Chapter Irrefragable Doctor to Isinglass of I by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Dionysius the Little [Exiguus], a Roman monk, who lived in the middle of the sixth century. He commences with Pope Siricius (fourth century). The Isidorian decretals contain fifty-nine letters ascribed to persons living between Clement and Siricius, and forty others not contained in the Dionysian collection. The object of these forged letters is either to exalt the Papacy or enforce some law assuming the existence of such exaltation. Amongst these spurious letters are the decretal of St. Anacletus, the decretal of St. Alexander, the letter of Julius to the Easterns, the synodical letter of St. Athanasius, the decretal of St. Fabian instituting the rite of the chrism, and so on.

"La réforme pseudo-Isidorienne, adoptée par S. Nicholas, en 865, par le huitième concile œcumenique en 870, confirmé par le concile de Trent en 1564, elle est depuis neuf siecles le droit commun dans l'église catholique ... ce qu'il est impossible de justifier et même d'excuser, c'est le moyen employé par le pseudo- Isidore pour arriver à ses fins." - Etudes Religieuses, No. 47, p. 392.

Isinglass A corruption of the Dutch huyzenblas (an air-bladder), being prepared from the bladders and sounds of sturgeon. (German, huyen, a sturgeon.)