3. _Stellae_ is derived from _stare_, because the stars always remain
(_stant_) fixed in the heavens and do not fall. As to our seeing
stars fall, as it were, from heaven, they are not stars but little
bits of fire that have fallen from the ether, and this happens when
the wind, blowing high, carries along with it fire from the ether,
which as it is carried along gives the appearance of falling stars.
For stars cannot fall; they are motionless (as has been said above)
and are fixed in the heavens and carried around with them.
16. A comet is so-called because it spreads light from itself as
if it were hair (_comas_). And when this kind of star appears it
indicates pestilence, famine, or war.
17. Comets are called in the Latin _crinitae_ because they have a
trail of flames resembling hair (_in modum crinium_). The Stoics say
there are over thirty of them, and certain astrologers have written
down their names and qualities.
20. The planets are stars which are not fixed in the heavens like the
rest, but move along in the air.... Sometimes they move towards the
south, sometimes towards the north, generally in a direction opposite
to that of the universe, sometimes with it, and their Greek names are
Phaeton, Phaenon, Pyrois, Hesperus, Stilbon.
21. To these the Romans have given the names of their gods, that
is, of Jupiter, Saturn, Mars, Venus, Mercury. Deceiving themselves
and wishing to deceive [others] into worship of these gods, who had
bestowed upon them somewhat in accordance with the desire of the
world, they pointed to the stars in heaven, saying that that was
Jove’s star, that Mercury’s, and the empty idea arose. This erroneous
belief the devil cherished, but Christ destroyed.
22. Moreover as to the constellations which are given names by the
heathen, in which the likeness of living creatures is traced by means
of the stars, like Arctos, Aries, Taurus, Libra, and others, they who
first discerned constellations in a number of stars were influenced
by superstitious vanity and imagined a bodily form, giving them,
because of certain reasons, the likenesses and names of their gods.
23. For they named Aries, the first constellation—to which, as to
Libra, they assign the middle line of the universe[275]—after Jupiter
Ammon, on whose head image makers fix the horns of a ram (_arietis
cornua_).
[275] The celestial equator.
24. This the heathen set as the first among the constellations
because in the month of March, which is the beginning of the year,
they say the sun is moving in that constellation.
26. Cancer, too, they so named because when the sun comes to that
constellation in the month of June, it begins to move backward in the
manner of a crab (_in modum cancri_), and brings in the shorter days;
for in this creature front and rear are indistinguishable and it
advances either way, so that its fore part may be behind and its back
part before.
32. Moreover _Aquarius_ and _Pisces_ they named from the rainy
season, because heavier rains fall in winter when the sun turns at
these constellations. And it is a wonderful folly of the heathen that
they have raised to the heavens not only fish, but rams also, and
he-goats and bulls, she-bears and dogs, crabs and scorpions. They
have also placed among the stars of heaven an eagle and a swan, in
memory of Jove, because of the myths about him.
33. They believed, too, that Perseus and his wife Andromeda were
received into the heavens after their death, so they marked out
likenesses of them in the stars, and did not blush to call them by
their names.
37. But by whatever fashion of superstition these are named by men,
they are nevertheless stars, which God made at the beginning of the
universe and ordained to mark the seasons with regular motion.
38. Therefore observations of these constellations, or nativities, or
the rest of the superstition that attaches itself to the observance
of the stars—that is, to a knowledge of the fates—and is doubtless
opposed to our faith, ought to be ignored by Christians in such a way
that it would seem they had not been written.
39. But a good many, enticed by the fairness and brightness of the
constellations, have in their blindness fallen into the errors of the
stars, so that they endeavor to foreknow future events by the noxious
computations that are called _mathesis_; but not only the teachers of
the Christian religion, but also Plato and Aristotle and others of
the heathen, moved by truth, condemned them with unanimous opinion,
saying that confusion as to [future] things was produced rather from
such a belief.
40. For if, as they say, men are driven by the compulsion of their
birth to various kinds of acts, why should the good deserve praise,
or the evil feel the vengeance of the law....
41. This succession of the seven secular disciplines was terminated
in astronomy by the philosophers for this purpose forsooth, that it
might free souls, entangled by secular wisdom, from earthly matters,
and set them at meditation upon the things on high.
BOOK IV
ON MEDICINE[276]
[276] Subjects of medical interest are treated also in book xi
(parts of the body, monstrous births, etc.), in book xii (healing
springs), and in book xxii (diet). There is also a chapter (39)
on pestilence in _De Natura Rerum_.
INTRODUCTION
The Greek science of medicine was one which reached a high degree of
development. As early as the fifth century B.C. it appears in the
school of Hippocrates, divested of nearly all trace of its origin in
superstition and magic, and largely relying on careful observation
and interpretation of symptoms. This school already possessed a
considerable body of recorded observations. At Alexandria, later,
further progress was made, especially in the subject of anatomy. At
this time the dissection—and even vivisection—of the human body was
practiced, though there are few traces of it earlier, and later it
was forbidden. The last great land-mark in the history of ancient
medicine is to be found in the works of Galen (second century A.D.)
who summed up, extended, and interpreted the medical knowledge of
preceding times.
In medicine, however, as in Greek science generally, theoretical
and philosophical elements often prevailed to the detriment of
the pragmatical. Examples of this are to be seen in the theory of
the four humors, first found in the Hippocratic writings; in the
belief of the Methodist school, which held that disease consisted
in the contraction and relaxation of the pores (πόροι); and in the
doctrines of the Pneumatic school, which maintained that health and
disease resulted from the influence of the universal soul (πνεῦμα).
A reaction against this tendency is evidenced by the empirics, who
professed to reject all general notions and to rely on experience
alone. However, the increasing predominance of the theoretical
is shown in the case of Galen, who secured his ascendency over
succeeding ages by his extravagant theoretical system rather than by
his really great practical knowledge.
No contribution to medicine was made by the Romans. Although the
profession appeared among them in the second century B.C., it
remained a thing apart, in the hands of Greek physicians.[277] Of
the three chief writers on the subject in the Latin language, two,
Celsus and Pliny, were not physicians but encyclopedists, who were
necessarily compilers rather than scientists.[278] The only writer of
importance who approached his work from a professional standpoint was
Caelius Aurelianus, and his book is of importance chiefly because its
Greek original is lost.[279] This neglect of medicine is explained
in part by the fact that physicians stood low in the social scale.
Another more powerful influence was the increasing fashionableness
of Oriental religions with their superstition and addiction to magic
practices. Toward the close of the empire the decline was rapid in
medicine as in other fields. Abridgements, which cut down quality
unconsciously as much as they did quantity consciously, held the
field. Itinerant quacks and “folk-medicine” gradually ousted the lay
profession until finally what little science remained was in the
hands of priests and monks, who needed a smattering of the subject
for the people of their parishes, and the inmates of monasteries and
hospitals.[280]
[277] Galen was one of these.
[278] Max Neuberger, _Geschichte der Medizin_ (Stuttgart,
1906–1911), vol. i, pp. 310–321.
[279] _Ibid._, vol. ii, p. 61 _et seq._
[280] Neuberger, _op. cit._, vol. ii, pp. 240–278 for an account
of medicine in the early middle ages.
Isidore does not say for what purpose he wrote his _De Medicina_,
whether to serve as a text-book to aid in the education of the
clergy in the way indicated above, or merely in the spirit of
the encyclopedist. A number of considerations point strongly to
the former conclusion. In the first place, medicine is placed in
juxtaposition with the seven liberal arts, and is separated from
subjects more nearly akin to it. Secondly, the attitude which Isidore
displays in speaking of medicine is one which remembers that this
subject was once classed with the liberal arts. He feels called upon
to explain why “the art of medicine is not included among the liberal
disciplines”, and his explanation is one drawn from the pedagogical
sphere; he tells us that medicine is “a second philosophy”, by
which he means to say that it belongs to the highest stage of
education, but plays therein a minor part. Finally, we must remember
that Cassiodorus, whose comprehensive plan of education had great
influence with Isidore, had recognized the need of medical knowledge
in the education of the clergy, as shown in his chapter “On monks
having the care of the infirm”.
It is not known what were the immediate sources of Isidore’s _De
Medicina_. The ultimate authority for his account of diseases is
the work of the Methodist Caelius Aurelianus, whose eight books
containing a classification of diseases into acute and chronic are
reproduced by Isidore in two chapters that occupy the greater part of
the space that he devoted to medicine.
EXTRACTS
Chapter 1. On medicine.
1. Medicine is that which guards or restores the health of the body,
and its subject-matter deals with diseases and wounds.
2. And so it includes not only those things which are presented in
the art (_ars_) of those who are called _medici_ in the proper sense,
but food, drink, and covering as well; in short, all the guarding and
defence by which our body is protected against blows and accidents
from the outside.
Chapter 2. On its name.
1. Its name is believed to have been given to medicine from _modus_,
that is, moderation, so that not enough but a little be used. For
nature is made sorrowful by much and rejoices in the moderate. Whence
also they who drink in quantities and without ceasing of herb juices
(_pigmenta_) and antidotes, are troubled. For all immoderation brings
not welfare but danger.
Chapter 3. On the founders of medicine.
1. Apollo is called among the Greeks the author and founder of the
art of medicine. His son, Aesculapius, enlarged it by his fame and
work. But after Aesculapius perished by a thunder-bolt, the business
of curing is said to have been forbidden and the art disappeared with
its author.
2. And it remained unknown for nearly five hundred years down to the
time of Artaxerxes, king of the Persians. Then Hippocrates, born in
the island of Cos, his father being Asclepius, brought it back to the
light of day.
Chapter 4. On the three schools (_haereses_) of medicine.
1. And so these three men founded as many schools. The first,
_Methodica_,[281] was established by Apollo, and it follows
remedies and charms. The second, _Empirica_,[282] that is, relying
on experience, was established by Aesculapius, which depends not on
the interpretation of symptoms, but on experience alone. The third,
_Logica_,[283] that is, rational, was invented by Hippocrates.
[281] This school was really founded in the first century B.C.
According to it disease consists in a contraction or relaxation
of the pores (_strictus status_ or _laxus status_). Nothing but
the supposed general condition of the body was of importance.
Neuberger, _Geschichte der Medizin_, vol. 1, pp. 303–309.
[282] A school that appeared in the third century B.C., and
corresponded in medicine to the skeptical movement in philosophy.
All _a priori_ reasoning was rejected. _Ibid._, vol. 1, pp.
276–284.
[283] The classical school of medicine founded by Hippocrates.
Isidore fails to mention the Pneumatici and the Eclectici
(_ibid._, vol. 1, pp. 327–336), other prominent schools of
medicine.
2. For the latter, separating the qualities of ages, districts, and
diseases, examined the practice of the art in a rational way. The
_Empirici_, then, follow experience alone; the _Logici_ add reason
to experience; the _Methodici_ observe neither the elements, nor
seasons, nor ages, nor causes, but the substances of diseases alone.
Chapter 5. On the four humors of the body.
1. Health is the integrity of the body and the compound
(_temperantia_) made by nature from hot and moist which is the blood,
whence also it has been named _sanitas_, as it were _sanguinis
status_ (state of the blood).
2. Under the general name of _morbus_ (disease) all disorders of the
body are embraced, to which the ancients gave the name of _morbus_
in order to indicate by the very name the power of death (_mortis_)
which arises from it. Between health and disease the mean is cure,
and unless it harmonizes with the disease it does not lead to health.
3. All diseases arise from the four humors, that is, from blood,
bile, black bile, and phlegm. Just as there are four elements so also
there are four humors, and each humor imitates its element: blood,
air; bile, fire; black bile, earth; phlegm, water. There are four
humors, as four elements, which preserve our bodies.
4. _Sanguis_[284] (blood) took its name from a Greek source, because
it invigorates, sustains and gives life to the body. _Cholera_[285]
(bile) the Greeks named because it is ended in the space of one
day, whence it was named _cholera_, that is, _fellicula_, that is,
effusion of bile (_fel_). For the Greeks call bile χολή.
[284] The derivation which Isidore had in mind was probably ζῆν
(to live).
[285] The sentence is a confused one. Isidore probably had in
mind the derivation of _cholera_ from χολή and ῥέω.
5. _Melancholia_ (black bile) is named because an abundance of bile
has been mixed with the dregs of black blood....
6. _Sanguis_ in the Latin is so-called because it is _suavis_, whence
men in whom _sanguis_ is predominant are pleasant and bland.
7. _Phlegma_ they have named because it is cold. For the Greeks call
cold φλέγμονα. According to these four humors the well are governed,
and from them the diseases of the infirm arise. For when they have
grown too great beyond the course of nature, they cause illnesses.
8. From blood and bile acute disorders come, which the Greeks call
ὀξέα; from phlegm and black bile troubles of long standing, which the
Greeks call χρόνια.
Chapter 6. On acute diseases.
1. _Oxea_ is acute disease which either quickly passes or more
quickly kills, as pleurisy, phrensy, for ὀξὺ in Greek means swift and
sharp. χρόνια is prolonged bodily disease which lingers through many
seasons, as gout, phthisis.... Certain disorders have received their
names from causes proper to them.
2. _Febris_ (fever) is derived from _fervor_, for it is an excess of
heat.
3. Frenzy is so-called because the mind is affected, since the Greeks
call the mind φρένες, or else because they gnash (_infrendant_) with
the teeth, for _frendere_ means to strike the teeth together. It is
excitement with exasperation and dementia caused by the power of bile.
17. Pestilence is a contagion, and when it seizes one it quickly
passes to more. It is produced from a corruption of the air, and
makes its way by penetrating into the inward parts. Although this
is generally caused by the powers of the air, still it is certainly
not caused against the will of Omnipotent God.... It is a disease so
acute that it affords no time to hope for life or death, but a sudden
weakness and death come at the same moment.
Chapter 7. On chronic diseases.
3. _Scotoma_ took its name from an accidental quality, because
it brings a sudden darkness to the eyes along with a whirling
(_vertigo_) of the head. Now there is a whirling as often as the wind
rises and starts the dust going round and round.
4. So too in man’s head the air passages[286] and the veins produce a
windiness from the resolving of moisture[287] and make a whirling in
his eyes whence _vertigo_ is named.
[286] _Arteriae._ Compare “Sanguis per venas in omne corpus
diffunditur et spiritus per arterias.” Cicero, _N. D._, 2, 55,
138.
[287] Referring to the idea that the elements could pass into one
another. See p. 60.
5. Epilepsy took its name because while seizing the mind it also
holds the body. For the Greeks call seizure ἐπιληψία. And it comes
from the melancholy humor whenever it becomes abundant and has turned
toward the head. This disorder is also called _caduca_ (the falling
sickness), because the sick man falls and suffers from spasms.
6. The common herd call these also _lunatici_ because their
madness[288] comes upon them according to the course of the moon....
[288] Du Breul has _insania daemonum_.
Chapter 8. On diseases that appear on the surface of the body.
11. Leprosy is a scaly roughness of the skin, like _lepidus_
(pepper-wort), whence it took its name, and its color now turns to
black, now to white, now to red. On the body of a man leprosy is
diagnosed in this way, if a varied color appears here and there
between sound parts of the skin, or if it spreads everywhere in such
a way as to make all of one unnatural color.
12. The _morbus elephantiacus_[289] is so called from the resemblance
to an elephant, whose naturally hard and rough skin gave the name to
the disease among men, because it makes the surface of the body like
the hide of an elephant; or it may be because it is a great disorder,
like the animal itself from which it has derived its name.
[289] A kind of leprosy.
Chapter 9. On remedies and medicines.
1. The curative power of medicine must not be despised. For we
remember that Isaiah sent something of medicinal nature to Hezekiah
when he was sick, and Paul the apostle said a little wine was good
for Timothy.
3. There are three kinds of cures in all. The first is the dietetic;
the second, the pharmaceutical; the third, the surgical. Diet
(_diaeta_) is the observance of the law of life. Pharmacy is curing
by medicines. Surgery is cutting with the knife; for with the knife
is cut away that which does not feel the healing of medicines....
5. Every cure is wrought either by contraries or by likes. By
contraries, as cold by warm and dry by moist, just as in man pride
cannot be cured except by humility.
6. By likes, as a round bandage is put on a round wound, or an oblong
one on an oblong wound. For the very bandage is not the same for all
wounds, but like is fitted to like....
7. _Antidotum_ in the Greek means in the Latin _ex contrario datum_.
For contraries are cured by contraries in the medical system. On
the other hand likes are cured by likes, as for example, πικρὰ
which means bitters because its taste is bitter. It received a
suitable name because the bitterness of disease is dispelled by its
bitterness.
Chapter 13. On the beginning of medicine.[290]
[290] _De initio medicinae._
1. Inquiry is made by certain why the art of medicine is not included
among the liberal disciplines. Because of this, that they embrace
separate subjects, but medicine embraces all. For the physician is
commanded to know grammar, in order to be able to understand and set
forth what he reads.
2. In like manner rhetoric, too, that he may be able to define by
true arguments the diseases which he treats. Moreover logic, to
scrutinize and cure the causes of infirmities by the aid of reason.
So, too, arithmetic, on account of the number of hours in paroxysms
and of the days in periods.
3. In the same manner geometry, on account of the qualities of
districts and the situations of places, in respect to which it
teaches what one ought to observe. Moreover, music will not be
unknown to him, for there are many things that are read of as
accomplished by this discipline in the case of sick men, as it is
read of David that he saved Saul from an unclean spirit by the art of
melody. The physician Asclepiades, too, restored one who was subject
to frenzy to his former health by music.
4. Lastly, he will know astronomy, by which to contemplate the
system of the stars and the change of the seasons, for as a certain
physician says, our bodies change too, along with the qualities
of the heavens. Hence it is that medicine is called “a second
philosophy”. For both disciplines claim the whole man. For as by one
the soul is cured, so is the body by the other.
BOOK V
ON LAWS[291]
[291] The _De Legibus_ constitutes Isidore’s formal account of
law. In bk. ii a chapter is devoted to the subject of law as a
sub-division of rhetoric; it consists of definitions of general
terms. In bk. ix there are chapters on citizens, and on degrees
of kinship, which have a legal bearing. _Cf._ also bk. xviii, 15.
INTRODUCTION
There was a marked difference between the development of law and that
of the other subjects so far treated by Isidore in the _Etymologies_.
The latter were of Greek origin, and, with the exception of rhetoric,
they appeared as strangers in the Roman environment and never formed
an integral part of Roman culture. Instead, they suffered from
continuous decay, and by the time of the disintegration of the Roman
state they were reduced to such a condition that the “fall of Rome”
meant nothing to them. On the other hand, law was an indigenous
product of Roman society, upon which the Roman intellect had expended
its greatest and most successful efforts, and although it inevitably
shared in the general intellectual deterioration of the time, and
showed a marked decline after the period of the great jurists,
the beginning of its rapid decay is coincident in each section of
western Europe with the close of Roman rule. Thus “the fall of Rome”
played much the same part in the history of law as the transition
from a Greek to a Roman environment had done for the bulk of the
intellectual possession of the ancient civilization. After this event
law was on terms of equality with the other branches of knowledge,
and within two centuries, as judged by its presentation in the
_Etymologies_, it was reduced to as low an estate as they.
Isidore’s _De Legibus_ is divided into two distinct parts. The first
is of a general nature, and embraces such topics as law-givers, _jus
civile_, _jus gentium_, _jus naturale_, why laws are made, and what
character a law ought to have. The second part is more specific;
it treats of legal instruments, the law of property, crimes, and
punishments. The whole forms a scholastic conglomerate of elements
derived from every stage in the development of Roman law and exhibits
a point of view that is philological and Christian as much as legal.
Because of its importance in the history of law, this book of the
_Etymologies_ has been subjected to more detailed study than any
other, but in spite of this its sources have not been clearly
determined. In addition to the Scriptures and Isidore’s authorities
on word derivation, he is believed to have drawn on the _Breviarium
Alaricianum_, the Theodosian code, the text-books of Gaius and
Ulpian, and the _Sentences_ of Paulus. Although the Justinian code
was issued a century before the compilation of the _Etymologies_, it
seems improbable that Isidore made any use of it, or had even heard
of it.[292]
[292] Considering the intellectual stagnation of the time, it
seems quite possible that the Justinian code was unheard of
wherever it was not actually the law of the land. Vinogradoff
gives the conclusion of modern scholarship as to this when he
says (_Roman Law in Medieval Europe_, London, 1909, p. 8): “The
_Corpus Juris_ of Justinian, which contains the main body of law
for later ages, including our own, was accepted and even known
only in the East and in those parts of Italy which had been
reconquered by Justinian’s generals. The rest of the western
provinces still clung to the tradition of the preceding period,
culminating in the official code of Theodosius II (A.D. 437).”
Compare also Conrat, _Die Epitome Exactis Regibus_, Introd.,
pp. 248–257; Flach, _Droit Romain au Moyen Age_ (Paris, 1890),
especially pp. 52–57. Conrat, in his _Geschichte der Quellen und
Literatur des Römischen Rechts in Früheren Mittelalter_, pp.
150–153, maintains, first, that there is no trace of evidence
elsewhere in Isidore’s works, of a knowledge of the existence of
the Justinian code; and, second, that the internal evidence in
the _De Legibus_ points to the use of other sources. See also
Ureña, _Historia Crítica de la Literatura Jurídica Española_
(Madrid, 1897), vol 1, p. 294.
The purpose of the _De Legibus_ was, no doubt, to serve as a
text-book.[293] The amount of space given to it, which is about the
average of that allotted to each of the liberal arts, and the fact
that it treats of law in a general way, point to this conclusion. Its
position in the _Etymologies_, following, with Medicine, immediately
after the liberal arts, is also an indication of its educational
character. The best proof of this, however, is found in the number
of separate manuscripts in which the _De Legibus_ is reproduced in a
catechetical form.[294] At least eight of these are in existence, and
the earliest of them is attributed to the ninth century.
[293] The _De Legibus_ should not be regarded as a text-book for
a law school, but for the subject of law as forming a minor part
of the preparation of a priest. See Introd., p. 87, and Flach,
_op. cit._, the fourth section of which (pp. 104–128) deals with
the teaching of law from the sixth to the eleventh century.
[294] For an account of separate MSS. of Isidore’s _De Legibus_
(often containing also legal matter from bks. ii, ix and xviii),
see Joseph Tardif, _Un Abrégé Juridique des Etymologies d’Isidore
de Seville_ in _Mélanges Julien Havet_ (Paris, 1895).
EXTRACTS
Chapter 1. On law-givers.
1. Moses first of all set forth the divine laws in the sacred
writings for the Hebrew people. King Phoroneus was the first to
establish laws and courts for the Greeks.
2. Mercurius Trismegistus first gave laws to the Egyptians. Solon
first legislated for the Athenians. Lycurgus first made rules of law
for the Lacedaemonians and pretended Apollo’s authority for them.
3. Numa Pompilius, who succeeded Romulus in the kingdom, was the
first to give laws to the Romans. Later, when the people could not
endure their quarrelsome magistrates they appointed decemvirs to
write the laws, and they translated the laws from the books of Solon
into the Latin language, and set them up on twelve tables.
4. These men were A. Claudius, T. Genutius, P. Sextius, Spur.
Viturius, C. Julius, A. Manlius, Ser. Sulpitius, P. Curiatius, T.
Romilius, Sp. Postumius. These were the decemvirs chosen to write the
laws.
5. The consul Pompeius was the first who wished to arrange the laws
systematically, but he did not persevere, through fear of detractors.
Then Caesar began to do it, but he was slain.
6. By degrees the old laws became obsolete through time and neglect;
but a mention of them seems necessary although they are not in use
now.
7. The new laws began with the emperor Constantine and the rest who
followed him, but they were confused and in disorder. Later, in
imitation of Gregorianus and Hermogenianus, the younger Theodosius
arranged a code of constitutions from the time of Constantine, under
the title of each emperor, which he called Theodosian from his own
name.
Chapter 2. On laws human and divine.
1. All laws are either divine or human. Divine laws depend on nature,
human laws on customs; and so the latter differ, since different laws
please different peoples. Divine law is _fas_; human law is _jus_. To
pass through another’s property is of divine but not of human law.
Chapter 3. On the difference between _jus_, _leges_, _mores_.
1. _Jus_ is the general term and _lex_ is a kind of _jus_. _Jus_ is
so-called because it is just (_justum_). All _jus_ is made up of laws
and customs.
2. _Lex_ is the written ordinance. _Mos_ is custom approved by its
antiquity, or unwritten _lex_. For _lex_ is derived from _legere_ (to
read), because it is written.
3. _Mos_ is old custom and is drawn merely from _mores_. _Consuetudo_
(custom) is a sort of _jus_ established by _mores_, which is taken
instead of _lex_ when _lex_ fails. And it makes no difference whether
it depends on writing or reason, since reason commends written law
also.
4. Moreover if _lex_ is in accordance with reason, all that is in
accordance with reason will be _lex_, as far as it agrees with
religion, is in harmony with knowledge, and is beneficial for
salvation. And _consuetudo_ is so-called because it is in common use.
Chapter 4. On _jus naturale_.
1. _Jus_ is either natural, or civil, or universal (_jus gentium_).
_Jus naturale_ is what is common to all peoples, and what is observed
everywhere by the instinct of nature rather than by any ordinance, as
the marriage of man and woman, the begetting and rearing of children,
the common possession of all,[295] the one freedom of all, the
acquisition of those things that are taken in the air or sea or on
the land.
[295] _Communis omnium possessio._
2. Likewise the restoring of property entrusted or lent, the
repelling of violence by force. For this, or whatever is like this,
is nowhere considered unjust, but natural and fair.
Chapter 5. On _jus civile_.
1. _Jus civile_ is what each people or state has enacted as its own
law, for human and divine reasons.
Chapter 6. On _jus gentium_.
1. _Jus gentium_ is the seizing, building, and fortifying of
settlements, wars, captivities, servitudes, postliminies, treaties,
peaces, truces, the obligation not to violate an ambassador, the
prohibition of intermarriage with aliens. And [it is called] _jus
gentium_ because nearly all nations observe it.
Chapter 7. On _jus militare_.
1. _Jus militare_ is the ceremony of beginning war, the obligation
in making a treaty, the going out against the enemy when the signal
is given, and the joining of battle; likewise the retreat when the
signal is given; likewise the punishment of a soldier’s fault if a
post should be deserted. Likewise the amount of pay, the grades of
office, and the honor of rewards, as when a crown or a necklace is
given.
2. Likewise the determination of the booty, and the just division
according to rank of persons and labors undergone, likewise the share
of the commander.
Chapter 8. On _jus publicum_.
1. _Jus publicum_ has to do with sacred things, and priests and
magistrates.
Chapter 9. On _jus quiritium_.
1. _Jus quiritium_ is the law proper to the Romans, by which none
is bound but the _Quirites_, that is, the Romans, as in regard to
inheritances, declarations of entry upon inheritances, guardianships,
acquiring by prescription; which laws are found among no other
people, but they are proper to the Romans and made for them alone.
2. The _jus quiritium_ is made up of laws, plebiscites, decrees of
the senate, constitutions and edicts of emperors and opinions of
jurists.
Chapter 10. On _lex_.
1. _Lex_ is the enactment of the people, by which the elders,
together with the plebeians, passed some law.
Chapter 11. On plebiscites.
1. Plebiscites (_scita_) are what the common people alone enact....
Chapter 12. On the _senatus consultum_.
1. A _senatus consultum_ is that which the senators alone determine
in council for the people.
Chapter 13. On the constitution or edict.
1. A constitution or edict is what the king or emperor enacts or
proclaims.
Chapter 14. On the responses of the jurists (_responsa prudentum_).
1. They are the responses which the jurisconsults are said to make
to men who consult them. From this the responses of Paulus were so
named. For there were certain wise men and judges of equity who
composed and published institutions of civil law, by which they
settled the suits and contentions of disputants.
Chapter 15. On consular and tribunitian laws.
1. Certain laws are named from those who secured their enactment,
as consular, tribunitian, Julian, Cornelian. Papius and Poppaeus,
_consules suffecti_[296] under Caesar Octavianus, carried a law which
was called from their names _Papia Poppaea_, offering rewards to
fathers for rearing children.
[296] Holding the consulate for part of the year only.
2. Under the same emperor, Falcidius, a tribune of the people,
carried a law that no one should bequeath property in such a way that
a fourth, at least, should not remain for the heirs. And it was named
the _lex Falcidia_ from him. Aquilius also secured the passage of a
law which is called _Aquilia_ to the present time.
Chapter 16. On the _lex satyra_.
1. A _lex satyra_ is one which speaks at the same time of many
things, being so called from the abundance of things, as it were from
_saturitas_ (fullness); whence to write satire is to compose poems
with varied contents, as those of Horace, Juvenal, and Persius.
Chapter 17. On the Rhodian laws.
1. The Rhodian laws are the laws of commerce on the sea, being so
called from the island of Rhodes where was a great trade in ancient
times.
Chapter 18. On privileges.
1. Privileges (_privilegia_) are laws applying to individuals,
private laws, as it were. For _privilegium_ is so called because it
is applied to a private person (_in privato feratur_).
Chapter 19. What law can do.
1. Every law either permits something, as that a brave man should
compete for a prize, or forbids, as that no one should be allowed to
ask the sacred maidens in marriage, or punishes, as that he who has
committed murder should suffer capital punishment. For human life is
governed by the reward or punishment of the law.[297]
[297] Reading _legis_ for _eius_. See 2, 10.
Chapter 20. Why law was made.
1. Laws were made in order that the boldness of men may be checked by
fear of them, and innocence be safe among the wicked, and the power
of harm bridled among the wicked by the dread of punishment.
Chapter 21. What law ought to be.
1. Law will be honorable, just, possible, according to nature,
according to the custom of the country, adapted to the place and
time, necessary, useful, clear also, lest it contain anything in
its obscurity that tends to fraud, drawn up for no one’s private
advantage, but for the common good of all citizens.
Chapter 24. On legal instruments.
1. _Voluntas_ (will) is the general name for all legal instruments,
and it has received this name because it issues from free will, not
from compulsion.
2. _Testamentum_ (will) is so named because, unless the testator
dies, what is written in it cannot be established or known, since
it is closed and sealed; and it is called _testamentum_ because
it is not in effect until the burial of the testator (_testatoris
monumentum_); whence the Apostle says: _Testamentum in mortuis
confirmatur_.
3. _Testamentum_ has not only this meaning in the Holy Scriptures,
that it is in effect only when the testators are dead, but they also
called every agreement (_pactum et placitum_) _testamentum_; for
Laban and Jacob made a _testamentum_ which was certainly to be in
effect while they were living. And in the Psalms is read: _Adversum
te testamentum disposuerunt_; and many others of the sort.
4. The _tabulae_ of a will are so called because not only wills but
letters were written on hewn _tabulae_ (boards) before paper and
parchment were used. Whence letter-carriers are called _tabularii_.
5. The testament of the civil law is made valid by the signature of
five witnesses.
6. The testament of the praetorian law is sealed with the seals
of seven witnesses; the former testament is made in the presence
of citizens, and from that is called _civile_; the latter in the
presence of the praetors, and thence is of the praetorian law.
7. A _testamentum holographum_ is one wholly written and signed in
the hand-writing of the maker. From this it got its name. For the
Greeks use the word ὅλον for whole, and γραφή for writing.
8. A testament has no legal force if its maker has forfeited his
civil rights, or if it has not been made in due form.
9. A testament is _inofficiosum_ where an attempt has been made to
disinherit the children and recourse has been had to persons outside
[the family] without regard to the duty of natural affection.[298]
[298] See Muirhead, _The Law of Rome_, p. 249.
10. The _testamentum ruptum_ is so named because it is made void
through the birth of a posthumous child who is neither disinherited
nor made an heir by name.
11. A testament is suppressed when it is not publicly made known, to
the injury of heirs or legatees or freedmen; and although it is not
kept secret, it nevertheless is thought to be suppressed if it is not
made known to the aforesaid persons.
12. _Nuncupatio_ (nuncupative will) is when the testator reads
the will aloud, saying: “These things I thus give and bequeath
as they are written on these tablets and on this wax; and do you
Roman citizens be my witness”, and this is called _nuncupatio_. For
_nuncupare_ means to name and confirm openly.
13. The _jus liberorum_ is the right of childless couples to name
each other as heir in the place of children.
23. _Emptio_ (purchase) and _venditio_ (sale) is an exchange of goods
and a contract arising from agreement.
24. _Emptio_ (purchase) is so called because it is _a me tibi_ (from
me to you); _venditio_ is as it were _venundinatio_, that is, from
_nundinae_ (market day).
27. _Donatio usufructuaria_ is so named because the giver retains the
usufruct of the thing, the title vesting in him to whom it has been
given.
Chapter 25. On property (_rebus_).
3. _Res_ is derived from possessing rightly (_recte_); _jus_ from
possessing justly (_juste_).... What is wickedly possessed is not the
owner’s. He possesses wickedly who uses his own wickedly or takes
possession of another’s.... He who is captured by greed is possessed,
not possessing.
4. _Bona_ belong to the honorable or noble, and they are called
_bona_ so that they may not have a base use but men may use them for
good things.
5. _Peculium_ belongs properly to minors or slaves. For _peculium_ is
that which the father or master allows his son or slave to treat as
his own....
ON TIMES[299]
[299] In his “On Times,” Isidore is apparently condensing what
he has written elsewhere. The first part of it, which gives an
account of the divisions of time—the moment, hour, day, week,
month, year, and so forth—is drawn from _De Natura Rerum_,
which in turn was based on Suetonius, Solinus, Hyginus, of the
heathen writers, and Ambrosius, Clement, and Augustine, of the
Christian. (See p. 46.) In the second part, which consists of a
brief chronology, Isidore condensed his _Chronicon_, which was
drawn from Eusebius as translated and modified by Jerome, and
supplemented by the later work of Prosper, Victor Tunnensis, and
Joannis Biclarensis. The sources of the _Chronicon_ have been
thoroughly discussed by H. Hertzberg, _Ueber die Chronicon des
Isidors von Sevilla_ in _Forschungen zur Deutschen Geschichte_
(Göttingen, 1875), vol. xv.
INTRODUCTION
To the early and medieval Christian chronology was a subject of
absorbing interest. For him the course of the world’s history was
authoritatively laid down in the Biblical account, and looking back
over it he thought he saw that it was passing by well-marked stages
to an end that was to be as sharply defined as its beginning had
been. It was inevitable that there should be an attempt to plot its
progress and even to form some general notion as to its end. For
this purpose the Greek chronology was accepted in its entirety and
extended by a set of extravagant assumptions, acceptable to the
uncritical minds of the time, back to the beginning of the world. By
this means an authoritative chronological exposition of past time
was secured, such as under wise interpretation would disclose more
clearly the rate and manner in which God’s purpose was working itself
out.[300]
[300] At the same time chronology was incidentally made to show
in a statistical way what a great priority Hebrew civilization
had over its pagan rivals. _Cf._ pp. 79, 80.
The chronology presented by Isidore traces the course of time along
the line of the Roman emperors from Heraclius back to Julius Caesar,
and then by way of the Ptolemaic dynasty to Alexander the Great. Here
a transition is made to the Persian kings, who are followed back to
Darius near the beginning of the fifth age. The four ages between
the captivity of the Jews and the creation are marked by Biblical
personages only.
There are two matters of importance to be noted in connection with
the _De Temporibus_.[301] Isidore is the first to introduce into
formal chronology the division of the world’s history into six ages.
The idea was not his, however; he was merely putting into practice
a suggestion given repeatedly in Augustine’s writings,[302] and used
by Orosius in his _History Against the Pagans_. In the second place,
it should be remarked that Isidore shows no signs of being aware of
the proposal of Dionysius Exiguus for an era beginning with the birth
of Christ. It is true that Isidore’s sixth age is supposed to begin
at that time,—although as a matter of fact it begins at the death
of Julius Caesar,[303]—but his era is a world era beginning at the
creation.
[301] In some respects Isidore’s chronology is peculiar, and
differs from any known chronology of world-history of the time.
For example, where Hieronymus gives the time from the flood to
Abraham as 1072 years, Isidore gives it as 942 years; and where
Africanus put the birth of Christ in the year 5500 of the world,
Isidore put it in 5197. See Hertzberg, p. 376. Again, only the
full years are noticed, the fractions of the older chronologies
being either counted as integers or ignored, though this is not
done according to any system. For table showing irregularities
here, see _ibid._, p. 325, notes 3 and 4.
[302] E.g. _De Civitate Dei_, xxii, 30.
[303] 5, 38, 5.
EXTRACTS
Book V, Chapter 28. On the word _chronica_.
1. _Chronica_ is the Greek word which in Latin is rendered _series
temporum_ (succession of times), such as Eusebius, bishop of
Caesarea, wrote in Greek and the priest Hieronymus translated into
Latin; for χρόνος in Greek is translated by _tempus_ in the Latin.
Chapter 29. On moments and hours.
1. Time is divided into moments, hours, days, months, years, lusters,
generations (_saecula_), ages. A moment is the least and briefest
time, so-called from the motion (_motu_) of the stars.
2. ... _Hora_ is a Greek name and still has a Latin sound. For _hora_
is a limit (_finis_) of time, just as _horae_ are the limits of the
sea and of streams and the borders of garments.[304]
[304] _Hora_ (hour) and _ora_ (coast or border) are confused.
Chapter 30. On days.
5. The days are named from the gods (_dii_) whose names the Romans
bestowed on certain heavenly bodies. They named the first day from
Sol, which is the chief of the heavenly bodies just as this same day
is the chief of all the days.
6. The second they named from Luna, which is next to Sol in splendor
and size and borrows its light from it. The third they named from the
star of Mars, which is called Pyrois; the fourth, from the star of
Mercurius, which certain ones name Stilbon.
7. The fifth, from the star of Jupiter, which they call Phaeton; the
sixth, from the star of Venus, which they call Lucifer, which has
more light than all the other stars.
The seventh day, from the star of Saturnus, which being placed in the
seventh heaven is said to complete its course in thirty years. And
the heathen gave names to the days from the seven stars because they
thought that some influence was active upon themselves through the
same [stars], saying that they had life (_spiritus_) from Sol, body
from Luna, ability and eloquence from Mercurius, pleasure from Venus,
blood from Mars, self-control (_temperantia_) from Jupiter, and the
humors from Saturn. Such indeed was the folly of the heathen who
created such ridiculous imaginations. But among the Hebrews the first
day is called _una Sabbati_, which among us is _dies Dominicus_,
which the heathen have dedicated to Sol. The second day of the week
is _secunda Sabbati_, which the heathen call _dies Lunae_; the third
day of the week, _tertia Sabbati_, which they call _dies Martis_; the
fourth day of the week, _quarta Sabbati_, which is called _Mercurii
dies_ by the pagans; the fifth day of the week, _quinta Sabbati_,
that is, fifth day from _dies Dominicus_, which among the heathen
is called _dies Jovis_: the sixth day of the week, _sexta Sabbati_,
which is called by them _dies Veneris_. The seventh from _dies
Dominicus_ is _Sabbatum_, which the gentiles have devoted to Saturnus
and have named _dies Saturni_. Sabbatum is translated from the Hebrew
into the Latin as _requies_, because God rested on that day from all
his works.
The ecclesiastical method of speaking the names of the days comes
better from the lips of Christians; still, if custom should perchance
influence anyone so that what he disapproves of in his heart comes
forth from his mouth, let him know that all those from whom these
days were named were men, and on account of certain services of
a human sort (_mortalia_), since they were very powerful and were
prominent in this world, divine honors were bestowed on them by their
admirers, both in respect to the days and the stars, but first the
stars were named after men and then the days were named after the
stars.
Chapter 31. On night.
1. _Nox_ is derived from _nocere_ (to injure) because it injures the
eyes. And it has the light of the moon and stars in order that it may
not be without beauty, and that it may comfort all who work by night,
and that the light may be sufficiently tempered for certain creatures
that cannot endure the light of the sun.
3. Night is caused either because the sun is worn out with his long
journey and is weary when he comes to the last stretch of heaven and
blows out his weakened fires; or because he is driven under the lands
with the same force with which he carried his light over them, and
thus the shadow of the earth makes night. Whence Virgilius says:
Ruit Oceano nox
Involvens umbra magna terramque polumque.
Chapter 33. On months.
1. The word _mensis_ is Greek, being derived from the word for moon.
For in the Greek language the moon is called μήνη; whence among the
Hebrews the regular (_legitimi_) months are reckoned not from the
circle of the sun, but from the course of the moon, which is from new
moon to new moon.
2. Because of the swifter course of the moon and the fear that an
error of reckoning might arise because of its speed, the Egyptians
began to reckon the day of the month from the course of the sun,
since the slower course of the sun could be comprehended more easily.
Chapter 34. On the solstices and equinoxes.
2. There are two solstices: first, the summer solstice, eight days
before the Kalends of July, from which time the sun begins to return
to the lower circles; the second, the winter solstice, eight days
before the Kalends of January, when the sun begins to make for the
higher circles, whence the day of the winter solstice is the shortest
and that of the summer solstice the longest.
3. Likewise there are two equinoxes: one in the spring and the other
in the autumn, which the Greeks call ἰσημερίαι. These equinoxes are
the eighth day before the Kalends of April and the eighth day before
the Kalends of October, because the year formerly was divided into
two parts only, that is, into the summer and the winter solstice, and
into two hemispheres.
Chapter 35. On the seasons.
1. There are four seasons of the year: spring, summer, autumn,
winter. And they are called seasons (_tempora_) from tempering,[305]
since they are tempered in turn by moisture, dryness, heat, and cold.
[305] _A communionis temperamento._
2. It is known that after the creation of the universe the seasons
were divided into three months each, according to the quality of the
sun’s course.... And the ancients make the following divisions of
these seasons: in the first month spring is called _novum_, in the
second, _adultum_, in the third, _praeceps_.[306]
[306] So in the case of summer, autumn, and winter.
7–8. These seasons are assigned also to separate parts of the
heavens. The spring is given to the Orient, because then all things
arise (_oriuntur_) from the earth; summer to the South, because its
division is more intense in its heat; winter to the North, because
it is torpid with colds and perpetual frost; autumn to the Occident,
because it has serious diseases. Whence, too, the leaves of the trees
fall. The bordering of cold and heat and the contending of opposite
airs causes the autumn to abound in diseases.
Chapter 36. On years.
1. The year is the circle of the sun when it returns to the same
place in relation to the stars, after three hundred and sixty-five
days....
3. There are three kinds of years. For the year is the lunar, of
thirty days, the solstitial, which contains twelve months, or the
great year, when all the planets return to the same place, which
happens after many solstitial years.
Chapter 38. On generations and ages.
5. Age (_aetas_) is used properly in two ways: for it is either the
age of man, as infancy, prime, old age; or the age of the world,
whose first age is from Adam to Noe; the second, from Noe to Abraham;
the third, from Abraham to David; the fourth, from David to the
migration of Judah to Babylon; the fifth, from then to the coming of
the Saviour in the flesh; the sixth, which is now in progress and
which will continue until the world is ended.
6. Julius Africanus was the first of our [writers] to set forth
in the style of simple history, in the time of Marcus Aurelius
Antoninus, the passing of these ages by generations and reigns. Then
Eusebius, bishop of Caesarea, and the priest Hieronymus of holy
memory, published a complex history of chronological tables, using
reigns and dates at the same time.[307]
[307] The reference in “complex history” (_complicem historiam_)
is to the parallel sets of chronological tables of the histories
of different peoples given by Eusebius.
7. Then others, among them especially Victor, bishop of the church of
Tununa, reviewed the histories of earlier writers and filled out the
deeds of subsequent ages down to the consulate of the second emperor
Justinus.
8. We have noted with what brevity we could the total of these times
from the beginning of the world to the emperor Augustus Heraclius and
Suinthilanus, king of the Goths, adding at the side a column of dates
by the evidence of which the total of past time may be known.
Chapter 39. On the ordering of times (chronology).[308]
[308] Sufficient of Isidore’s chronology is translated to give an
idea of its method and of the events mentioned in it. His dates
for the six ages of the world are as follows:
First age 0–2242.
Second age 2242–3184.
Third age 3184–4125.
Fourth age 4125–4610.
Fifth age 4610–5155.
Sixth age 5155-?
The world according to Isidore’s chronology was in its 5825th
year. Although Isidore professes to start the sixth age with the
birth of Christ, he really starts it with the beginning of the
reign of Augustus. See _Chronicon_; Migne, _P. L._, vol. 83, col.
1038.
1. The first age contains at its beginning the creation of the world.
On the first day under the name of light God created the angels; on
the second, under the name of firmament, the heavens; on the third,
under the name of parting, the waters and the land; on the fourth
day, the lights of heaven; on the fifth, living things of the waters;
on the sixth, living things of the land and man, whom he called Adam.
[Years]
2. Adam in his 230th year begat Seth, from whom
[sprang] the children of God. 230
Seth in his 205th year begat Enos, who began to call
upon the name of the Lord. 435
Enos in his 190th year begat Cainan. 625
Cainan in his 170th year begat Malaleel. 795
_Second Age_
5. Sem in the second year after the flood begat
Arphaxad, from whom sprang the Chaldeans. 2244
Arphaxad in his 135th year begat Sala, from whom
sprang the Samaritans and Indians. 2379
Sala in his 130th year begat Heber, from whom
sprang the Hebrews. 2509
6. Heber in his 144th year begat Phaleg. The tower
was built. 2643
Phaleg in his 130th year begat Ragan. The gods
are first worshiped. 2773
Ragan in his 132nd year begat Seruch. The kingdom
of the Scythians begins. 2905
7. Seruch in his 130th year begat Nachor. The
king of the Egyptians appears. 3035
Nachor in his 79th year begat Tharam. The kingdom
of the Scythians and the Sycionii appears. 3114
Tharam in his 70th year begat Abraham. Zoroaster
discovered magic. 3184
_Third Age_
12. Abdon ruled eight years. Troy was captured. 4025
Samson ruled twenty years. Ascanius founded Alba. 4045
The priest Eli ruled forty years. The ark of the
covenant was captured. 4085
Samuel ruled forty years. Homer is believed to
have lived at this time. 4125
_Fourth Age_
13. David ruled forty years. Carthage is founded
by Dido. Gad, Nathan and Asaph prophesied. 4165
Solomon ruled forty years. The temple at Jerusalem
was built. 4205
_Fifth Age_
19. The captivity of the Hebrews, seventy years.
Judith writes history. 4680
Darius, thirty-four years. The captivity of the
Jews is ended. 4714
Xerxes, twenty years. The tragedians Sophocles
and Euripides are famous. 4734
20. Artaxerxes, forty years. Esdras renews the law
which was burned. 4774
Darius, called also Nothus, nineteen years. This
time possessed Plato and Gorgias, the first teacher
of rhetoric. 4793
25. Ptolemaeus, eight years. The art of rhetoric
begins at Rome. 5118
Dionysius, thirty years. Pompey takes Judaea. 5148
Cleopatra, two years. Egypt is conquered by the
Romans. 5150
Julius Caesar, five years. He was the first to
possess sole authority. 5155
_Sixth Age_
26. Octavian, fifty-six years. Christ is born. 5211
Tiberius, twenty-three years. Christ is crucified. 5234
Caius Caligula, four years. Matthew wrote his
gospel. 5238
27. Claudius, fourteen years. Mark published his
gospel. 5252
Nero, fourteen years. Peter and Paul are put to
death. 5266
Vespasian, ten years. Jerusalem was destroyed by
Titus. 5276
41. Tiberius, six years. The Lombards take Italy. 5779
Mauritius, twenty-one years. The Goths become
Catholic. 5800
Phocas, eight years. The Romans are defeated by
the Persians. 5808
42. Eraclius is now governing the empire in his seventeenth year.
The Jews in Spain are being made Christian. The remainder of the
sixth age is known to God alone.
BOOKS VI-VIII
THEOLOGY[309]
[309] These three books are not grouped by Isidore under one
name. There apparently was no name in existence by which to
designate them, as _theologia_ was not applied, commonly at
least, to Christian doctrine before Abelard’s time.
INTRODUCTION
After the five books devoted to the seven liberal arts there follow
three which are grouped together by unity of subject and are sharply
differentiated from the remainder of the _Etymologies_, which is
prevailingly secular in tone. The contents of these three form a
summary of the non-secular thought of the time.[310] Their presence
in the midst of an encyclopedia of secular learning is to be
explained, as we have seen, by the probability that their purpose was
educational, and that they are to be regarded as the texts of the
final stage in the priestly training. They thus form the conclusion
of Isidore’s educational encyclopedia.[311]
[310] The sources of bks. vi-viii differ from those of the
remaining books of the _Etymologies_ in being almost exclusively
Christian. Isidore himself, in his non-secular writings, covers
more fully the subjects which he here treats in a summary
fashion. Compare bk. vi, chaps. 1 and 2, with _Proemia in
Libros Veteris ac Novi Testamenti_; bk. vii, chaps. 6 and 7,
with _Expositiones Mysticorum Sacramentorum_ and _De Ortu et
Obitu Patrum_; bk. viii, chaps. 1–5, with _Sententiarum Libri
Tres_; bk. vi, chap. 19, and bk. vii, chaps. 12, 13, with _De
Ecclesiasticis Officiis_.
[311] See pp. 43, 86.
ANALYSIS
I. The books and services of the Church (Book VI).
1. The Old and New Testaments (ch. 1).
2. The writers and names of the holy books (ch. 2).
3. Books (chs. 3–14).
a. Libraries.
b. Translators.
c. Writers of many books.
d. Kinds of books.
e. Writing materials.
4. The canons of the Gospels (ch. 15).
5. The canons of the Councils (ch. 16).
6. The Easter cycle and other feasts (ch. 17).
7. The services of the Church (ch. 18).
II. God, the angels and the orders of the faithful (Book VII).
1. God (ch. 1).
2. The Son of God (ch. 2).
3. The Holy Spirit (ch. 3).
4. The Trinity (ch. 4).
5. The angels (ch. 5).
6. The meaning of biblical names (chs. 6–10).
7. Martyrs (ch. 11).
8. The clergy (ch. 12).
9. Monks (ch. 13).
10. The remainder of the faithful (ch. 14).
III. The Church and the different sects (Book VIII).
1. The Church and the synagogue (ch. 1).
2. Religion and faith (ch. 2).
3. Heresy (chs. 3–5).
a. The heresies of the Jews.
b. The heresies of the Christians.
4. Heathen philosophers (ch. 6).
5. Poets (ch. 7).
6. Sibyls (ch. 8).
7. Magi (ch. 9).
8. Pagans (ch. 10).
9. Heathen gods (ch. 11).
BOOK VI
ON THE BOOKS AND SERVICES OF THE CHURCH
EXTRACTS
Chapter 1. On the Old and New Testaments.
1. The Old Testament is so-called because when the New came it was
at an end, of which the Apostle speaks: Vetera transierunt, et ecce
facta sunt omnia nova.
2. The New Testament is so-called because it brings in the new. For
men do not learn it, except those renewed from their former state
through grace and now belonging to the New Testament, which is the
kingdom of heaven.
3. The Hebrews accept on Esdras’ authority twenty-two books of
the Old Testament, according to the number of their letters,[312]
dividing them into three series, namely, the Law, the Prophets, and
the Hagiographi.
[312] Of the alphabet.
4. The first series of the Law is accepted in five books, of which
the first is Beresith, which is Genesis; the second, Veele Samoth,
which is Exodus; the third, Vaicra, which is Leviticus; the fourth,
Vajedabber, which is Numbers; the fifth, Elleaddebarim, which is
Deuteronomy.
6. The second series is that of the Prophets, in which eight books
are contained, of which the first is Josue Ben-Nun, which in Latin is
called Jesu Nave; the second, Sophtin, which is Judges; the third,
Samuel, which is the first of Kings; the fourth, Malachim, which is
the second of Kings; the fifth, Isaias; the sixth, Jeremias; the
seventh, Ezechiel; the eighth, Thereazer, which is called ‘Of the
Twelve Prophets,’ which books are taken as one since they are placed
together on account of their brevity.
7. The third is the series of the Hagiographi, that is, those who
write what is holy, in which are nine books, of which the first is
Job; the second, the Psalms; the third, Misse, which is the Proverbs
of Solomon; the fourth, Cohaleth, which is Ecclesiastes; the fifth,
Sir Hassirim, which is the Song of Songs; the sixth, Daniel; the
seventh, Dibrehajamin, which is Verba dierum, _i.e._, Paralipomenon
(Chronicles); the eighth, Esdras; the ninth, Esther. And all of these
together, five, eight, and nine, make twenty-two just as they were
inclusively given above.
8. Certain add Ruth and Cinoth, which in the Latin is Lamentatio
Jeremiae, to the hagiographa and make twenty-four volumes of the Old
Testament, like the twenty-four elders who stand in the sight of the
Lord.
9. There is with us a fourth series consisting of those books of the
Old Testament which are not in the Hebrew canon. Of which the first
is the book of Wisdom (Sapientiae); the second, Ecclesiasticus; the
third, Thobias; the fourth, Judith; the fifth and sixth, of the
Machabees. Although the Jews set these aside as apocryphal, still the
church of Christ honors and preaches them among the divine books.
10. In the New Testament are two series: first the Evangelic, in
which are Matthew, Mark, Luke and John; second, the apostolic, in
which are Paul in fourteen epistles, Peter in two, John in three,
James and Jude in one each, the Acts of the Apostles and the
Apocalypse of John.
11. Moreover the whole of each Testament is triply divided, that
is, into history, morals, and allegory. Again those three have many
divisions, for example, what was done and said by God, what by the
angels, or by men, what was foretold by the prophets of Christ and
his body; what of the devil and his members; what of the old and the
new people; what of the present age, and the coming kingdom, and the
judgment.
Chapter 2. On the writers and names of the sacred books.
1. These are said to be the authors of the Old Testament according
to the Hebrew tradition. First Moses wrote a cosmography of divine
history in five volumes, which is named Pentateuch.
8. The book of Josue received its name from Jesus, son of Nave, whose
history it contains, and the Hebrews assert that the same Josue was
its writer, in the text of which, after the crossing of the Jordan,
the kingdoms of the enemy are overthrown and the land divided among
the people, and by the separate cities, villages, mountains and
boundaries the spiritual realms of the church and the heavenly
Jerusalem are prefigured.
18. Solomon, son of David, king of Israel, wrote three volumes
according to the number of his names, of which the first is in Hebrew
Misle, which the Greeks name Parabolae, the Latins, Proverbia,
because in it he sets forth figurative expressions and likenesses of
the truth under the form of a parallel.
19. The truth itself he has reserved to its readers to understand.
The second book is called Coheleth, which in the Greek is
Ecclesiastes, in Latin, Concionator, because its discourse is not
especially addressed to one, as in Proverbs, but generally to all,
teaching that all things which we see in the universe are perishable
and short-lived, and for this reason little to be desired.
20. The third book he called Sir hassirim, which is translated
Cantica Canticorum in the Latin, where in a marriage song he sings in
mystic fashion the union of Christ and the church....
21. The songs in these three books are said to be written in
hexameter and pentameter verse as Josephus and Hieronymus say.
40. These are the four Evangelists whom the holy spirit indicated in
Ezechiel in the four animals. And there are four animals, because the
faith of the Christian religion is spread by their preaching through
the four quarters of the world.
41. And they were called animals (_animalia_) because the Gospel of
Christ is preached by them on account of the soul (_anima_) of man.
And they were full of eyes within and without, since they perceive
that what was said by the prophets and what had been promised was
being fulfilled.
42. And their legs were straight because there is nothing crooked in
the Gospels. And as for the six wings apiece that cover their legs
and faces, those things which were hid are revealed at the coming of
Christ.
50. These are the writers of the sacred books who, speaking by the
holy spirit for our edification, wrote both the precepts of living
and the rule for believing.
51. In addition to these there are other volumes called apocrypha,
and they are called apocrypha, that is, set aside, because they are
doubted. For their origin is hidden and was not clear to the Fathers
from whom the authority of the genuine scriptures has come down to
us by a most certain and well-known tradition. In these apocrypha,
although some truth is found, there is no canonic authority, on
account of the many things that are false, and it is rightly judged
by the wise that they ought not to be believed [to be the work] of
those to whom they are ascribed.
52. For many [works] were brought forward by the heretics under the
name of the prophets, and many of later origin under the name of the
apostles, and all of those after careful examination were separated
from the authority of the canon, under the name of apocrypha.
Chapter 4. On translators.
1. This man [Ptolemy Philadelphus] asked Eleazer the high-priest
for the Scriptures of the Old Testament, and had them translated
from Hebrew into Greek by seventy translators, and kept them in the
library of Alexandria.
2. Being placed separately in separate cells they so translated all,
by the influence of the holy spirit, that nothing was found in the
text of any one of them, that was different in the rest, even in the
order of the words.
5. The priest, Hieronymus, being expert in the three languages,
translated the Scriptures also from Hebrew into Latin and expressed
them with eloquence, and his translation is rightly preferred to the
rest. For it is nearer to the literal, and plainer because of the
clearness of its expression, and truer, as being done by a Christian
translator.
Chapter 7. Those who wrote much.
1. Marcus Terentius Varro among the Latins wrote innumerable books.
Among the Greeks also Chalcenterus is extolled with marvelous praises
because he wrote so many books that no one of us could even copy in
his own hand-writing as many works of other men.
2. Of our own writers, too, among the Greeks, Origen in his toil upon
the Scriptures surpassed both Greeks and Latins in the number of his
works. Hieronymus asserts that he had read 6,000 of his books.
3. However Augustine surpassed the zeal of all these by his genius
and wisdom. For he wrote so much that no one is able in the days and
nights even to read his books, far less to write them.
Chapter 16. On the canons of the councils.
5. Among the rest of the councils we know there are four venerable
synods which embrace the whole faith in its chief heads, like the
four Gospels or the four rivers of Paradise.
6. Of these the first, the Nicene synod of 318 bishops, was held when
Constantine was emperor. In it the blasphemy of the Arian perfidy
was condemned, which the same Arius gave utterance to concerning the
inequality of the holy Trinity. The same holy synod in the creed
defined God the son as consubstantial with God, the father.
7. The second synod of 150 fathers gathered at Constantinople under
Theodosius the elder, and condemning Macedonius, who denied that the
Holy Spirit was God, proved that the Holy Spirit was consubstantial
with the Father and the Son, giving the form of the creed which the
whole confession, Greek and Latin, preaches in the churches.
8. The third synod, the first of Ephesus, of 200 bishops, was held
under Theodosius II, and it condemned with a just anathema Nestorius,
who asserted that there were two persons in Christ, and showed that
the one person of the Lord Jesus Christ was immanent in the two
natures.
9. The fourth synod of 630 priests was held at Chalcedon under
Martianus, and it condemned by the unanimous vote of the fathers
Euthyches, abbot of Constantinople, who asserted that the nature of
the Word of God and of flesh was one, and his defender, Dioscorus,
bishop of Alexandria, and Nestorius himself a second time, along with
the remaining heretics, the same synod stating that Christ the Lord
was so born of the virgin that we confess in him the substance both
of the divine and of the human nature.
These four are the principal synods, stating most fully the doctrine
of faith; and whatever councils there are which the holy Fathers,
full of the spirit of God, have ratified, after the authority of
these four, they continue established in all strength.
Chapter 17. The cycle of Easter.
10. After the completion of this [95-year cycle][313] a return
must be made to the beginning. In ancient times the church used to
celebrate Easter on the 14th of the moon at the same time as the
Jews, whatever day it came on; this way of celebrating the holy
Fathers forbade at the council of Nicaea, giving directions to make
inquiry not only for the Easter moon and month, but also to observe
the day of the resurrection of the Lord, and because of this they
extended Easter from the 14th of the moon to the 21st, in order that
the _dies Dominicus_ might not be left out.
[313] This passage is preceded by a table indicating the date
of Easter for 95 years (627–721). It is clear that although
Isidore was not acquainted with the plan of Dionysius Exiguus
to institute the Christian era, he was acquainted with the
essentials of his Easter table. Dionysius had given the dates
for Easter in five 19-year cycles, dating from 525; in Isidore
this is continued for the years 627 to 721. Isidore’s table
consists merely of parallel columns of the days of the month
and corresponding days of the moon on which Easter fell. Each
date is marked C or E, abbreviations for _communis annus_ and
_embolismus_ which describe respectively the year of twelve and
that of thirteen lunar months in use in the Hebrew chronology.
A further abbreviation, B, stands opposite each fourth year, to
mark the leap-years. The years are not numbered according to
any era, and the assignment of dates, 627–721, is inferred from
the dates given for Easter. See Ideler, _Chronologie_, vol. ii,
p. 290 (Berlin, 1826). Isidore does not make it plain that he
understood the mathematics of the computation of Easter. It is
of interest that in 643 the fourth synod of Toledo passed an
enactment to secure a common observance of Easter throughout the
Spanish churches, no doubt according to this Easter-table. See
Gams, _Die Kirchengeschichte von Spanien_ (Regensburg, 1874),
vol. ii, part 2, p. 94.
12. The eve of Easter is spent in watching because of the coming of
our King and God, that the time of the resurrection may find us not
sleeping but waking. And the reason for this night is a double one,
either because he received life at that time when he suffered, or
because he is to come for judgment at the same hour at which he arose.
13. And we celebrate Easter in such a way as not merely to call to
memory the death and resurrection of Christ but also to consider the
rest that is told about him with reference to its mystic meaning (_ad
sacramentorum significationem_).
14. For on account of beginning the new life, and on account of
the new man which we are bidden to put on and to put off the old,
purging away the old ferment in order that we may be a new sprinkling
(_conspersio_), since Christ is sacrificed as our Pascha (Passover);
on account of this newness of life, then, the first month in the
months of the year is mystically assigned to the Easter festival.
15. And that Easter is celebrated on a day in the third week, that
is, a day that occurs between the fourteenth and twenty-first, this
signifies that in the whole time of the world, which is based on the
unit of seven days, this mystery has now opened a third time.
16. For the first time is before the law, the second under the law,
the third under grace. Wherein the mystery before hidden in the
prophetic allegory is now plain, and the resurrection of the Lord is
on the third day on account of these three periods of the world.
17. As to the fact that Easter day is sought through seven days from
the fourteenth to the twenty-first, this is done on account of the
number seven, by which the meaning of completeness is often figured,
which is also assigned to the church itself because it is universal.
For this reason also John, the apostle, writes to the seven churches.
18. And by the name of the moon in the Scriptures, on account of its
mutability it is signified that the church as yet is established
[only] in the mortality of the flesh.
19. An observance of different opinions as to the feast of Easter
sometimes produces error. For the Latins seek for the moon of the
first month from the third day before the Nones of March to the third
before the Nones of April, and if the fourteenth day of the moon
comes on Sunday, they postpone Easter to another Sunday.
20. The Greeks observe the moon of the first month from the eighth
before the Ides of March to the day of the Nones of April, and
if the fifteenth day of the moon comes on the Lord’s day, they
celebrate Easter. A difference of this sort between them disturbs the
regularity of the Easter canon.
BOOK VII
ON GOD, THE ANGELS, AND THE ORDERS OF THE FAITHFUL
EXTRACTS
Chapter 1. On God.
1. The most blessed Hieronymus, a man of the greatest learning and
skilled in many languages, first rendered into the Latin language
the meaning of the Hebrew names. And leaving out many for brevity, I
propose to insert certain of them in this work with their meanings in
addition.
2. For the explanation of words sufficiently indicates what they
mean. For certain have the reason for their names in peculiar causes.
And at the beginning we set down ten names by which God is called
among the Hebrews....
Chapter 5. On angels.
2. The word angel is the name of a function, not of a nature; for
they are always spirits, but are called angels when they are sent.
3. And the license of painters makes wings for them in order to
denote their swift passage in every direction, just as also in the
fables of the poets the winds are said to have wings on account of
their velocity....
4. The sacred writings testify that there are nine orders of
angels, namely, angels, archangels, thrones, dominions, virtues,
principalities, powers, cherubim and seraphim. And we shall explain
by derivation why the names of these functions were so applied.
5. Angels are so called because they are sent down from heaven to
carry messages to men....
6. Archangels in the Greek tongue means _summi nuntii_ in the Latin.
For they who carry small or trifling messages are called angels; and
they who announce the most important things are called archangels....
Archangels are so called because they hold the leadership among
angels.... For they are leaders and chiefs under whose control
services are assigned to each and every angel.
17. Certain functions of angels by which signs and wonders are done
in the world are called virtues, on account of which the virtues are
named.
18. Those are powers to whom hostile virtues are subject, and they
are called by the name of powers because evil spirits are constrained
by their power not to harm the world as much as they desire.
19. Principalities are those who are in command of the hosts of the
angels. And they have received the name of principality because
they send the subordinate angels here and there to do the divine
service....
20. Dominions are they who are in charge even of the virtues and
principalities, and they are called dominions because they rule the
rest of the hosts of the angels.
21. Thrones are the hosts of angels who in the Latin are called
_sedes_; and they are called thrones because the creator presides
over them, and through them accomplishes his decisions.
22. Cherubim ... are the higher hosts of angels who, being placed
nearer, are fuller of the divine wisdom than the rest....
24. The seraphim in like manner are a multitude of angels, and the
word is translated from the Hebrew into the Latin as _ardentes_ or
_incendentes_, and they are called _ardentes_ because between them
and God no other angels stand, and therefore the nearer they stand in
his presence the more they are lighted by the brightness of divine
light.
25. And they veil the face and feet of God sitting on his throne, and
therefore the rest of the throng of angels are not able to see fully
the essence of God, since the seraphim cover him.
28. To each and every one, as has been said before, his proper duties
are appointed, and it is agreed that they obtained these according
to merit at the beginning of the world. That angels have charge over
both places and men, an angel testifies through the prophet, saying:
“Princeps regni Persarum mihi restitit” (Dan. x. 13).
29. Whence it is evident that there is no place that angels have not
charge of. They have charge also over the beginnings of all works.
30. Such is the order or classification of the angels who after
the fall of the wicked stood in celestial strength. For after the
apostate angels fell, these were established in the continuance of
eternal blessedness.
32. As to the two seraphim that are read of in Isaiah, they show in a
figure the meaning of the Old and the New Testament. But as to their
covering the face and feet of God, it is because we cannot know the
past before the universe, nor the future after the universe, but
according to their testimony we contemplate only the intervening
time.
Chapter 6. On men who received prophetic names.
1. Most of the men of early times have the origin of their names
in appropriate causes. And their names have been given in such a
prophetic way that they are in harmony with either their future or
their antecedent causes.
2. However we shall now examine merely their literal meaning in
history, without touching on the inner meaning of the spirit.
Chapter 11. On martyrs.
4. There are two kinds of martyrs, one in open suffering, the
other in the hidden virtue of the spirit. For many, enduring the
lyings-in-wait of the enemy and resisting all carnal desires, have
become martyrs even in time of peace, because they have sacrificed
themselves in their heart to the omnipotent God, and if they had
lived in time of persecution, they could have been martyrs in reality.
Chapter 12. On the clergy.
4. The order of bishops is four-fold, namely, patriarchs,
archbishops, metropolitans, and bishops.
5. Patriarch in the Greek tongue means highest of the fathers,
because he holds the first, that is, the Apostolic place, and he is
honored by such a name because he holds the highest office, as for
example, the patriarch of Rome, Antioch or Alexandria.
BOOK VIII[314]
THE CHURCH AND THE DIFFERENT SECTS
EXTRACTS
[314] It is worth noticing that in bks. vii and viii Isidore
gives a list of the whole hierarchy of supernatural and human
existences beginning with God and ending with the devil. An
inspection of the order of subjects will suggest to the reader
that he was arranging them in order of merit. If this supposition
is correct, the table of contents of these two books is a very
significant one, as throwing light upon Isidore’s scale of values
for the divine, the human and the demonic.
Chapter 1. On the church and the synagogue.
4. The church began at the place where the holy spirit came from
heaven and filled those who were sitting together.
5. In view of its present sojourn in strange parts the church is
called Sion, because from the distant viewpoint of this sojourn it
contemplates the promise of heavenly things, and therefore it has
received the name Sion, that is, contemplation.
6. Moreover in view of the peace of the future land it is called
Jerusalem, for Jerusalem means vision of peace. For there, all
suffering ended, it shall possess with near contemplation the peace
which is Christ.
Chapter 3. On heresy.
1. _Haeresis_ is so-called in the Greek from choosing, because,
forsooth, each one chooses for himself what seems to him to
be better, as the Peripatetic philosophers, the Academic, the
Epicureans, and the Stoics, or as others who, following perverse
belief, have departed from the church of their own free will.
2. And so heresy is named in the Greek from its meaning of choice,
since each at his own will chooses what he pleases to teach or
believe. But we are not permitted to believe anything of our own
will, nor to choose what someone has believed of his.
3. We have God’s apostles as authorities, who did not themselves of
their own will choose anything of what they should believe, but they
faithfully transmitted to the nations the teaching received from
Christ. And so, even if an angel from heaven shall preach otherwise,
he shall be called anathema.
Chapter 5. On the heresies of the Christians.
69. There are also other heresies[315] without founders or names:
some of whom believe that God has three forms; and others say that
the divinity of Christ is capable of suffering; and others set a date
in time to the generation of Christ by the Father. Others believe
that by the descent of Christ the liberation of all[316] in the lower
regions was accomplished; others deny that the soul is the image of
God; others think that souls are changed to demons and to animals of
every sort; others hold different views about the constitution of the
universe; others think there are innumerable universes; others make
water co-eternal with God; others go on their bare feet; others do
not eat in company with men.
[315] A list of heresies precedes.
[316] Du Breul, _hominum_ instead of _omnium_.
70. These heresies have arisen against the catholic faith and have
been condemned beforehand by the apostles and the holy fathers, or
by the councils, and while they are not consistent with one another,
being divided among many different errors, they still conspire with
one assent against the church of God. But whoever understands the
holy Scripture otherwise than as the sense of the Holy Spirit, by
whom it was written, demands, though he do not withdraw from the
church, he can be still called a heretic.
Chapter 6. On the heathen philosophers.
1. Philosophers are so-called by a Greek name, which in Latin means
_amatores sapientiae_. For he is a philosopher who has a knowledge of
divine and human things, and keeps wholly to the way of right living.
2. The name of the philosophers is said to have first originated with
Pythagoras. For when the ancient Greeks boastfully named themselves
sophists, that is, wise men, or teachers of wisdom, he was asked
what he professed to be, and he modestly replied that he was a
philosopher, that is, lover of wisdom, since to make a profession of
wisdom seemed very arrogant.
3. And so in later times it became the practice to give only the
name of philosopher, no matter how great the learning in matters
pertaining to wisdom each seemed to himself or to others to possess.
And these philosophers are divided into three classes: for they are
either natural philosophers (_physici_), or moral (_ethici_), or
rational (_logici_).
4. The natural philosophers are so-called because they treat of
nature....
5. The moral philosophers are so-called because they discuss
morals....
6. The rational philosophers are so named because they add
reason to nature and morals.... These are divided into their
schools, some having names from their founders, as _Platonici_,
_Epicurei_, _Pythagorici_; others from their places of meeting, as
_Peripatetici_, _Stoici_, _Academici_.
7. The _Platonici_ are named from the philosopher Plato. They assert
that God is the creator of souls, the angels of bodies; they say that
after many cycles of years souls return to different bodies.
9. [The Stoics] assert that no one is happy without virtue. They
claim that every sin is equally sinful, saying: “He is as guilty
who steals chaff as he who steals gold, he who kills a waterfowl as
he who kills a horse; for it is not the thing but the spirit (_non
animal sed animus_) that makes the sin.”
10. These also say that the soul perishes with the body. They love
the virtue of self-control, and seek eternal glory although they
assert that they are not immortal.
11. The _Academici_ are named from Academia, Plato’s villa at Athens,
where he taught. These believe that all things are uncertain; but
although it must be admitted that many things which God willed to
surpass the understanding of man, are uncertain and hidden from us,
yet there are very many things which can be received by the senses
and apprehended by man.
15. The Epicureans are named from Epicurus, a certain philosopher, a
lover of vanity not of wisdom, whom the very philosophers themselves
called a swine because he wallowed in carnal filth and asserted that
bodily pleasure was the highest good, and even said that the universe
was not formed and ruled by a divine Providence.
16. But he assigned the origin of things to atoms, that is, to
indivisible material bodies, from the chance combination of which all
things arise and have arisen. He said that God did nothing, that all
things are corporeal, that the soul is not different from the body.
And so he said, “I shall not exist after I die.”
22. These errors of the philosophers have given rise also to heresies
in the church....
23. When it is said that the soul perishes, Epicurus is honored; and
the denial of the resurrection of the flesh is taken from all the
philosophers; and where matter is put on an equality with God, it is
the teaching of Zeno; and where anything is read about a God of fire,
Heraclitus comes in. The same material is used and the same errors
are embraced over and over by heretics and philosophers.
Chapter 7. On poets.
1. Tranquillus thus tells why poets were so named: “When men putting
off savagery first began to have a settled mode of life and to obtain
a knowledge of themselves and their gods, they contrived a modest
way of living and necessary words for themselves, but sought for
magnificence in each for the worship of their gods.
2. And so, just as they made temples more beautiful than the homes
of that time, and images larger than men’s bodies, so they thought
that [the gods] must be honored with an eloquence even more stately,
and they extolled their merits in splendid words and pleasure-giving
verse.”
10. The function of a poet is in this, that by the aid of a
figurative and indirect mode of speech he gracefully changes and
transforms to a different aspect what has really taken place. But
Lucan is not placed in the number of poets because he seems to have
composed a history, not a poem.
Chapter 8. On the sibyls.
3. The most learned authors relate that there were ten Sibyls. Of
whom the first was the Persian; the second, the Libyan; the third,
the Delphian, born in the temple of the Delphian Apollo, who foretold
the Trojan wars and very many of whose verses Homer inserted in his
work; the fourth, the Cimmerian in Italy; the fifth, the Erythraean,
Herophyla by name, born in Babylon, who foretold to the Greeks on
their way to Ilium that they would perish and Homer would write lies;
she was called Erythraean because her verses were found in that
island; the sixth, the Samian....
5. The seventh, the Sibyl of Cumae, who brought nine books to
Tarquinius Priscus in which were written the secrets[317] of Rome....
[317] Reading _secreta_ for _decreta_.
6. The eighth, the Sibyl of Hellespont, born in Trojan territory, who
is said to have lived in the days of Solon and Cyrus.... The ninth,
who prophesied at Ancyra. The tenth, the Sibyl of Tibur, Albunea by
name.
7. Verses of all these are published, in which it is manifestly
proved that they wrote many things about God and Christ and the
heathen. The Erythraean Sibyl, however, is said to be the most
celebrated and famous of them all.
Chapter 9. On the magi.
1. The first of the magi was Zoroaster, king of the Bactrians, whom
Ninus, king of the Assyrians, slew in battle, and of whom Aristotle
writes that on the evidence of his works it is clear that he composed
2,000,000 verses.
2. This art was enlarged by Democritus many centuries later when
Hippocrates was famous for his knowledge of medicine....
3. And so this vanity of the magic arts flourished during many
generations in the whole world by the teaching of the bad angels,
through a certain knowledge of the future and the summoning up of
infernal spirits. Their inventions are divinations, auguries, the
so-called oracles, and necromancy.
4. And there is no miracle in the feats of the magicians, whose arts
of wickedness reached such perfection that they actually resisted
Moses by wonders very like his, turning twigs to serpents and water
to blood.
5. It is said that there was a very famous magician, Circe, who
turned Ulysses’ companions into beasts. We also read of a sacrifice
which the Arcadians offered to their god Lycaeus when all who ate of
it were changed to the shapes of beasts.
6. And it is plain that the famous poet wrote of a certain woman who
excelled in the magic arts: “She promises to soothe by her charms the
minds of whomsoever she wishes, and to cause others cruel anxieties;
to stay the current in the stream, to turn the stars back. She
summons the spirits of the dead at night; you shall hear the earth
bellow beneath your feet and see the ash trees come down the mountain
side.”[318]
[318] Verg. _Aen._ 4, 487–491, not quoted directly but taken from
Augustine, _De Civitate Dei_, 21, 6.
7. Why should I tell further of the sorceress—if it is right to
believe it—how she summoned the soul of the prophet Samuel from the
secret places of hell and presented him to the gaze of the living—if
we are to believe that it was the soul of the prophet and not some
fantastic deceit created by the trickery of Satan.
8. Prudentius, too, tells of Mercury: “It is said that he recalled
the souls of the dead to the light by the power of the wand he held,
and others he condemned to death.” And a little later he adds: “The
wicked art can summon unsubstantial forms with its magic murmur and
utter incantations over sepulchral ashes, and others it can deprive
of life.”
9. The magi are they who are usually called _malefici_ because of the
greatness of their guilt. They throw the elements into commotion,
disorder men’s minds, and without any draught of poison they kill by
the mere virulence of a charm.
10. ... They summon demons, and dare to work such juggleries that
each one slays his enemies by evil arts. They use blood also, and
victims, and often touch dead bodies.
11. Necromancers are they by whose incantations the dead appear to
revive and prophesy and answer questions.... To summon them blood is
thrown on a corpse; for they say demons love blood, and therefore as
often as necromancy is practiced blood is mixed with water, that they
may be more easily attracted owing to the color of blood.
12. The _hydromantii_ are so named from water. For it is hydromancy
to summon the shades of demons by looking into water and to see their
likenesses or mockeries, and to be told some things by them, while
the pretence is made that it is actually the dead who are being
questioned by the aid of blood.[319]
[319] From Augustine, _De Civitate Dei_, bk. vii. cap. 35.
13. This sort of divination is said to have been introduced by the
Persians. Varro says there are four kinds of divination, namely,
by earth, air, water, fire; hence geomancy, hydromancy, aeromancy,
pyromancy.
14. _Divini_ (sooth-sayers) are so called as if they were _Deo pleni_
(full of God); for they pretend that they are full of divinity and
they guess men’s future by a deceitful cleverness.
There are two sorts of [this] divination, skill and frenzy.
16. _Arioli_ (sooth-sayers) are so named because they utter their
execrable prayers at the altars (_aras_) of idols and make funeral
offerings, and because of their solemn observances they receive
responses from demons.
23. The _genethliaci_ are so named because of their observance of
natal days. They lay out men’s nativities according to the twelve
constellations of heaven, and by the course of the stars endeavor to
foretell the characters, deeds, and fortunes of the new-born, that
is, under what sign each has been born, and what result it has for
the life of him who is born.
25. At first the interpreters of the stars were called _magi_, as is
read of those who announced the birth of Christ in the Gospel; later
they had only the name of _mathematici_.
26. A knowledge of this art was granted up to the time of the Gospel,
that when Christ was born no one after that should read the nativity
of anyone from heaven.
30. To these belong also the _ligatures_, with their accursed
remedies, which medical science condemns, whether in charms or in
signs or in suspending and binding articles.
31. In all these the demonic art has arisen from a pestilential
association of men and bad angels. Whence all must be avoided by
Christians and rejected and condemned with thorough-going malediction.
Chapter 10. On the heathen.
2. The Gentiles are they who are without the law and have not yet
believed. Moreover they are called Gentiles because they are in their
con-genital state, that is, just as in the flesh they have plunged
down into sin, to wit, serving idols and not yet regenerate.
Chapter 11. On the gods of the heathen.
1. They whom the pagans assert to be gods are known to have been men
at one time, and in accordance with the life and services of each one
they began to be worshiped among their own people after their death,
as, in Egypt, Isis; in Crete, Jove; among the Moors, Juba; among the
Latins, Faunus; among the Romans, Quirinus.
2. ... And in their praises the poets, too, have helped, and by
writing poems have raised them up to the heavens.
3. It is said that the invention of certain arts has given rise to
worship, as medicine for Aesculapius, craftsmanship for Vulcan. And
they get their names from their activities, as Mercurius because he
is in charge of merchandise; Liber from liberty.
4. There were also certain brave men and founders of cities, upon
whose death men, because they loved them, made images of them, so as
to have some comfort from the contemplation of their likenesses, but
this error, it is now plain, so insinuated itself among later men by
the influence of demons, that the persons whom earlier men honored
for the sake of memory and nothing else, were believed by their
successors to be gods, and were worshiped.
5. The use of images arose when, because of longing for the dead,
likenesses or representations were made of them as if they had
been received into heaven. And demons substituted themselves to
be worshiped on earth in their place, and persuaded deceived and
wretched men that sacrifices should be made to them.
12. While wicked pride, whether of men or of demons, commands and
desires this worship, on the other hand pious humility, whether of
men or of holy angels, refuses it when offered to them and shows to
whom it is due.
15. Demons, they say, were named by the Greeks as if δαήμονας, that
is, clever and knowing about things. For they foreknow many things
that are to come, and because of this they are wont to give some
responses.
16. For there is in them a knowledge of things greater than is in
human weakness, partly by the keenness of their subtler sense, partly
by the experience of very long life, partly by God’s command as
revealed by the angels. They are strong in the nature of their aerial
bodies.
17. Before their transgression, indeed, they had celestial bodies.
But they fell and changed to an aerial quality, and they are not
allowed to occupy the purer stretches of yonder airy space, but those
misty parts, and this serves as a sort of prison for them until the
time of judgment. These are the apostate angels, and their chief is
the devil.
18. The devil (_diabolus_) in Hebrew means flowing downward (_deorsum
fluens_), because he despised a calm station at heaven’s height and
fell in downward ruin by the weight of his pride; but in Greek devil
means accuser, whether because he reports the guilty deeds to which
he is himself the tempter, or because he accuses the innocence of
the elect with false crimes. Whence the angel’s voice says in the
Apocalypse: “The accuser of our brethren has been cast down, who
accused them in the sight of God day and night.”
19. _Satanas_ signifies in Latin the adversary, or deserter. He is
the adversary, for he is the foe of truth, and struggles to resist
the virtues of the holy; and the deserter, because he became an
apostate and did not stand by the truth in which he was created; and
the tempter, because he demands that the uprightness of the just be
tried, as is written in Job.
20. Antichrist is so named because he is going to oppose Christ. It
is not as certain simple-minded persons understand, that he is called
Antichrist because he is going to come before Christ, that is, that
Christ will come after him; not so, but Antichrist in the Greek means
in the Latin _contrarius Christo_, for ἀντὶ in Greek means _contra_
in Latin.
21. For when he comes he will say falsely that he is Christ, and he
will fight against him, and will oppose the sacraments of Christ, in
order to destroy the Gospel of truth.
22. For he will try to repair the temple at Jerusalem and to restore
all the ceremonies of the old law; moreover he is Antichrist who
denies that Christ is God, for he is opposed to Christ; all who
go out of the church and are cut off from the unity of faith are
themselves Antichrist.
37. They say that _Janus_ is the gate (_janua_), as it were, of the
universe, or the heavens or the months; they make Janus with two
faces because of the East and the West; when they make him with four
faces and call him the double Janus they refer this to the four
quarters of the universe or to the four elements or seasons. But when
they make this pretence they make a monster, not a god.
56. They say that Diana [Apollo’s] sister is at the same time Luna
and the divinity of roads. And they represent her as a maiden because
nothing grows on a road. And both [Apollo and Diana] are falsely
represented as having arrows because the sun and moon send their rays
from heaven down to the earth.
81. _Pan_ is a Greek name; the Latin is _Silvanus_; the god of the
country people whom they invented to represent nature, whence he is
called Pan, that is, _all_. For they pretend that he is made out of
every kind of element.
82. For he has horns to represent the rays of the sun and moon; he
has a skin, marked by spots, because of the stars of heaven; his face
is red to represent the ether; he carries a Pan’s-pipe of seven reeds
because of the harmony of the heavens in which are seven sounds, and
the seven notes of the voice.
89. These[320] and others are the fabulous imaginations of the
heathen, and, being rightly understood, they are such that their
worship, though in ignorance, brings damnation.
[320] The reference is to heathen gods.
100. They say _manes_ are the gods of the dead, whose power, they
assert, is between the moon and the earth....
101. _Larvae_ they say are demons made from men who have been wicked.
It is said to be their nature to terrify little ones and to gibber in
dark corners.
BOOK IX
ON LANGUAGES, RACES, EMPIRES, WARFARE, CITIZENS, RELATIONSHIPS
INTRODUCTION
In spite of the apparent lack of unity indicated by the title, the
subject of Book IX may be fairly described as mankind. It is true
that language is the first topic, but it is brought in merely because
Isidore believed that differences of race were based on differences
of language. It is followed by a survey of the races of mankind,
ending with an account of the races that had won military prominence.
Isidore then turns to man within the state and treats of him first as
a soldier and then as a citizen. Finally man is taken up as a member
of the family, and an account of family relationship and of marriage
is given.[321]
[321] Isidore gives a table of “the prohibited degrees” within
which marriage was forbidden by the rule of the church. Since
the introduction of Christianity these had been steadily
extended until in Isidore’s lifetime intermarriage within the
seventh degree was prohibited by Pope Gregory. The analogy
between the wide extension of “the prohibited degrees” in the
dark ages and that found among primitive peoples generally is
remarkable. Westermarck, _History of Human Marriage_, p. 297,
says: “As a rule among primitive peoples unaffected by modern
civilization, the prohibited degrees are more numerous than in
advanced communities, the prohibitions in many cases referring
even to all the members of a tribe or clan.” For an account of
this development of marriage, see Westermarck, _op. cit._, p.
308, and Smith and Cheetham’s _Christian Antiquities_, art.
“Prohibited Degrees.” This social phenomenon of the dark ages
is a development parallel to the recrudescence of the primitive
in the intellectual sphere which is illustrated in so marked a
manner in the _Etymologies_ (_cf._ pp. 50–54).
ANALYSIS
I. Languages (ch. 1).
II. Mankind (ch. 2).
1. Mankind the descendants of the sons of Noah (Secs. 2–37).
2. General view of the peoples of the earth with their Hebrew
origin where known (Secs. 37–135).
III. Empires, rulers, and warfare (ch. 3).
IV. Terms relating to civil life (ch. 4).
V. The family (chs. 5–7).
1. The direct line (ch. 5).
2. Relatives and degrees of relationship, with the “prohibited
degrees” (ch. 6).
3. Marriage (ch. 7).
EXTRACTS
Chapter 1. On the languages of the nations.
1. The diversity of languages arose after the flood, at the building
of the tower; for before that proud undertaking divided human society
among different languages (_in diversos signorum sonos_) there
was one tongue for all peoples, which is called Hebrew. This the
patriarchs and prophets used, not only in their conversation, but in
the sacred writings as well. At first there were as many languages
as peoples, then more peoples than languages, because many peoples
sprang from one language.
3. There are three sacred languages, Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, and
they are supreme through all the world. For it was in these three
languages that the charge against the Lord was written above the
cross by Pilate. Wherefore, because of the obscurity of the holy
Scriptures, a knowledge of these three languages is necessary, in
order that there may be recourse to a second if the expression in one
of them leads to doubt of a word or its meaning.
4. But the Greek tongue is considered most famous among the tongues
of the nations. For it is more resonant than the Latin and all other
tongues, and its variety is discerned in its five divisions: of which
the first is called κοινή, that is, debased or common, which all use.
5. The second is Attic, that is, the Athenian speech which all the
writers of Greece used. The third is Doric, which the Egyptians have
and the Sicilians. The fourth is Ionic. The fifth, Aeolic, which
the Aeoles spoke. In observing the Greek tongue there are definite
distinctions of this sort; for their language is divided in this way.
6. Certain have asserted that there are four Latin languages, namely,
the early, the Latin, the Roman, the corrupted. The early is that
which the oldest Italians used in the time of Janus and Saturn, a
rude speech, as is shown in the songs of the Salii; the Latin, which
they spoke in Latium under Latinus and the kings of Tuscia, in which
the twelve tables were written.
7. The Roman, which began to be spoken by the Roman people after
the kings were driven out, which was used by the poets Naevius,
Plautus, Ennius, Virgilius, the orators Gracchus, Cato, Cicero, and
the rest. The corrupted Latin, which, after the empire was extended
more widely, burst into the Roman state along with customs and men,
corrupting the soundness of speech by solecisms and barbarisms.
10. Every language, Greek, Latin, or of other nations, any man can
grasp by hearing it, or can get from a teacher by reading. Though a
knowledge of all languages is difficult for anyone, still no one is
so sluggish that, situated as he is in his own nation, he should not
know his own nation’s language. For what else is he to be thought
except lower than the brute animals? For they make the sound that
is proper to them, but he is worse who lacks a knowledge of his own
language.
11. What sort of language God spoke at the beginning of the world
when he said “Let there be light”, it is difficult to discover. For
there were no languages yet. Likewise [it is hard to learn] in what
tongue he spoke later to man’s external ear, especially when he spoke
to the first man or to the prophets, or when God’s voice sounded
corporally[322] as when he said, “Thou art my beloved son”, where it
is believed by certain authorities that he used that one and single
language that existed before there was a diversity of language.
However among the different nations it is believed that God speaks
to them in that same tongue which they themselves use, so as to be
understood by them.
[322] _Corporaliter._
12. God speaks to men, not through the agency of invisible substance,
but by an embodied being, in which form he has willed to appear to
men when he has spoken. The Apostle says also: “If I speak with the
tongues of men and of angels”, where the question arises in what
tongue angels speak. Not that angels have languages, but this is said
figuratively.
13. Likewise it is asked what tongue men will speak in future. The
answer is nowhere found....
14. And we have written first about tongues and later about nations
for the reason that nations have arisen from tongues, not tongues
from nations.
Chapter 2. On names of Nations.
2. The nations among whom the earth is divided are seventy-three.
Fifteen from Japhet, thirty-one from Cham, twenty-seven from
Sem, which make seventy-three, or rather, as calculation shows,
seventy-two, and as many languages began to exist throughout the
lands, and increasing they filled the provinces and islands.
9. ... These[323] are the nations of the stock of Sem, possessing the
southern land from the sun-rise all the way to the Phoenicians.
25. ... These[323] are the nations of the stock of Cham, who hold all
the southern part from Sidon all the way to the Strait of Cadiz.
[323] The names of the nations are enumerated in the preceding
sections.
37. These are the nations of the stock of Japhet, which possessed
the half of Asia and all Europe as far as the British Ocean, leaving
names to both places and peoples from Mt. Taurus to Aquilo, of which
at a later time a great many were changed, but the rest remain as
they were.
38. For the names of many peoples have remained in part, so that it
is evident to-day whence they were derived, as the Assyrians from
Assur, the Hebrews from Heber, but they have changed in part, through
length of time, so that the most learned men scanning the oldest
histories have with difficulty been able to find the origins, not of
all, but of some of them.
39. ... And if all things should be considered, it is evident that
a greater number of peoples have changed their names than have kept
them, and different reasons have imposed different names on them. For
the Indi were so-called from the river Indus which bounds them on the
west.
40. The Seres[324] obtained a name from their own town, a people
lying toward the East, among whom wool taken from trees is woven.
[324] The name China appeared for the first time in the
_Christian Topography_ of Cosmas Indicopleustes. It does not
appear in the _Etymologies_.
89. The Goths are believed to have been named from Magog, son of
Japhet, from the likeness of the last syllable. These the ancients
called Getae, rather than Goths, a race brave and very powerful, of
lofty massive stature, fear-inspiring in the matter of arms....
96. The Vindilicus is a river bursting forth in the extremity of
Gaul, near which stream the Vandals are said to have dwelt, and to
have derived their name from it.
97. The nations of Germany are so-called because their bodies are
of monstrous size, and their tribes are terrible, being inured to
the fiercest cold, and they have derived their characteristics from
the rigor of the climate, of fierce spirit and always unconquerable,
living on plunder and hunting. Of these there are very many
tribes, varying in their armor and in the color of their dress and
with different languages, and the derivation of their names is
doubtful.... The frightfulness of their barbarism contributes a
certain fearfulness of sound to their very names.
100. The tribe of Saxons, dwelling on the shores of the Ocean and
among pathless marshes, brave and active. And from this they get
their name, because they are a hardy and very strong race of men, and
one that surpasses other tribes in piracy.
101. It is believed that the Francs were so-called from a certain
leader. Others think that their name comes from the savagery of their
character. For their customs are uncouth, and they have a natural
fierceness of spirit.
102. Certain suspect that the Britons were so-called according to
the Latin because they are stupid (_bruti_), a people situated in
the midst of the Ocean, separated by the sea, as it were, beyond the
circle of lands.
105. In accordance with diversity of climate, the appearance of men
and their color and bodily size vary and diversities of mind appear.
Thence we see that the Romans are dignified, the Greeks unstable, the
Africans crafty, the Gauls fierce by nature and somewhat headlong in
their disposition, which the character of the climates brings about.
132. The Anthropophagi, a very fierce people, situated in the
direction of the Seres. And they are named Anthropophagi because they
eat human flesh. And just as in the case of these, so in the case of
other peoples throughout the ages, names have been changed either
because of kings, or countries, or customs, or some other causes, so
that the first origin of their name is not evident, owing to distance
of time.
133. Moreover those who are called Antipodes, because they are
believed to be opposite to our feet, so that, being as it were placed
beneath the earth, they tread in footsteps that are opposed to our
feet. It is by no means to be believed, because neither the solid
texture nor the center of the earth admits it. Besides, this is not
established by any historical evidence, but the poets arrive at this
conclusion by a sort of reasoning.
Chapter 3. On kingdoms and terms used in warfare.