We read of three Spanish ecclesiastics who bore this name, and who must be carefully distinguished from each other. Of these by far the most remarkable was Isidorus, bishop of Sevilla (Hispalensis), who flourished at the beginning of the seventh century.
Isidorus, bishop of Cordova (Cordubensis), who is said to have flourished about the end of the fourth century, but whose very existence has been called in question by Nicolas Antonio in the Bibliotheca Hispana vetus.
Isidorus, bishop of Badajos (Pacensis) flourished in the middle of the eighth century.
ISIDORUSHISPALENSIS, whose merits are but imperfectly acknowledged when he is pronounced to have been the most eloquent speaker, the most profound scholar, and the most able prelate of the barbarous age and country to which he belonged. Descended from an honourable Gothic stock, his father, Severianus, was governor, and his elder brother, Fulgentius, bishop of Cartagena, while another brother, Leander, also his senior, presided over the see of Sevilla. In the palace of the latter Isidorus passed his youth devoted to study and to religious exercises, labouring at the same time with zeal and success in the conversion of the Arian Visigoths. Upon the death of Leander, in A. D. 600 or 601, he succeeded to his episcopal charge. One of his first acts was to establish a college for the education of youth; soon after he repaired to Rome for the purpose of holding personal communication with the great Gregory, in 616 (or 617), he presided at the second council of Sevilla, and in December, A. D. 633, at the great council of Toledo, manifesting at all times the most eager anxiety for the extension of the orthodox faith, and for the maintenance of order and strict discipline among the clergy. He died in the church of St. Vincentius on the 4th of April, A. D. 636. The esteem in which he was held by his contemporaries and immediate successors is sufficiently attested by the tribute to his memory in the Acts of the eighth council of Toledo, held fourteen years after his death : " Nostri seculi doctor egregius, ecclesiae Catholicae novissimum decus, praecedentibus aetate postremus, doctrinae comparatione non infimus, et, quod majus est, in saeculoram fine doctissimus atque cum reverentia nominandus, ISIDORUS."
[W.R]