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DUNS, JOHN DE, (SCOTUS,)
that is, "John of Dunse, Scotsman," an eminent philosopher,
was born in the latter part of the thirteenth century.
The thirteenth and part
of the fourteenth centuries are distinguished, in the history of
philosophy, as the scholastic age, in which Aristoteline logic
and metaphysics were employed, to an absurd and even impious degree, in
demonstrating and illustrating the truths of the Holy Scriptures.
Among the many scholars of Europe, who, during this period, perverted
their talents in the exposition of preposterous degrees and the defence
of a false system of philosophy, JOHN DE DUNSE, called the Subtle
Doctor, was perhaps the most celebrated. So famous indeed was he held
for his genius and learning, that England and Ireland have contended
with Scotland for the honour of his birth. His name, however, seems to
indicate his nativity beyond all reasonable dispute. Though convenience
has induced general modern writers to adopt the term Scotus as his
principal cognomen, it is evidently a signification of his native
country alone; for Erigena, and other eminent natives of Scotland in
early times, are all alike distinguished by it in their learned titles;
these titles be it observed, having been conferred in foreign seminaries
of learning. John de Dunse points as clearly as possible
to the town of that name in Berwickshire, where, at this day, a spot is
pointed out as the place of his birth, and a branch of his family
possessed, till the beginning of the last century, a small piece of
ground, called in old writings, "Duns’s Half of Grueldykes."
Those who claim him as a native of England set forward the village of
Dunstane in Northumberland as the place of his birth; but while
the word Dunse * is exactly his name, Dunstane is not so, and
therefore, without other proof, we must hold the English locality as a
mere dream. The Irish claimants again say, that, as Scotia was
the ancient name of Ireland, Scotus must have been an Irishman.
But it happens that Scotland and Ireland bore their present names from a
period long antecedent to the birth of John de Dunse; and all over
Europe, Hibernus and Scotus were distinguishing titles of
Irishmen and Scotsmen. Independent, too, of the name, there are other
testimonies concerning the native place of Scotus. In the earliest
authentic record of him, preserved in his life by Wading, (an Irishman
and advocate for Ireland), the following passage occurs, which
represents him as a boy conducted by two friars to Dumfries, a town in a
county almost adjoining that in which Dunse is situate:— "Some
infer that the acute genius of Scotus was inborn. Father Ildephonsus
Birzenus (in Appar. §. 2.) from Ferchius (Vita Scoti, c.
20.) and the latter from Gilbert Brown (Hist. Eccles.) relate,
‘that Scotus, occupied on a farm, and, though the son of a rich man,
employed in keeping sheep, according to the custom of his country, that
youth may not become vicious from idleness, was met by two Franciscan
friars, begging as usual for their monastery. Being favourably received
by his father’s hospitality, they begun to instruct the boy by the
repetition of the Lord’s prayer, as they found him ignorant of the
principles of piety; and he was so apt a scholar as to repeat it at
once. The friars, surprised at such docility, which they regarded as a
prodigy, prevailed on the father, though the mother warmly and loudly
opposed, to permit them to lead the boy to Dumfries, where he was soon
after shorn as a novice, and presented to our holy father, St Francis;
and some say that he then assumed the profession of a friar.’ Such are
the words of Birzenus." Another passage from the same authority is
still more conclusive regarding the country of Scotus:— "Nor must
a wonderful circumstance be omitted, which, with Birzenus, we transcribe
from Ferchius (c. 5.), that we may obtain the greater credit. Hence it
appears, that the Holy Virgin granted to Dunse innocence of life,
modesty of manners, complete faith, continence, piety, and wisdom. That
Paul might not be elated by great revelations, he suffered the blows of
Satan; that the subtle doctor might not be inflated by the gifts of the
mother of Christ, he was forced to suffer the tribulation of
captivity, by a fierce enemy. Gold is tried by the furnace, and a
just man by temptation. Edward I., king of England, called, from the
length of his legs, Long Shanks, had cruelly invaded Scotland,
leaving no monument of ancient majesty that he did not seize or destroy,
leading to death, or to jail, the most noble and learned men of the
country. Among them were twelve friars; and that he might
experience the dreadful slaughter and bitter captivity of his
country, John of Dunse suffered a miserable servitude; thus
imitating the apostle in the graces of God, and the chains he
endured."
When delivered from his
servitude in England, Scotus studied at Merton college, Oxford, where he
soon became distinguished, particularly by the facility and subtilty of
his logical disputations. His progress in natural and moral philosophy,
and in the different branches of mathematical learning, was rapid; and
his skill in scholastic theology was so striking, that he was, in 1301,
appointed divinity professor at Oxford. In this situation he soon
attracted unbounded popularity. His lectures on the sentences of Peter
Lombard drew immense crowds of hearers, and we are assured that there
were no fewer than thirty thousand students brought to the university of
Oxford, by the fame of the subtle doctor’s eloquence and learning.
These lectures have been printed, and fill six folio volumes. In 1304,
he was commanded by the general of his order (the Franciscan) to proceed
to Paris, to defend the doctrine of the immaculate conception of the
Virgin Mary, which had been impugned by some divines. No fewer than two
hundred objections are said to have been brought against that doctrine,
which he "heard with great composure, and refuted them with as much
ease as Sampson broke the cords of the Philistines." Hugo Cavillus,
in his life of Scotus, says that one who was present on this occasion,
but who was a stranger to the person, though not to the fame of Scotus,
exclaimed in a fervour of admiration at the eloquence displayed,
"This is either an angel from heaven, a devil from hell, or John
Duns Scotus!" The same anecdote we have seen applied to various
other prodigies, but this is perhaps the origin of it. As a reward for
his victory in this famous dispute, he was appointed professor and
regent in the theological schools of Paris, and acquired the title of
the SUBTLE DOCTOR. Nothing, however, could be more barren and useless
than the chimerical abstractions and metaphysical refinements which
obtained him his title. He opposed Thomas Aquinas on the subject of
grace, and established a sect called the Scotists, in contra-distinction
to the Tomists, which extended its ramifications throughout every
country in Europe. In 1308, he was sent to Cologne, to found a
university there, and to defend his favourite doctrine of the immaculate
conception, against the disciples of Albert the Great. But he was only a
few months there when he was seized with an apoplectic fit, which cut
him off on the 8th of November, 1308, in the forty-fourth, or, according
to others, in the thirty-fourth year of his age. It is said, that he was
buried before he had been actually dead, as was discovered by an after
examination of his grave.
The writings which Scotus
left behind him were numerous. Various editions of parts of them,
particularly of his lectures on the sentences of Peter Lombard, were
printed towards the close of the fifteenth century; and in 1639, a
complete edition of all his works, with his life, by Wading, et cum
Notis et Comm. a P. P. Hibernis Collegii Romani S. Isinort Professoribus
appeared at Lyons in twelve volumes folio! These labours, which
were at one time handled with reverential awe, are now almost totally
neglected.
The fame of John Duns
Scotus, during his lifetime, and for many years after his decease, was
extraordinary, and goes to prove the extent of his talents, however
misapplied and wasted they were on the subtilties of school philosophy
and the absurdities of school divinity. From among the testimonials
regarding him which Wading has collected in his life, the following, by
a learned cardinal, may be given as a specimen: "Among all the
scholastic doctors, I must regard John Duns Scotus as a splendid sun,
obscuring all the stars of heaven, by the piercing acuteness of his
genius; by the subtilty and the depth of the most wide, the most hidden,
the most wonderful learning; this most subtile doctor surpasses all
others, and, in my opinion, yields to no writer of any age. His
productions, the admiration and despair even of the most learned among
learned, being of such extreme acuteness, that they exercise, excite,
and sharpen even the brightest talents to a more sublime knowledge of
divine objects, it is no wonder that the most profound writers join in
one voice, ‘that this Scot, beyond all controversy, surpasses not only
the contemporary theologians, but even the greatest of ancient or modern
times, in the sublimity of his genius and the immensity of his learning.’
This subtile doctor was the founder of the grand and most noble sect of
the Scotists, which, solely guided by his doctrine, has so zealously
taught, defended, amplified, and diffused it, that, being spread all
over the world, it is regarded as the most illustrious of all. From this
sect, like heroes from the Trojan horse, many princes of science have
proceeded, whose labour in teaching has explained many difficulties, and
whose industry in writing has so much adorned and enlarged theological
learning, that no further addition can be expected or desired."
Here is another specimen of panegyric: "Scotus was so consummate a
philosopher, that he could have been the inventor of philosophy, if it
had not before existed. His knowledge of all the mysteries of religion
was so profound and perfect, that it was rather intuitive certainty than
belief. He described the divine nature as if he had seen God; the
attributes of celestial spirits, as if he had been an angel; the
felicities of a future state as if he had enjoyed them; and the ways of
providence as if he had penetrated into all its secrets. He wrote so
many books that one man is hardly able to read them, and no one man is
able to understand them. He would have written more, if he had composed
with less care and accuracy. Such was our immortal Scotus, the most
ingenious, acute, and subtile of the Sons of men."**
These extracts may
suffice to show the estimation, or rather adoration, in which the subtle
doctor was once held; and it was not alone among his own disciples that
he was venerated; for Julius Caesar Scaliger acknowledges, that in the
perusal of John of Dunse, he acquired any subtilty of discussion which
he might possess; and Cardan, one of the earliest philosophers who broke
the yoke of Aristotle, classes Scotus among his chosen twelve masters of
profound and subtile sciences. In comparing the enthusiastic popularity
in which Scotus and his works were once held with the undisturbed
oblivion which they now enjoy, the mind adverts to the fleeting nature
of all, even the most honorable earthly aggrandizement; and a likeness
of name and situation suggests the question, Shall another Scotus, who,
in our own day, has excited throughout Europe the liveliest admiration,
come, in two or three centuries, to be forgotten like John of Dunse, or
only remembered, like him, as a curious illustration of the follies of a
dark and ignorant age?
*It is a common story
that the term Dunce in Scotland is derived from the name of the
philosopher, but in an oblique manner; a stupid student being termed another
Dunse, on the same principle as a person of heavy, intellect in
general life is sometimes termed a bright man.
** Brukeri Hist. Philos.
Tom. Iii. p. 828.
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