Isidore of Seville (ISIDORUS HISPALENSIS), one of the most distinguished ecclesiastics at the beginning of the 7th century. He was born most probably about 560, either at Seville or at Carthagen, where his father, Severianus, was prefect, and he succeeded Leander as Archbishop of Seville in the year 600. Two of his brothers, Fulgentius and Leander, were, like himself, bishops, the first of Carthagen, the second Isidore's successor in the see of Seville. The episcopate of Isidore is rendered notable by the two half-ecclesiastical, half-civil councils at Seville in 618 or 619, and at Toledo in 633, which were held under his presidency, and the canons of which may almost be said to have formed the basis of the constitutional law of the Spanish kingdoms, both for church and for state, down to the great constitutional changes of the 15th century. He also collected with the same object all the decrees of councils and other church laws anterior to his time. His death, which occurred in 636, forms one of the most remarkable scenes in early Christian history. When he became sensible of the approach of death he summoned his flock to his bedside, exhorted them to mutual forbearance and charity, prayed their forgiveness for all his own shortcomings in his duty, and directed all his property to be distributed among the poor. At the eighth Council of Toledo in 653, the epithet Egregius was applied to him, and later Pope Benedict XIV. permitted the office of St Isidore to be recited in the universal church with the antiphon 'O doctor optime,' and the gospel 'Vos estis sal terræ.'
Isidore was a voluminous and learned writer in a Latin ornate rather than pure, and his personal character stands high for its simplicity and goodness. His writings include Etymologies or Origins treating of the whole circle of the sciences, and showing wide reading in the Greek and Latin classics; Libri Differentiarum sive de proprietate sermonum; Proœmia in Libros Vet. et Nov. Test.; Questiones tam de Nov. quam de Vet. Test.; De Fide Catholica contra Judeos; Sententiarum Libri iii.; De Ecclesiasticis officiis; Synonyma de lamentatione anime peccatricis; Regula Monachorum; De Natura Rerum liber; Chronicon; Historia de regibus Gothorum, Wandalorum, et Suevorum; and De Viris illustribus liber.
The standard edition is that of Arevalo (7 vols. 4to, Romæ, 1797-1803), reprinted by the Abbé Migne in his Patrologia Latina (lxxxi.-lxxxiv.), together with the Collectio Canonum ascribed to Isidore. Vols. lxxv.-lxxvi. of the latter also contain the Liturgia Mozarabica secundum Regulam Beati Isidori.