ISIDORE
189
ISLA
his suite by his friendly conduct towards the Latins.
At Ferrara and at Florence, whither the council
moved in January, 1439, Isidore was one of the six
chief speakers on the Byzantine side. Together with
Bessarion he steadfastly worked for the union, and
never swerved afterwards in his acceptance of it.
After the council, the pope (Eugene IV, 1431-47) made Iiim his legate for all Russia and Lithuania. On his way back news reached Isiilore, at Benevento, that he had been made Cardinal-Priest of the Title of St. Peter and St. Marcellinus. This is one of the few cases in which a person not of the Latin Rite has been made a cardinal. From Budapest in March, 1440, he pub- lished an encyclical calling on all Russian bishops to accept the union. But when he at last arrived in Moscow (Easter, 1441), and proclaimed the union in the Kremlin church, he found (hut the tsar and most of the bishops and peojile would have none of it. Then, at the tsar's command, six Russian bishops met in a synod, deposed Isidore, and shut liim up in prison. He escapeil, fled to Rome, and was graciously received I y the pope in 1443. Nicholas V (1447-55) sent him a:, legate to Constantinople to arrange the reunion there in 1452, and gave him two hundred soldiers to help the defence of the city. On 12 December of that year he was abie to unite three hundred of the Byzan- tine clergy in a celebration of the short-lived reunion. He saw the taking of the city by the Turks on 29 May, 1453, and only escaped the massacre by dressing up a dead body in his cardinal's robes. While the Turks were cutting off its head and parading it through the streets, the real cardinal was shipped off to Asia Minor with a number of insignificant prisoners, as a slave. Afterwards he wrote an account of the horrors of the siege in a letter to Nicholas V (P. G., CLIX, 953). He escaped from captivity, or bought himself free, and came back to Rome. Here he was made Bishop of Sabina, presumably adopting the Latin Rite. Pius II (1458-64) later gave him two titles successively, those of Patriarch of Constantinople and Archliishop of Cy- prus, neither of which he could convert into real juris- diction. He died at Rome on 27 April, 1463.
All historie.s of the Counril of Florence dejicribe the adven- ture-s of Cardinal Isidore. See especially Pastor, Geschichte der Papste, I (3rd and 4th ed.. Freiburg im Br., 1901), 5S5, etc., and his references. The Monumenta HungaruE historwa, XXI, 1, contain two versions of the letter to Nicholas V (pp. 665—95, 696-702); see Krumb.icher. Byzantinische Litteraturgeschichte (Munich. 1897), 311. Consult also Sthahl, Geschichte der rixs- sischen Kirehe, I (Halle, IS.iO), 444; Frommann, Kritische Bei- trwie zur Geachichte der Florenliner Kircheneinigung (Halle, 1S72), l.'iS seq.; Hefele, Conciliengeschich'e, VII (Freiburg im Br., 1886), passim.
Adrian Fortescue.
Isidore the Labourer, Saint, a Spanish day- labourer; b. near Madrid, about the year 1070; d. 15 May, 1130, at the same place. He was in the service of a certain Juan de Vargas on a farm in the vicinity of Madrid. Every morning before going to work he was accustomed to hear a Mass at one of the churches in Matlrid. One day his fellow-labourers complained to their master that Isidore was always late for work in the morning. Upon investigation, so runs the legend, the master found Isidore at prayer, while an angel was doing the ploughing for him. On another occasion his master saw an angel ploughing on either side of him, so that Isidore's work was equal to that of three of his fellow-labourers. Isidore is also said to have brought back to life the deceased daughter of his master and to have caused a fountain of fresh water to burst from the dry earth in order to quench the thirst of his master. He was married to Maria Torribia, a canonized saint, who is venerated in Spain as Maria della Cabeza, from the fact that her head (Spanish, cabeza) is often carried in procession especially in time of drought. They had one son, who died in his youth. On one occasion this son fell into a deep well, and at the prayers of his parents the
water of the well is saiil to have risen miraculously to
the level of the ground, bringing the child with it,
alive and well. Hereupon the parents made a vow of
continence and lived in separate houses. Forty
years after Isidore's death, his body was transferred
from the cemetery to the church of St. Andrew. He
is said to have appeared to Alfonso of Castile, and to
have shown him the hidden path by which he sur-
prised the Moors and gained the victory of Las Nevas
de Tolosa, in 1212. When King Philip III of Spain
was cured of a deadly disease by touching the relics
of the saint, the king replaced the old relitjuary by a
costly silver one. He was canonized by tiregory XV,
along with Sts. Ignatius, Francis Xavier, Teresa, and
Philip Neri, on 12 .\Iareli, 1<!22. St. Isidore is widely
venerated as the patron (jf j)easants and day-laliourors.
The cities of Mailrid, Leon, Saragossa, and Seville also,
lionour him as their patron. His feast is celebrated
on 15 May.
His Life, as first written in 1265 by John, a deacon of the church of St. Andrew, at Madrid, and supplemented by him in 1275, is printed in .4r/a SS., May, III, 515-23. It served as the basis for Lope de Vega's religious poem San Isidro (1599). Acta SS., loc. cit., 512-550; Botler, Lives of the Saints, 10 May; Baring-Gould, Lives of the Saints, 10 May; Tamayo MaTtuTologium Hispanicum, HI (Lyons, 1655), 191-98; Quar- TlNo, Vita di S. Isidoro agricola (Turin, 1SS2).
Michael Ott.
Isionda, a titular see in the province of Pamphylia Secimda; it was a suffragan of Perge. .^rtemidorus, mentioned by Strabo (XII, vu, 2; XIII, iv, 15), places this city in Pisidia, and Strabo himself (XIII, iv, 17) locates it, under the name of Isinda, in the region of Termessos. Polybius (Excerpta de leg., 31), Ptolemy (V, 5), and Stephen of Bj'zantium call it Liionda, Isindos, Pisinda, Sinda; it is similarly re- ferretl to in the " Notitiie epLscopatuum." Lequien (Oriens Christ., I, 1 033) gives the names of five bisliops who assisted at the (Ecumenical Councils of Nictea, Ephesus, Chalcedon, and Constantinople (553), and at the Photian synod in 878. The probable location of this town, which has no history, is at Istanoz or Stanos, a nahie of the sanjak of Adalia, in the vilayet of Koniah.
S. Vailhe.
Isla, Josii Francisco de, Spanish preacher and satirist, b. at Villavidanes (Kingdom of Leon), 24 March, 1703; d. at Bologna, 2 November, 1781. Isla's life was far more eventful than that usually led by members of a religious order. Having broken off a premature betrothal, he entered the Society of Jesus at the age of sixteen, and, on the termination of his two years' novitiate, was sent to the renowned Uni- versity of Salamanca. Here he studied philosophy for two years and theology for four, and was then ap- pointed forthwith to the chair of exegesis and later to that of philosophy. He continued his professional activity at various colleges until 1747, winning at the same time the reputation of a popular preacher. At the same time he did not neglect his talent for poetry and his taste for literature, and gave proof of a wag- gish, satirical vein. But this talent was to cause him not a few troubles. The first of these resulted in an assignment to pastoral duties at San Sebastian, where fortunately he was kept but a short time. In 1750 the formidable satirist was sent to the residence of the professed fathers at Valladolid to preach. While this appointment was a new recognition of his ability as a preacher, the attempt of Queen Maria Barljara to secure him as her confessor indicates his piety. By well-put objections Isla escaped the office, but another suggestion from the court, where Isla's eminent liter- ary gifts had already attracted notice, that the tal- ented writer should devote himself entirely to literary work, was received with favour by his spiritual supe- riors. In consequence Isla, in 17.52, was exclusively assigned to literary work, varied only by occasional
