A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

ISIDORUS. ISIDORUS'. 629
the Monumenta S. Patrum Orthodoxographa of the free admission of the Gentiles to all the bene-:
Grynaeus, Colon. fol. 1568, in the Sylloye Script. fits of the New Covenant.
de Catho/icis Ecclesiae Ofticiis of Melchior Hittor- The two last-named tracts are sometimes conpius, Rom. fol. 1.591, and in the Sylloge Scriptorumn joined under the title Contra Nequitianz Judaeorum,de 0ff'is Ecclesiasticis, Paris, fol. 1610. or, Contra Judaeos Libri II.; or, De Fide Catholico
XIII. Regula Monaclhorum, a code of rules in ex Vetere et Novo Testamento, or, finally, Testimoniotwenty-one sections for the government of the Coe- rum de C7Uristo et Ecclesia Liber. They were printed'
nobium Honorianum, founded by Isidorus himself. separately, Venet. 4to. 1483, Hagan. 4to. 1529.
It is remarkable only from displaying a more gentle There is a very curious old German or Frankish
spirit than such statute-books usually exhibit. It translation~ of a portion of these pieces, apparently
is included in the Codex Regularuan of Holstenius, as old as the eighth century. This has been careRom. 4to. 1661, p. ii. p. 1 98. fully published by Holzmann Isidori de Nativitate
The four following works belong to exegetical Domini, iWc., Carolsruh. 8vo., 1836.
theology: - XXI. Synonimorum, -s. Soliloquiorumi Libri I.
XIV. Liber Prb'oeniorum, or Prooemia in Li- Not, as the former title might lead us to expect, a:
bros 1Veteris ac Novi Testamenti, a succinct outline grammatical disquisition, but a series of sacred meof the contents of each of the books which form ditations and moral precepts. At the commencethe canon of Scripture. ment we find the lamentations of an imaginary
XV. Commentaria in Vetus Testamentum, or, individual, the representative as it were of awaQuaestiones et Mysticorusn Expositiones Sacranmen- kened sinners, who deplores his lost state amid the
torum in Vetus Testamentum. An exposition of vice and misery of this wicked world, and is upon
the mystical, typical, and allegorical signification of the point of abandoning himself to despair, whenf
the principal events recorded in the Pentateuch, Ratio, or Reason, comes forward to comfort him,
Joshua, Judges, Ruth, Kings, Chronicles, Esdra, and in the dialogue which follows proves that he
and the Maccabees, selected from the writings of may still hope for pardon, teaches him how he may
various fathers, of whom Origen, Victorinus, Am- best avoid the snares of evil, and how he can most
brosius, Hieronymus, Cassianus, Augustinus, Ful- fittingly repent of sin so as at length to become pure
gentius, and Gregory are specially named in the and holy, and to be able to look forward with conpreface, the object of Isidorus being to render the fidence to eternal happiness in heaven. The colloresearches of these wise and learned men accessible quial form is gradually abandoned, and the moral
to a greater number of readers by presenting them precepts are arranged regularly under different
in a compressed and familiar form. Published se- heads, as De Castitate, De Oratione, De Parsismoparately, Haganoae (Haguenau), 4to. 1529. nia, De Humilitate, and the like. The term synoXVI. Allegoriae quaedam Sacrae Scripturae. nima seems to be derived from the circumstance
Short allegorical interpretations of many passages that the same ideas are repeated again and again
in the Old and New Testaments. The spirit of under different shapes and in different words.
this piece is the same as that of the preceding, but Published separately, Antv. 4to., 1488.
the results are enunciated much more briefly. XXII. De Contemnptu Mundi Libellus. A sort
XVII. Expositio in Canticunr Canticorum Salo- of continuation of the foregoing, since here also we
nzonis. The same principles are here applied to have a dialogue between an imaginary personage
prove that Solomon's Song is a shadowing forth of and Ratio, in which the latter descants upon a sucthe union of Christ with his church. cession of religious, and moral themes. Published
In the ten following works we have a mixture of separately, Venet. 8vo., 1523.
dogmatical, speculative, sentimental, and practical XXIII. De Conflictu Vitiorum et Virtutum, errotheology, combined so intimately that not one of neously ascribed by some to Leo I., by others to
them can be said to belong to any single depart- Augustin, by others to Ambrose. It bears a strong
ment exclusively. resemblance in its contents to the foregoing.
XVIII. Sententiarum, s. De summo Bono Libri XXIV. Elhortatio ad Poenitentiam cum, ConsoIII. A voluminous collection of short essays and latione ad Animam de Salute desperantem, in
dogmatic rules on a great multiplicity of themes which the mercy of God is placed in opposition to
connected with speculative, practical, and ritual the overwhelming dread of future punishment. It
theology, forming a sort of Manucal of Divinity, is a mere repetition of certain portions of the Synosuited to the wants and taste of that epoch, and nima.
possessing the same encyclopaedic character in this XXV. Norma Vivendi, a collection of apoparticular branch of knowledge which the Origines phthegms culled from the four works last mentioned.
exhibit in relation to a wider field. The whole is XXVI. Oratio de Flendis semper Peccatis ad
little more than a compilation from Augustin and Correctioneza Vitae.
Gregory. Published separately, Lovan. 4to. 1486, XXVII. Oratio contra Insidias Diaboli.
Lips. 4to. 1493, Paris, 4to. 1519, 12mo. 1538, It only remains to notice, in the last place,Taurin. 4to. 1593, with the notes of Garcia de XXVIII. Epistolae. A considerable'numberof
Loaisa. letters, referring chiefly to questions of doctrine or
XIX. De Nativitate Domini, Passione et Resar- discipline- Thus there is one addressed to Ludirectione, Regno atque Judicio, addressed to his fred, bishop of Cordova, Quodnam Episcopi et cetesister, St. Florentia, in sixty-one chapters, with an rorum sit Offlcium in Ecclesia; another to MassaEpilogue embodying a mass of prophetic passages nus, bishop of Merida,- Qui s2unt' reparandi post
from the Old Testament which indicate the career Lapsuma vel qui non; a fragment, belonging perhaps
and divinity of our Lord. to the last, Quare sit institutum post sejptem Annos
XX. De Vocatione Gentium, addressed also to in pristinum Statuen Poenitentes redire, and several
St. Florentia, in twenty-six chapters, with a reca- others, the authenticity of which is very questionpitulation pointing out how the prophets had clearly able.
foretold the'abrogation of the ceremonial law' and It will be seen from the above list, and much
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