Isidore of Seville

Saint Isidore of Seville (c. 560 – 4 April 636) serves as Archbishop of Seville for more than three decades and is considered, as the 19th-century historian Montalembert put it in an oft-quoted phrase, "The last scholar of the ancient world".

At a time of disintegration of classical culture, and aristocratic violence and illiteracy, he is involved in the conversion of the royal Visigothic Arians to Catholicism, both assisting his brother Leander of Seville, and continuing after his brother's death.

He is influential in the inner circle of Sisebut, Visigothic king of Hispania.

Like Leander, he plays a prominent role in the Councils of Toledo and Seville.

The Visigothic legislation that results from these councils influences the beginnings of representative government.

His fame after his death was based on his Etymologiae, an encyclopedia which assembled extracts of many books from classical antiquity that have otherwise been lost.

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