Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 3.djvu/178

206 illus, 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, hut 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. Nothing, however, could he 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 Thomists, 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. Isinori 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 the 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