Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 3.djvu/194

222 read it Of all our Scottish bishops, however, no one has been by our historians more highly commended than bishop Elphinston. He has been celebrated as a great statesman, a learned and pious churchman, and one who gained the reverence and the love of all men. He certainly left behind him many noble instances of his piety and public spirit; and it is highly to his honour, that, notwithstanding his liberality in building and endowing his college, providing materials for a bridge over the Dee, the large alms that he gave daily to the poor and religious of all sorts, besides the help that he afforded to his own kindred, he used solely the rents of his own bishopric, having never held any place in commendam, as the general practice then was, and he left behind him at his death, ten thousand pounds in gold and silver, which he bequeathed to the college, and to the finishing and repairing of his bridge over the Dee. As he was thus conspicuous, continues his biographer, for piety and charity, so he was no less so for his having composed several elaborate treatises that were destroyed at the reformation. This panegyrist goes on to say, " that there never was a man known to be of greater integrity of life and manners, it being observed of him, that after he entered into holy orders, he was never known to do or say an unseemly thing. But the respect and veneration that he was held in, may appear from what is related to have happened at the time of his burial, by the historians who lived near his time, for they write, that the day his corpse was brought forth to be interred, the pastoral start', which was all of silver, and carried by Alexander Lauder a priest, broke in two pieces, one part thereof falling into the grave where the corpse was to be laid, and a voice was heard to cry, Tecum,, Mitra sepelienda—With thee the mitre and glory thereof is buried."

ERIGENA,, an eminent scholar of the middle age, is supposed to have been born at Ayr, early in the ninth century, though neither the place nor the date of his birth is ascertained with any precision. According to some, his principal name, Erigena, signifies that he was born at Ayr; but others point to Ergene, on the borders of Wales, as the place of his nativity; while others, again, contend for Ireland, on the strength of his name Scotus, which, at that period, was used to indicate a native of the sister island. It would be a mere mockery to say, that any thing is known with certainty respecting the life of John Scotus Erigena. It is almost inconceivable, that a man should have been born among the rude people of Scotland in the ninth century, who afterwards distinguished himself in the eyes of Europe as a scholar. Assuming, nevertheless, the imperfect authorities which have handed down the name of this person, he seems to have, at an early period of his life, been entertained at the court of Charles the Bald, king of France, as a profound philosopher, and, what is strange, a witty and amusing companion. It is stated, as an instance of the latter qualification, that, being once asked by the king what was between a Scot and a sot, he answered, "Only the breadth of the table;" a proof, in fact, of the fabulous character of Erigena's history, since there could have been no such jingle between the words that must have been required to express those ideas in any language of the ninth century. The biographers of Erigena represent him as having been employed for a number of years in the court of king Charles, partly as a preceptor in knowledge, and partly as a state councillor. At the same time, he composed a number of works upon theological subjects, some of which were considered not orthodox. Having translated the works of Dionysius, or St Denis, the Greek philosopher, which were considered as particularly adverse to the true faith, he was obliged, by the persecution of pope Nicolas I., to retire from France. This work is remarkable as having been the means of introducing the Aristotelian or scholastic system of philosophy into the theolo-