed by the hands of soldiers.
[18] But on the morrow, when light came, knowing what was about to happen, he called to himself the Bishops and Abbots, and all religious men; and that they might confirm his departure, together with them he is carried to the church, adorned in royal attire, with a crown placed upon his head. Then kneeling before the altar and the bodies of the saints, of Blessed Isidore the Doctor and of Saint Vincent the Martyr of Christ, with a clear voice he said to the Lord: "Thine is the power, thine is the kingdom, O Lord; thou art above all kings; to thy rule all kingdoms, heavenly and earthly, are subject; and therefore the kingdom which by thy gift I received, and having received it, I ruled as long as it pleased thy free will, behold I render back to thee: only my soul, rescued from the whirlpool of this world, I beseech thee to receive in peace." Saying these things, he put off the royal cloak having laid aside his royal attire in which his body was clothed, and set down the jeweled crown with which his head was encircled: and with tears prostrated on the floor of the church, he earnestly entreated the Lord for the pardon of his sins. Then, having received penance from the Bishops, he is clothed in hair-shirt instead of royal garment; in ashes and hair-shirt he dies on December 27, 1065 and is sprinkled with ashes instead of the golden diadem. To him, remaining in such penance before the altar of the Saints, it is granted by God to live two days; but on the following day, which is the third day of the week, at the sixth hour of the day, on which the feast of Saint John the Evangelist is celebrated, to God and to Blessed Isidore, who appeared to him, between the hands of the Bishops he surrendered his spirit; and in that same church he was buried: both clerics and laymen, monks and poor, bewailing inconsolably not only a King, but a pious father, from the great bitterness of their heart: and thus in the Era 1103, in a good old age, he passed to the Lord. He ruled the kingdom faithfully for forty years, six months, twelve days. But in the place where the bodies of Saint Isidore, Doctor of the Spains, and of the most holy Martyr Vincent rest, whoever shall with devout mind by prayer ask, obtains a swift remedy of his sicknesses and a saving effect of his petitions; through our Lord Jesus Christ, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns unto ages of ages. Amen.
[19] The most serene King, great Ferdinand, therefore most happily placed the body of the most holy Doctor of the Spains, Isidore, in the church of Saint John the Baptist, in the said church are the bodies of Saint Isidore and Saint Vincent which the same glorious King had newly built, as was said above: to which also with most fitting honor he joined the body of the renowned Martyr Vincent, and the greater part of his two sisters, and some bones of Saints Sabina and Christeta Sabina, namely, and Christeta; whose relics the pious King, in order further to increase the honor of the pious Confessor, commanded to be brought from the city of Ávila to León: adding also an almost innumerable multitude of relics of many Saints, who together with the aforesaid Confessor make the aforesaid place venerable and glorious in a venerable and glorious way: whose names are these, namely: from the wood of the Lord, from the sepulchre of the Lord, from the column to which the Son of God was bound and scourged for the salvation of the human race; likewise various Relics from the linen cloth with which on the day of the Supper he wiped the feet of the Apostles; from the shroud in which his most holy body was wrapped in the sepulchre; from the milk of the blessed Virgin Mother of Christ; from his garments; from the bones of blessed Anne his mother; from the bones and garments of the Apostles Peter and Paul and James of Compostela, and of various Saints Andrew, Bartholomew, and Matthew; from the bread of the Supper; the dish of that Supper; from the head of Blessed John the Baptist; from the bones of Blessed Lawrence; from the bones of Vincent the Levite and Martyr of Christ, who was f a kinsman in the second degree of the same blessed Lawrence; from the bones of the Holy Innocents; from the myrrh which the Magi offered to the Lord; from the bones g of Saints Claudius, Lupercius, and Victoricus, who in the city of León were crowned with martyrdom for the name of Christ, who were also brothers by both parents; from the garments and bones of Blessed Martin, and of Blessed Nicholas, and of Saint Augustine, and of Blessed h Thomas, Archbishop of Canterbury, and of i Justus and Pastor; from the bones of Samuel the Prophet; from the oak of Mamre, under which Abraham stood; from the oil which by the merits of Blessed Catherine flowed forth at Mount Sinai; from the bones of a certain Cardinal, who at Constantinople was burnt for the defense of the truth; from the bones of k Malachy, Bishop and Confessor, who was a contemporary of blessed Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux; from the bones and garments of Blessed Margaret, l Speratus, Marina the Virgin, and Blessed Agnes, and Saint Dorothy, and Saint m Engratia. Besides all the above-mentioned relics, there remain in the aforesaid church eight not small caskets, full of most holy relics, as we have learned from our predecessors; which no one of us, nor any other of the present time, has dared to open; with all which the same hall is adorned
by holy Isidore, gracious, great in merits, who stands forth as an assiduous intercessor before the Lord on behalf of us all. among whom the chief Patron is Saint Isidore Having conferred on the same place many and great gifts, the same King established a worthy place of burial for himself and his posterity, that under the shadow of his dwelling he himself with his successors might rest after death; to him now immortally living with so many most blessed companions, he would consecrate a worthy basilica as far as his strength allowed; where, through the gracious Doctor of his Church, Isidore, and also of those whose names we have already mentioned, famous there for miracles to the praise and glory of his name, our Lord Jesus Christ works very many miracles even to the present day: but partly through ignorance, partly through negligence they are covered by silence; yet we have judged it worthy to hand down a few of the many with a faithful pen.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER V.
Blind and dumb healed: Water and rain granted: Victory over the Saracens given.
[20] A certain very wealthy Jew, from fear of the good King Alfonso, son of Ferdinand the Great, fled to the church of the aforesaid Confessor, and believed himself to be there safer. Meanwhile, behold, four men were carrying a certain sick man on a pallet, A sick man having his feet bound to his buttocks having his feet bound to his buttocks, who for many years had never turned himself in bed. When the Jew beheld him, he addressed those standing by, saying: "If by his prayers Isidore shall heal this sick man, I will both receive the water of baptism, and bestow many gifts upon this church." With tears therefore poured forth, all who were present, together with the sick man, more earnestly entreated the clemency of the most glorious Confessor. What more? At midnight, when all had given themselves to sleep, the sick man began to cry out, and to utter loud voices, so that all rose up and stood around the sick man. And when they asked him why he was disturbing them thus; he replied, with Saint Isidore appearing "Do you not see my Lord Isidore a pulling my legs, and restoring health to my infirmity?" Amazed and attentive, they all heard the sound of his veins, as when dry wood is broken. He rises healthy After some hours had passed, rising from the bed healed, straightway proceeding to the altar on his own feet, and embracing it with tears, he praised the clemency of the Confessor; and promised to continue most devotedly in his service all the days of his life. Upon seeing this the Jew with his household is baptized When the Jew saw all these things, and beheld the sick man healed on his own feet, he firmly believed; and straightway went fearlessly to his own home, and with all his household being baptized, afterwards was eager to serve God.
[21] A certain man of b the city of Astorga had raised a certain boy, who from birth had been mute and deaf; who, coming to León, brought the boy with him. And while that man was going through the city about his business, The mute and deaf boy the aforesaid boy, going out from the house of his host, wandering through the city which he had never seen, by chance came to the aforesaid church. Entering the church childishly and proceeding to the altar, a certain most noble man came to meet him, clothed in Episcopal vestment and bearing the Pontifical staff in his hand, drawing out his tongue, said to him: "Released from the bonds of the tongue, you are made whole; give glory to God." Rejoicing and exulting, the boy returned: and going through the town down to the marketplace, took off the new cloak which his Master had given him, and tried to give it to a certain merchant for wax. Seeing which, the servants c of the King's bailiff, and imposing on him the crime of the stolen cloak, hastily sent him to prison. And when his Master was seeking him throughout the whole city, is healed by a similar apparition and was passing by the marketplace in his search, they told him that the aforesaid boy was in prison. When he entered the prison, where the boy saw him, he began to cry with loud voices: "Father, help me." That man, hearing the voices and not seeing the cloak at all, went out saying: "I do not know this boy, for mine was mute." The boy, not bearing his father's departure, began again to cry out with many voices, saying: "Father, father, have mercy." Returning to him, carefully looking at his garments, he asked how it had happened to him. But the boy related the event to his Master: who, marveling, took him out of his bonds, and going about the city, and for him solemn thanks are given made known the miracle. The Bishop of León, hearing the miracle wrought divinely, with his canons coming on foot to the church of the Blessed Confessor, and causing all the bells to sound through the city, praised the clemency of the Almighty. Likewise the citizens, coming from every quarter to the basilica of the Confessor, gave innumerable praises to God. The Jews also, who had come to the city for the purpose of trade, praised the miracle and exalted the Confessor with their voices; and thus this miracle made famous the city and country, and by the will of God greatly exalted the Confessor.
[22] There is also a sufficiently commendable miracle of a certain soldier, nor to be passed over in silence; whom the King had decreed to be struck with capital sentence, the soldier about to be executed flees to the church of Saint Isidore had not divine grace, inspiring him, caused him to take refuge in the church of the aforesaid Confessor Isidore. Whom yet the King commanded to be guarded by an armed force; and forbade under pain of death that food or drink be given to him. What more? Seven days having passed, the soldier came almost to the point of death: but divine grace by no means failed him, so that the stone which lies under the feet of the celebrating Priest poured forth, divinely, clear waters, which the aforesaid soldier, often drinking, sufficiently refreshed himself: and those which remained over, to the honor of God and of the most holy Doctor of the Spains Isidore, and for the health of the sick, are preserved at present in a glass vessel, as sweet and clear as if they had been freshly drawn from the clearest and ever-flowing fountain.
[23] When the most serene Emperor d Alfonso, in order to enlarge the borders of the holy Church, and to conquer the enemies of the Cross of Christ, the Ishmaelites, had laid waste very many of their territories, e he deliberately besieged Beatia, once a city of Christians, invaded by the aforesaid Hagarenes, f with a very small military force. When the Saracens from the surrounding cities had perceived this deed, The Emperor Alfonso gathering together an innumerable multitude of their own, they hastened to overthrow the camp of the Catholic Emperor. surrounded by the Saracens Considering therefore the smallness of the Christian army, trusting in the strength and multitude of their own, on Thursday evening they surrounded on every side the ranks of the Christians; ready, on the following day, namely Friday at daybreak, when battle was joined, to destroy the Emperor with his men in triumphal vengeance. But the most illustrious Emperor, seeing that he could not with his men sustain the onset of the adversaries, with dismayed mind called upon the merciful God for help. While therefore these things were going on thus, the Emperor, sitting in his tent and being for a little while overcome by sleep, there appeared to him a certain man adorned with venerable white hair, decorated with the Episcopal mitre, whose face shone like the brightest sun; comforted by Saint Isidore appearing around whom walked one holding in his right hand a flaming double-edged sword: and in such a voice he kindly addressed him, saying: "O Alfonso, why do you doubt? All things are possible to Christ our great Emperor God." And he added: "Do you see this multitude of Ishmaelites? At the first light they will vanish like smoke from before your face: for I am given by God as a guardian to you and those to be born of your race, if you shall walk before him in truth and with a perfect heart." The Emperor said to him: "Who are you, most holy Father, who speak such things to me?" "I am," he said, "Isidore, Doctor of the Spains, successor by preaching to Blessed James the Apostle; this right hand is that of the same Apostle James, defender of Spain"; and with these words the vision was taken away. Therefore the Emperor, awaking, having called together the Bishops and the companions who were with him, related to them the vision in order. and a confraternity having been instituted When they heard, pouring forth tears abundantly from excessive joy, they praised together the clemency of almighty God. But some of them said: "Lord, if it is acceptable to your majesty, let us establish a confraternity, commending ourselves to his patronage both in life and in death." The word pleased all, and they confirmed the deed with a kiss of peace. But because g Queen Lady Sancha had eagerly suggested to the Emperor that he should transfer the reverend Prior Peter Arias, who with his canons was living under the habit and rule of Blessed Augustine in the monastery of Carvalianus, to the church of Saint Isidore at León; certain Knights, seeking the goodwill of the same Queen their lady, said, persuading: "Lord, if it please your highness, that which your sister Queen Lady Sancha asks, having promised to introduce Canons Regular into his church would be exceedingly acceptable to God and to the most holy Confessor, and a saving remedy to your whole empire through the prayers of the Canons." To this
the Emperor replied: "And whence do we know whether this is pleasing to God and his Confessor, or not?" To him the Optimates answered: "Yes, Lord, it has been revealed by heavenly communication to certain servants of God, and to your sister Queen Lady Sancha." At this the Emperor, giving thanks, blessed the Lord. The holy Pontiffs, together with the counts giving thanks, ordained together that, with the acclamation of the name of Saint Isidore and Saint James, from the first dawn they would attack the enemies. strengthened by a second vision But the Emperor, overcome by sleep after these things, the blessed Confessor appeared to him with a more joyful countenance, saying: "The confraternity which you have established, I receive under my protection; and to those who faithfully observe it, I will be a helper in life and in death. But what has been suggested to you concerning Prior Peter Arias and his Canons, is acceptable to almighty God and to his most glorious Mother and to me. Therefore, act, be strengthened, and be a man: for at daybreak the Lord, by my intercession, will deliver into your hands this whole multitude, and moreover all the Saracen Kings on this side of the sea shall be subjected to your dominion." With these words, the Saint disappeared. and he brings back the greatest victory The Emperor, thus made more daring by the vision, commanded his men to proceed to battle. They, manfully fulfilling the commands, laid waste the army of the Saracens. But the Hagarenes, seeing the boldness of the Christians, and that they were being slaughtered by their own in mutual slaughter, turned their backs in flight, leaving to our men a multitude of spoils; the Saracens, however, who were in the city, came out to the Emperor and handed over themselves and the city to him. But the other Kings of the Saracens of Spain, and also the Christian Princes, perceiving that heavenly victory was with the Catholic Emperor, established themselves as his vassals and tributaries of the victory of Blessed Isidore. After so many successful outcomes, having returned to León, having summoned Peter Arias, Prior of venerable holiness, with difficulty by many entreaties he obtained from him that with his Canons he would be transferred to the monastery of Saint Isidore, bestowing upon them many gifts and privileges of perpetual liberty.
[24] At a certain time, when, not without cause and merit, the Lord wished to correct the human race by the withdrawal of benefits; or perhaps, that he might show himself glorious in Blessed Isidore; it happened that, by reason of a lack of rains, almost all the crops, with other things growing from the earth, perished for three years. Therefore Lord h John of good memory, In a great drought and dearth at that time Bishop of León, seeing so great a calamity; and religious men also seeing it, namely the i Abbot of Saint Claudius, and the Priors of Saint Isidore and Saint Mark, who were dwelling in the same city and its suburbs; they took refuge in the only and singular aid, beseeching the omnipotence of God. in a solemn supplication The aforesaid Bishop therefore took the body of k Saint Froilan, with very many other relics which are venerated in his church. The Abbot of Saint Claudius also took the bodies of Saints Claudius, Lupercius, and Victoricus, which rest in his monastery. The Prior of Saint Isidore also took the body of Saint Vincent, with other Relics and no small part of his two sisters, that a procession might be ordered. All prepare themselves with ecclesiastical vestments; yet because, without obtaining l the prize, they had run in other processions without the body of the most blessed Confessor Isidore, they thought that they could not obtain it: therefore the aforesaid Bishop and the venerable Virgin of Christ Lady Sancha, sister of the Emperor, approached Lord Peter Arias, then Prior of the Monastery of Saint Isidore (for up to his death they did not have an Abbot), asking the body of Saint Isidore is carried around that the body of the aforesaid Most Holy Confessor should be carried to the procession, along with the other bodies and relics of the Saints: for they believed that through so great an Advocate all things sought for could be obtained. Scarcely inclined by their prayers, at length having obtained the consent of his Canons, who esteemed him as a treasure, which indeed he was, incomparable, they judged he humbly consented to carrying him. Therefore carrying with the highest reverence the m golden ark, adorned with gleaming pearls and glittering, in which the pledges of so great a Father were enclosed; the procession being ordered, they came to a certain mountain, which is not far from the city, beside the road which leads to the threshold of Blessed James. There a very great multitude of humble poor gathered, pouring forth tears, groaning, sighing; and with more abundant devotion, as the children of Israel once gathered to Moses n at Elim, they suppliantly sought from the Lord the benefit of rain. There was an eminent consensus of venerable Priests and Clerics, there the sacred assemblies of religious, there a very great throng of all the people, and an almost innumerable multitude of both sexes stood by. The venerable Pontiff, spouse of the Church of Christ, surrounded by a multitude of so many children, adorned with Pontifical mitres, by his mellifluous discourse urges all to pray to the Lord, that he might make them return rejoicing, obtaining from him the mercifully granted prayers of the Saints. But because the judgments of God are a deep abyss, they were for a while defrauded of their desire. And when, according to custom, the processional office, the sermon being finished, with the distribution of alms and the greatest devotion of prayer, was being completed, the bodies of the Saints with all the relics having been taken up, they approached the venerable body with the highest reverence, to carry it back to its monastery. But with such weight the Holy Spirit fixed it, that, as the most blessed o Lucy in the agony of martyrdom, it remained immovable. Peter Arias the Prior and the flock entrusted to him, seeing themselves bereaved of so great a Father, lest he be carried back, remains immovable lamented not a little with bitterness of heart, and showed the pious affection of their heart with tears and sighs; for they said, "Who will console the afflicted in tribulations?" Bringing forth these and similar things, they kissed the earth before his most splendid ark. Meanwhile Lady Sancha, the venerable virgin of Christ, who truly was strong in the holiness of merits, and loved him with a wonderful fervor of devotion; came with a great throng of Nobles and Ladies; and with doubled sighs, with great groaning of heart and tears, began with immense grief in a most sweet voice to cry out, kneeling before the ark: "O my Spouse and Lord," she said, "who while you were living in the flesh deigned to console the desolate, why do you leave me, your wretched bride, desolate? Where do you dispose me to go without your consolation, as if cast off and repudiated? Why do you not even hear the assembly of your Canons pouring forth tears, and the Prelates together with the citizens suppliantly beseeching under the shadow of your eminence, our only consolation?" The singular grief of these was made common to all; so that scarcely could anyone refrain from weeping. At last the often-mentioned Bishop, Abbot, and Priors, but after three days, a vow having been made with all the clerics who were present, both religious and secular, seeing these things; uttered a vow, confirmed by oath, for themselves and their successors, that no more, for however great or whatever kind of danger threatening, should the sacred body be moved from its church. Meanwhile the whole assembly of the people standing around, bathed in tears, promised to pay him in perpetuity a tax, if he would deign to return to his former place. But when three days had passed in bitterness and lament, after the making of the vow, they approached the ark of the most holy Confessor, and taking it, found it so light and portable that nearly all, as in fact was the case, judged it a miracle. All run together, who earlier had seen and heard the ark immovable; he is carried back with great solemnity and filled with wonder, they began to chant to God praises and to blessed Confessor Isidore suppliantly. The multitude of bells in all the churches of the city is rung; the air is filled with jubilations, and the earth is made fruitful with the most abundant showers. Throng by throng the whole city rushes forth, and rain is granted and the whole region hastens to contemplate the great works of God, which the Lord of majesty had gloriously shown in his Saint; and for the desire fulfilled all glorified the omnipotence of the Savior. So great, they say, was the fruitfulness that year of bread and wine and other fruits of the earth, that the abundance seemed to exceed measure. At his return, the whole region rejoices, the city is filled with exultation, and the bright day is made radiant with new lights. At his approach every man comes forth, and solemn watches are kept by all. Entering therefore the monastery, with hymns and praises, in a sacred place they placed the most holy body, and securing the ark strongly with thick iron instruments, they fastened it beneath the very stones of the foundation, that according to the vow made, it might henceforth be moved by no one. In memory, indeed, of so great a miracle, on the said mountain, namely where the Lord showed the body of Blessed Isidore immovable, to this day a church is shown built in his name.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER VI.
Various possessed persons freed. Epilogue.
[25] One possessed man is freed Also in the time of Emperor Alfonso, a certain demoniac came to the aforesaid church, and cast himself before the presence of the blessed Confessor: where having remained for some days, when on a certain night the Canons rose for the divine offices, the sick man, or I know not who in him, began to cry out with frequent voices, saying: "Isidore casts me out." And when all stood around him, with a great sound the demon departed, leaving the sick man wearied and exceedingly tormented. All, with tears ringing all the bells, gave praises to God and to the Confessor Isidore.
[26] At another time also, a certain man his son
now grown up, a demoniac, and another led to the aforesaid Confessor's church, and placed him before the altar. Therefore on the following night, when the father, wearied by excessive labor and pain, had given himself to sleep: around the middle of the night, while we in choir were performing the divine mysteries, the boy began to cry out, saying: "Father, father, father." Awakened, and greatly disturbed, the father carefully asked the boy why he was uttering so many cries. The boy narrated to his father what had happened, saying: "Two noble men, clothed in most precious garments, while you were sleeping, came to me, who announced that I was made whole, saying: 'Our Lord Jesus Christ has made you well through us.' And when I asked them who they were, they said: 'I am Peter the Apostle, and this is Blessed Isidore.'" And thus made whole, together with his parents he gave praises to God.
[27] In our own times also, when not only bodies but even merits have failed, it happened a third little boy also that when a certain man from the region of Sallavia, for the sake of recovering the health of his little son, whom the most wicked demon was most vehemently agitating, came to the church of Saint Bartholomew, which a is known to have been begun in the place called... with due and devout office of supplication, and had obtained nothing, as we believe, with no doubting faith; he prepared, sad and mournful, to return to his own. And so when he had reached the outskirts of the city of León, the cause of his toil being known, it was said to him by some: "Come now, hasten to go to the threshold of Blessed Isidore, who is accustomed to confer upon such laboring ones undoubted remedies of salvation, with those whose pledges are there venerated." Hearing this, the father of that boy, pouring forth tears, flies on swift wings, and asking the Holy One of God with humble voice, requests that he would deign to confer health on his child. Soon he is prostrated before the place of the Confessor. A wondrous thing, and rarely seen in our times: straightway, when b the Lord's wood was placed over the mouth and breast of the boy, the unclean spirit was compelled to depart through unclean parts, by the working of Divine judgment. Whence it happened that the boy, who at his age scarcely could, by divine power burst forth into such words: "Thanks be to God and to Blessed Isidore; I am whole." And a fruit being offered to him, which had been placed upon the reliquary of the most blessed Confessor Isidore and upon the altar as a remedy of health, the same boy began to play with it; indeed what is truer, the creature to rejoice in the Creator of us, as childishly as wonderfully.
[28] A certain young girl also, from the village called Nigrellos, likewise a young girl when she was most grievously tormented by a demon, was led to the Basilica of Saint Isidore, who did not depart from there until, having more fully received the grace of health, she was freed from the wicked spirit. Now the sign of healing, which that evil company is accustomed to make, was a coin, which the demon, unwillingly casting forth through the mouth of the little woman, promised never again to return into her. But the coin is carefully kept with us, to his confusion, that all who see it may glorify the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ with the Holy Spirit, who in his Saints is wondrous, and deigns to work wondrously through them. often protected by Saint Isidore lest she be cast into fire or water Nor must it be passed over, what we learned from her report, that the said demon had often cast her into water or into fire, had not Blessed Isidore mercifully and powerfully set himself against him. Which can be plainly observed from this, that when they came to the bridge of Roderic-Justus, he who was vexing her, the demon, wished to cast her headlong into the water; and would have done so, had not Blessed Isidore (as she herself said) strongly held her by the hand: for the demon cried out that he could in no way be driven from her except by Blessed Isidore, as the outcome of the matter proved. The malignant spirit also, being asked why he had presumed to enter a woman devoted to the Christian religion, replied: "The occasion and cause of this thing was her neighbor, who by reproach and by falsely accusing her of having a lover, brought her soul into such great bitterness, that her mind being dismayed beyond what can be believed, and being incessantly anxious from thinking about the charge of the crime, she opened to me the way of entering; but in vain," he said: "unwillingly I abandon her whom I entered, with my enemy Isidore driving me out."
[29] Not long after it happened that a certain woman, a native of the village called Ollarios, and another possessed by various demons most vehemently and very frequently agitated by demoniac fury, with her kinsmen accompanying and holding her, was brought to the church of Saint Vincent de la Gotera; where the demons, continually dashing her to the ground, said that they were not to be driven out except by Isidore, whom the same woman had first invoked at the moment of seizure. This response being received, yet trusting not in the words of the demon, but in the virtue of the Lord, who heals the broken in heart and binds up their bruises, they at once carry her back to León, most carefully guarded, lest the evil spirits cast her headlong into the depth of the waters; which had already been attempted by them many times. Therefore on Thursday, when she had entered the lights of the church of Blessed Isidore, and the woman wished to taste food blessed by the hand of the Priest, to refresh the weakness of her body; she was at once seized and, crying out terribly, they dashed her down. But when the Lord's wood was placed above, and the Priest was laboring by divine invocation to expel them, "You labor in vain," the demons said, "because we shall not leave the possession we have taken until the first Sunday. For then Isidore is to come, who with Dominic of Silos is intent on freeing captives c in Mauretania." They added also: "Because Isidore, against our part, is pleading the cause of a certain harlot, who has just died at d Arevalo: yet Dominic and Isidore are preceded by Vincent, in all things hostile to us." Which was said of Blessed Vincent, brother of the holy Sabina and Christeta, a fragment of whose body King Ferdinand the most glorious, not long after the translation of the most blessed Isidore, transferred from Ávila to León, and e placed in a reliquary made of wondrous workmanship in the same church, as we have related above, associating it; we must without doubt understand it to be said: for it would be unworthy that the true brotherhood of such Patrons, which claims a common place by right, should not also claim a common effect of miracles. On the following Sunday therefore, the Treasurer being stirred by divine warning to go quickly to the church and to give the signal for celebrating Matins; it happened that at the first stroke of the bell, with the Treasurer and very many other Canons being present, who had come to see the outcome of the matter, the woman was seized by the demons, as the spirit of falsehood had foretold, but under the urging of the spirit of truth; and she, prostrated before the altar of Blessed Isidore, the demons protesting that they could no longer remain there, and miserably asking for a place through which they might depart; they were compelled to go out through that part through which the filth of human superfluity departs. As an indication of the divine miracle, one of those demons cast through the mouth of the little woman a coin, and another a pebble which he asserted he had extracted that same moment from the sea of Salamanca; the third, however, had already given lead as a sign, which the same woman carried about, bound at the top of her headband. When the miracle was seen, all of us who were present, following with a song flowing with praise the author of the universe, who through the Blessed Isidore and Vincent does not cease wondrously to work for the declaration of the magnificence of his power, burst out with a great voice into "We praise thee, O God," with all the bells being rung, so that, according to the Psalmist, with the voice of exultation and jubilation, on strings and organ, on well-sounding cymbals, God may be praised from the heavens. Psalm 150
[30] When, against the ordinance of the Church, on the feast of the holy Virgins Justa and Rufina, a certain woman tried to do some servile work, she was so deprived of the office of one hand that she could in no way turn or move it. But believing that she would be freed by the merits of Blessed Isidore, at once wailing and crying out she is brought to his church. Her hand deprived of its office is healed Who touching the ark, in which the ashes of the same most holy body are kept, recovered with such sudden health, that very many who were present, both Clerics and laity, both men and women, marveled.
[31] Behold, indeed, that wonderful lawgiver Moses brings forth water from the rock for the thirsty people; Epilogue and truly the lawgiver of Christ, Isidore, brings back the thirsty fugitive, giving him drink from the flint of the altar floor. Behold Elisha raises the son of the Shunammite; and Isidore heals the deaf and dumb boy of the citizen of Astorga. Behold Peter heals Aeneas the paralytic, and Isidore, healing the paralytic, even converts the astonished Jew. Behold James casts demons out of possessed bodies; and they cry out in Spain that Isidore frequently casts them out. Behold Peter with John heals the lame man, and that Isidore with the same Peter healed the sick one, the demoniac boy proclaims. Behold Isidore, like Stephen full of the grace of God, performs great signs in the city of León among the people. Behold in these almost last times, by his merits the dry earth is made fruitful with showers, as in the time of Elijah, who, standing on the summit of Carmel, so long prayed prostrate on the earth, until over the dry land the sound of great rain was heard. It would be very fitting, but impossible, to recall and gather all that the Lord works through him everywhere, and especially in his church; for at his altar new things continually shine forth; and with intercessors multiplied, glorious benefits of souls and bodies are obtained, through our Lord Jesus Christ.