Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 3.djvu/177

Rh 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 uhich Dunse is situate:—"Some infer that the acute genius of Scotus was inborn. Father Ildephousus Birzenus (in Appar. §. 2.) from Ferchius (Vita Scott, c. 20.) and the latter from Gilbert Brown (Hist. Eccles.) relate, 'that Scotus, occupied on a farm, and, though tin: 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 Cav-