Chapter LXXXVI: Introduction

In spite of the apparent lack of unity indicated by the title, the subject of Book IX may be fairly described as mankind. It is true that language is the first topic, but it is brought in merely because Isidore believed that differences of race were based on differences of language. It is followed by a survey of the races of mankind, ending with an account of the races that had won military prominence. Isidore then turns to man within the state and treats of him first as a soldier and then as a citizen. Finally man is taken up as a member of the family, and an account of family relationship and of marriage is given.[321]

[321] Isidore gives a table of “the prohibited degrees” within
which marriage was forbidden by the rule of the church. Since
the introduction of Christianity these had been steadily
extended until in Isidore’s lifetime intermarriage within the
seventh degree was prohibited by Pope Gregory. The analogy
between the wide extension of “the prohibited degrees” in the
dark ages and that found among primitive peoples generally is
remarkable. Westermarck, _History of Human Marriage_, p. 297,
says: “As a rule among primitive peoples unaffected by modern
civilization, the prohibited degrees are more numerous than in
advanced communities, the prohibitions in many cases referring
even to all the members of a tribe or clan.” For an account of
this development of marriage, see Westermarck, _op. cit._, p.
308, and Smith and Cheetham’s _Christian Antiquities_, art.
“Prohibited Degrees.” This social phenomenon of the dark ages
is a development parallel to the recrudescence of the primitive
in the intellectual sphere which is illustrated in so marked a
manner in the _Etymologies_ (_cf._ pp. 50–54).

ANALYSIS

I. Languages (ch. 1).
II. Mankind (ch. 2).
1. Mankind the descendants of the sons of Noah (Secs. 2–37).
2. General view of the peoples of the earth with their Hebrew
origin where known (Secs. 37–135).
III. Empires, rulers, and warfare (ch. 3).
IV. Terms relating to civil life (ch. 4).
V. The family (chs. 5–7).
1. The direct line (ch. 5).
2. Relatives and degrees of relationship, with the “prohibited
degrees” (ch. 6).
3. Marriage (ch. 7).

EXTRACTS