Isidore succeeded his brother Leander in the bishopric of Seville probably in the year 600.[19] His few remaining letters, written in the stilted religious phraseology of the day, give the impression that he was much consulted on ecclesiastical and political matters, and that he held a position of primacy among the Spanish bishops; but on the whole they contain remarkably little that is of personal interest. From the records of the councils we learn that he presided at the second council of Seville in 619, and probably also at the fourth of Toledo in 633.[20] According to a contemporary account written by a cleric named Redemptus, he died in April of 636. No other details of importance are known about his life. His career must have been a placid and uneventful one, and evidently much of his time was spent on his voluminous writings, which were the means by which he won his great ascendancy over the minds of his contemporaries.[21] [19] Isidore, in his life of Leander (_De Viris Illustribus_, cap. 41), says: “(Leander) fluorit sub Reccaredo (d. 601) ... cujus etiam tempore vitae terminum clausit.” Ildephonsus, in his life of Isidore (d. 636), says of him, “Annis fere quadraginta tenens pontificatus honorem” (Migne, _P. L._ 82, col. 68). Gregory the Great has a letter to Leander and one to Reccared belonging to the year 598–599 (Migne, _P. L._ 77, col. 1050–1056). [20] Gams, _Kirchengeschichte von Spanien_ ii, 2, pp. 89, 101. [21] Contemporary sources for Isidore’s life are: the passage in the _regula_ of his brother Leander (Migne, _P. L._ 72, col. 892); the correspondence of Isidore (Migne, _P. L._, 83, col. 893); Braulio’s _Introduction_ to Isidore’s works (Migne, _P. L._ 82, col. 65); the life of Isidore given by Ildephonsus, bishop of Toledo (d. 667) in his continuation of Isidore’s _De Viris Illustribus_; and the letter of the clerk Redemptus, describing Isidore’s death (Migne, _P. L._ 82, col. 68). Perhaps the most reliable account of the impression which Isidore made on the men of his own time is given in the somewhat ponderous _Introduction_ to his works furnished by his friend and correspondent, Braulio, bishop of Saragossa:[22] [22] Sancti Braulionis, Caesaraugust. episcopi _Praenotatio librorum Isidori_, Migne, _P. L._ 82, col. 65.