ISABEL
179
ISAIAS
has been ranked as a standard of the language by the
Spanish Royal Academy. She was extremely solici-
tous for the education of her five children (Isabella,
John, Joan, Maria, and Catherine), and, in order to
educate Prince John with ten other boys, she formed
in her palace a school similar to the Palatine School of
the Carlovingians. Her (laughters, too, attained to a
degree of education higher than was usual at that
epoch, and they so combined with their learning the
industries peculiarly appropriate to their sex, that
Ferdinand the Catholic could imitate Charlemagne in
using no article of clothing that had not been spun
or sewn b}' his consort and his daughters. This exam-
ple of the queen, a model of virtue, piety, and domes-
tic economy, who mended one doublet for her husband
the king as often as seven times, exercised a great
moral influence on the nobility in discouraging inor-
dinate luxury and vain pastimes. It also fostered
learning not only in the universities and among the
nobles, but also among women. Some of the latter
distinguished themselves by their intellectual attain-
ments — e. g. Beatriz Galinda, called la Latina, Lucia
Medrano. and Francisca Nebrija, the Princess Joan
and the Princess Catherine (who afterwards became
Queen of England), Isabella Vergara, and others who
reached great proficiency in philosophy, Latin, and
mathematics, and became qualified to fill professional
chairs in the LTniversities of Alcala and Salamanca.
Isabella the Catholic was extremely unhappy in her children. Prince John died in youth, full of the most brilliant promise; Catherine was eventually repudiated by her husband Henry VIII ; Joan, heiress to the kingdom, lost her reason. Xot the least not- able trait in the life of Isabella was the making of that last will and testament, immortalized in Rosales's picture in the Madrid Museum. Her heart was filled with sympathy for the fate of the .\merican Indians, she charged her successors to protect them and to regard them as they regarded their other subjects, and she pointed out Spain's mission in Africa — a mission which the Moroccan question has tardily enough brought to the world's knowledge.
Clemenci'v, Elogio dc la Reyna Catolira Da. Isabel in Mem. Acad, de l/x Historia (Madrid. 1821); Fern.(ndez y Gonz.vlez, Da. Isabel la Cat>ilica (Madrid. 18 — ); M.^rtinez de Vel-\sco, Isabel la CaUilica (Madrid, 1883); Rada y Delgado, Retratos de Isabel la Catt'ilica in Boletin Acad, de la Historia (Madrid. 1885); Mariana, Lafcente, and other writers in the history of Spain. R.wioN Ruiz Amado.
Isabel of France, Blessed, daughter of Louis VIII and of his wife. Blanche of Castille, b. in March, 1225; d. at Longchamp, 23 February, 1270. St. Louis IX, King of France (1226-70), was her brother. When still a child at court, I.'^abel, or Ehzabeth, showed an extraordinary devotion to exercises of piety, modesty, and other virtues. By Bull of 26 May, 1254, Innocent IV allowed her to retain some Franciscan fathers as her special confessors. She was even more devoted to the Franciscan Order than her royal brother. She not only broke off her en- gagement with a count, but moreover refused the hand of Conrad, son of the German Emperor Fred- erick 11, although pressed to accept him by everj'one, even by Pope Innocent IV, who however did not hesitate subsequently (12.54) to praise her fixed determination to remain a virgin. As Isabel wished to found a convent of the Order of St. Clare, Louis IX began in 1255 to acquire the necessary land in the Forest of Rouvray, not far from the Seine and in the neighbourhood of Paris. On 10 June, 1256, the first stone of the convent church was laid. The building appears to have been completed aliout the beginning of 1259, because .\lexander IV gave his .sanction on 2 February, 1259, to the new rule which Isabel had had compiled by the Franciscan Mansuetus on the basis of the Rule of the Order of St. Clare. These rules were drawn up solely for this convent, which was named the Monastery of the Humility of the
Blessed Virgin (Mona.'^tcrium Humilitatis B. Marice
Virginis). The sisters were called in the rule the
"Sorores Ordinis humilium ancillarum BeatissimEe
Marije Virginis". The fast was not so strict as in the
Rule of St. Clare: the community was allowed to hold
property, and the sisters were subject to the Minor-
ites. The first sisters came from the convent of the
Poor Clares at Reims. Isabel herself never entered
the cloister, but from 1260 (or 1263) she followed the
rules in her own home near by. Isal)el was not
altogether satisfied with the first rule drawn up, and
therefore submitted through the agency of her
brother Louis IX, who had also secured the confirma-
tion of the first rule, a revised rule to Urban IV. LTrban
approved this new constitution on 27 July, 1263.
The difference between the two rules consisted for the most part in outward obser\'ances and minor alterations. This new rule was also adopted by other French and Italian convents of the Order of St. Clare, but one can by no means say that a dis- tinct congregation was formed on the basis of Isa- bella's rule. In the new rule LTrban IV gives the nuns of Longchamp the official title of "Sorores Mi- nores inclusa?", which was doubtlessly intended to empliasize closer union with the Order of Friars Minor. After a life of mortification and virtue, Lsabella died in her house at Longchamp on 23 Februarj', 1270, and was buried in the con\ent church. After nine days her body was e.xhunied, when it showed no signs of decay, and many miracles were wrought at her grave. In 1521 Leo X allowed the Abbey of Longchamp to celebrate her feast with a special Office. On 4 June, 1637, a second exhuma- tion took place. On 25 January, 1688, the nuns obtained permission to celebrate her feast with an octave, and in 1696 the celebration of the feast on 31 August was permitted to the whole Franciscan Order. They now keep it on 1 September. The history of the Aljbey of Longchamp had many vicissitudes. The Revolution closed it, and in 1794 the empty and dilapidated building was offered for sale, but, as no one wished to purchase it, it was destroyed. In 1857 the walls were pulled dow'n except one tower, and the grounds were added to the Bois de Boulogne.
Agnes d'Hakcourt, third Prioress of Longchamp (1263^70), wrote the saint's life, Vie de Madame Isabelle, which may be found in the Archives Kationales L. 1021 MSS. (Paris). A Latin translation of this book is given in Acta SS., VII. Aug., 798-808; cf. ibid., 787-98. See also Roclliard, La sainte mere, ou vie de Madame Saincle Isabel (Paris, 1619); Andre. Histoire de Ste Isabelle (Carpentras. 1855); Danielo, Vie de Madame Sle Isabelle (Paris, 1840); Bergtjin. La Bienheureu.se Isabelle de France (Grenoble. 1899); DfcHESNE. Histoire de Vabbaye royale de Longchamp. 1265-17S9 (2nd ed.. Paris, 1904) ; Sb.uia- LEA, Bull. Franc.. Ill (Rome, 1765), 64-9; II (1761). 477-86.
Michael Bihl.
Isaias. — Among the WTiters whom the Hebrew Bible styles the "Latter Prophets" foremost stands " Isaias, the holy prophet . . . the great prophet, and faithful in the sight of God (Ecclus., xlviii, 23-25).
I. — Life. — The name Isaias signifies " Yahweh is salvation". It assumes two different forms in the Hebrew Bible: for in the text of the Book of Isaias and in the historical WTitings of the Old Testament, for example in IV Kings, xix, 2; II Par., xxvi, 22; xxxii, 20, 32, it is read Yeshd'yahil in^yB'", whereas the collection of the Prophet's utterances is entitled Yeshd'yah, n'Vw"' in Greek 'Ho-ofos, and in Latin usually Isaias, but sometimes Esaias. Four other persons of the same name are mentioned in the Old Testament (I Esd., viii, 7; viii, 19; II Esd., xi, 7; I Par., xxvi, 25); while the names .lesaia (I Par., xxv, 15), Jeseias (I Par., iii, 21 ; xxv, 3) may be regarded as mere variants. From the Prophet himself (i, 1; ii, 1) we learn that he was the son of Amos. ]fOii. Owing to the similarity between Latin and Greek forms of this name and that of the Shepherd-Prophet of Thecue (Heb. DDV). some Fathers mistook the Prophet Amos for the father of Isaias. St. Jerome in the
