Refraction of the stoic and patristic traditions of understanding the scheme of the four virtues in the works of Isidore of Seville

Abstract

Three great fi gures of the latin patristic philosophy – Ambrose, Jerome and Augustine – connected the fourfold scheme of the cardinal virtues with the notion of Christian salvation. Isidore of Sevilla is one of the few authors of the Late Antiquity – Early Middle Ages, which do not follow this line of interpretation of the cardinal virtues. The other point is that Isidore wrote two different passages on the four virtues: one in Differentiae II that contains some Christian elements and the other in Etymologiae that possesses pure stoic character. To explain these two peculiarities the investigators pointed out that his writings were mere compilations. The main disadvantage of this explanation is that all these features of Isidorian teaching on cardinal virtues are explained externally. This article offers another interpretation of this teaching on the basis of comparative analysis (comparing them with each other and with their sources) of Isidore’s passages on the four virtues. The article argues that Isidore’s conception of the cardinal virtues is common for Differentiae II and Etymologiae. Isidore considers stoic defi nitions of the four virtues as universal in Etymologiae and expand them in Differentiae II, adding some Christian elements to general stoic definition.