Isidore

“ And this was what he beheld: a man of lofty stature and most grave and beautiful countenance. His eyes were blue and very brilliant, his cheeks were slightly tinged with red, and his hair was of the ruddy golden colour of wine. From the top of his head to his ears it was straight and without radiance; but from his ears to his shoulders and down his back it fell in shining curls and clusters.
Again all was suddenly changed, and Isidore and the Angel were alone.
"Thou hast seen," said the Angel; "give me thy hand so that thou shalt not forget." ”

“ Isidore throws off his robe; shews himself armed, and draws his sword.
Ordonio. Now this is excellent and warms the blood! 160
My heart was drawing back, drawing me back
With weak and womanish scruples. Now my vengeance
Beckons me onwards with a warrior's mien,
And claims that life, my pity robb'd her of—
Now will I kill thee, thankless slave, and count it 165
Among my comfortable thoughts hereafter.
Isidore. And all my little ones fatherless—
Die thou first. ”

“ In the way of hypocrisy, deep wickedness, theft, stinginess, and falsehood he had nothing to fear from any rival, saving, perhaps, his only son, Isidore, who was rapidly learning to play the knave, and promised, with the help of the devil, to become very soon the true pendant of monsieur, his father.
In order to perfect this shameful education, Isidore had finished his studies in Paris, and Master Perdreau, I need not say, had chosen a college for him where he would neither learn virtue nor the fear of God.
For the consolation of good people, evil-doers seldom profit by their crimes. ”

“ And the air was filled with angels, and our Redeemer was with them, and promised him many things; and Isidore, the saint of God forthwith delivered up his soul, and received the crown of life. And the number of the years from the beginning to the end of his strife is as follows; he was in prison for five years before they tortured him, and he was in prison for one year in the city of Antioch, and for twelve years he suffered tortures. Salutation to Isidore, and to Euphemia his sister, and to Sofia his mother. ”

“ But the whole ground-plan of Isidore’s mind corresponded with the aptitudes and methods of the Carolingian period, which was to be the schoolday of the Middle Ages. By reason of his own habits of study, by reason of the quality of his mind, which led him to select the palpable, the foolish, and the mechanically correlated, by reason, in fine, of his mental faculties and interests, Isidore gathered and arranged in his treatises a conglomerate of knowledge, secular and sacred, exactly suited to the coming centuries.
In drawing from its spiritual heritage, an age takes what it cares for ”

“ Ordonio. This fellow is a Man—he killed for hire
One whom he knew not, yet has tender scruples! 70
[Then turning to Isidore.
[837] These doubts, these fears, thy whine, thy stammering—
Pish, fool! thou blunder'st through the book of guilt,
Spelling thy villainy.
Isidore. My lord—my lord,
I can bear much—yes, very much from you!
But there's a point where sufferance is meanness: 75
I am no villain—never kill'd for hire—
My gratitude——
Ordonio. O aye—your gratitude!
'Twas a well-sounding word—what have you done with it?
Isidore. Who proffers his past favours for my virtue—
Ordonio. ”

“ A prouder and more illustrious figure is that of St. Isidore of Seville—"beatus et lumen noster Isidorus." Originality is not Isidore's distinction, and the Latin verses which pass under his name are of doubtful authenticity. But his encyclopædic learning is amazing, and gives him place beside Cassiodorus, Boëtius, and Martianus Capella, among the greatest teachers of the West. St. Braulius, Bishop of Zaragoza, lives as the editor of his master Isidore's posthumous writings, and as the author of a hymn to that national saint, Millán. ”

“ Isoult found a bath prepared, and in her gaoler of over-night a dresser who was as brisk as a bee and as humble as a spaniel.
"Old servants are the best," said the crone in her defence; "they're not so slippery, but they know how things should go on and off. Ah, and give me a young mistress and a beauty," she went on to sigh, "such as God Almighty hath sent me this night."
Either Saint Isidore had entered the token, or the token had been swallowed by Saint Isidore. ”

“ Ordonio. Well?
Isidore. I was in the act
Of falling down that chasm, when Alhadra
Wak'd me: she heard my heart beat.
Ordonio. Strange enough!
Had you been here before?
Isidore. Never, my lord!
But mine eyes do not see it now more clearly, 80
Than in my dream I saw—that very chasm.
Ordonio (after a pause) . I know not why it should be! yet it is—
Isidore. What is, my lord?
Ordonio. Abhorrent from our nature
To kill a man.—
Isidore. ”

“ The rest of the story tells how the imp taught Isidore to make corn-brandy, and worked for him a long time faithfully. But at last one day Isidore drank so much brandy that he fell into a drunken sleep. From this he was roused by the imp, whereupon he exclaimed in a rage, “Go to the Devil!” and straightway the “little demon” disappeared. [482]
In another version of the story, [483] when the peasant finds that his crust has disappeared, he exclaims—
“Here’s a wonder! I’ve seen nobody, and yet somebody has carried off my crust! Well, here’s good luck to him! ”

“ Isidore of Pelusium, and others, call him the illustrious doctor of churches, whose glory shines on every side, who fills the earth with the light of his profound sacred learning, and who instructs by his works the remotest corners of the world, preaching everywhere, even where his voice could not reach. ”

“ And on this day also eighty-five thousand and seven people became martyrs with Isidore. Salutation to these martyrs of the company of Isidore.
And on this day also died Abba Joseph, the light of the world. This holy man learned all the philosophy of this world in his father’s house, so that those who saw him marveled at him, and all the Books of the Church; and when he was grown up his father took him to the bishop, who made him a deacon. And God, Who willed the salvation of his soul, sent Michael, the angel of light, to him, and he said unto Joseph, “Dost thou love this fleeting world? ”

“ You know how little unt fat dot Isidore iss. 147Unt you see how tall unt skinny I am. But vot could I do? If I vent home to put on my own clothes I know it would be good-bye Isidore unt der swallow-tail evening suit. I would never see dem again. I couldn’t trust dot false face. ‘Moritz,’ I says to myself, ‘don’d leave dot swallow-tailer out uv your sight. No matter how foolish you look in Isidore’s short pants, put dem on. You aint a member uv der Baron Hirsch Literary Atzociation. You don’d care if your appearances iss against you. ”

“ The inscription over the altar tells that the body of the Blessed Isidore was brought from Chios in 1125 by Doge Dom. Michiel and now rests in the tomb below. The sculptured figure of the saint and the reliefs to left and right representing his martyrdom are fine work. The fourteenth-century mosaics so faithfully wrought by the artists of that great epoch have needed but slight repair and remain practically as they left them. Over the altar is Christ seated between S. Mark and Isidore, and balancing this at the opposite end are the Virgin and Child, the Baptist and St Nicholas. ”

“ Isaac Isidore had contrived to remain single. He had only one passion, and that was the making of money by ingenious schemes; in fact, had he not been a capitalist he would have made a wonderfully good novelist, as Lawrence often said. Mystery and intrigue were the very air he breathed, and for recreation he asked for nothing better than a romance by Gaboriau or Du Boisgobey. ”

“ Isidore names the pope in his prayers. Then the Prince Basil cannot contain his indignation. He calls Isidore a traitor to orthodoxy and a false pastor.
The first step is to summon a council of bishops and boyars. They come together as men of one mind. Not a bishop, not a lord will own the pope as vicar of Christ. Every member of the council without exception rejects the Western doctrine of the procession of the Holy Spirit. This means the condemnation of their metropolitan. ”

“ When first I saw Isidore, I believed he would help me to enjoy it I believed he would be content with my being a pretty girl; and that we should meet and part and flutter about like two butterflies, and be happy. ”

“ But the God of his fathers was with him, and He delivered him out of all his tribulations, and Joseph is now with his fathers in the kingdom of heaven; and let us also make supplication with all our might that we too may in the same manner be able to flee from and escape from the righteous judgement of God.”
221. They say that there was with Abbâ Isidore, the priest of Scete, a certain brother who was infirm in his mind, and he was a man who used abusive language and possessed very little intelligence, and Abbâ Isidore wished to turn him out from his abode ”

“ We have now just the same feeling toward him, as regards matters of faith, that we had when we used to communicate with him.” See what dogmatic agreement can do. Isidore, in order that he might make such a report as this, is taken into close fellowship, and is spoken of as a man of God, and a most devout priest, a man of influence, of holy and venerable gait, and of divine understanding, the Hippocrates of the Christians. I, a poor wretch, hiding away in solitude, suddenly cut off by this mighty pontiff, have lost the name of priest. ”

“ A note on famous libraries leads Isidore to record the chief authorities on Biblical Exegesis, from whom he passes to Latin libraries, to others (those of the Martyr Pamphilus and of Jerome) , and thence to authors. Much writing attracts him first: and Varro, the Greek Chalcenterus, Origen, and St Augustine are picked out, the not entirely single-edged compliment being paid to the last, that not only could nobody write his books by working day and night, but nobody could read them completely by a similar expenditure of time and labour. ”

“ None deserve greater credit for the clear and elaborate elucidation of this great question of pseudo-Isidore than the brothers Ballerini, who have supplied an immense material whence the eminent canonists and historians of our days have been enabled to weigh every thing carefully, and the result has been a glorious one to Catholic learning and science. ”

“ Isidore, Serapion, and Dioscorus, at this period, were among the most celebrated fathers of the monks. Isidore caused his monastery to be closed, so that no one could obtain egress or ingress, and supplied the wants of those within the walls. Serapion lived in the neighborhood of Arsenoites, and had about a thousand monks under his guidance. He taught all to earn their provisions by their labors and to provide for others who were poor. During harvest-time they busied themselves in reaping for pay; they set aside sufficient corn for their own use, and shared it with the rest of the monks. ”

“ A chief landmark in glossography is represented by the Origines (Etymologiae) of Isidore (d. 636) , an encyclopedia in which he, like Cassiodorus, mixed human and divine subjects together. In many places we can trace his sources, but he also used glossaries. ”

“ They fight, Ordonio disarms Isidore, and in disarming him throws his sword up that recess opposite to which they were standing. Isidore hurries into the recess with his torch, Ordonio follows him; a loud cry of 'Traitor! Monster!' is heard from the cavern, and in a moment Ordonio returns alone.
Ordonio. I have hurl'd him down the chasm! treason for treason.
He dreamt of it: henceforward let him sleep,
A dreamless sleep, from which no wife can wake him. ”

“ The aged and venerable presbyter Isidore and the four so-called “long brothers,” ἀδελφοὶ μακροί, two of whom served in his church as œconomi, refused to pay him pupils’ and legates’ money and fled from his passionate displeasure to their companions in the Nitrian desert. In A.D. 399, however, at an endemic Synod at Alexandria he condemned Origen, and in A.D. 401 published a violent manifesto against the Origenists.157 The noble but shortsighted Epiphanius approved it and Jerome hastened to translate it into Latin. ”

“ Again Clement quotes his book On an Adherent Soul (Περὶ προσφυοῦς ψυχῆς) in correction of his preceding quotation from Basilides on the passions as "appendages" (Strom. ii. 488) . If the eight lines transcribed are a fair sample of the treatise, Isidore would certainly appear to have argued here against his father's teaching. ”

“ Isoult's heart beat wildly; she had never been so happy. When she had all the words pat they knelt down and prayed together, with the best results.
"Now, child," said Prosper, "you may add what you choose of your own accord; and be sure that our Lady will hear you. It is a great merit to be sure of this. The greater the Christian the surer he is. I also will make my petition. You have no patron?"
"No, lord, I have never heard of such an one."
"I recommend you to Saint Isidore. His name is the nearest to yours that I can remember. For the rest, he is very strong. ”

“ One of these is the woman [4] who was wrongly placed on the list of widows by Isidore, the other Isidore himself. He is the standard-bearer of the heretical faction, and his wealth supplies them with unbounded resources for their violent enterprises. They have tried to murder me; they seized the monastery church at Nitria, and for a time prevented the bishops from entering and the offices from being performed. Now, like Zebul (Beelzebub) they go to and fro on the earth. ”