Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 7.djvu/565

Rh of that province. In he attacked them in Guienne, taking among other towns Bordeaux, which the English had held for 300 s. At the conclusion of these conquests Charles VII. legitimated him, and gave him the title of defender of his country, and the office of grand chamberlain ; but on the death of Charles, Louis XI. deprived him of his titles and dignities. He then joined the league of revolted princes, but, assuming the function of negotiator, and thus securing the favour of the king, he was reinstated in his offices, and named president of the council for the reform of the state. He died 28th November.  DUNOON, a town in Argyllshire, Scotland, situated on the Firth of Clyde, about nine s west from Greenock, and on the opposite shore. Of recent growth (having been about the beginning of this century a mere fishing hamlet), it is now one of the most extensive and prosperous watering- places on the shores of the Clyde, a condition for which it is much indebted to the late James Ewing of Strath- leven, who first drew attention to its capabilities as an agreeable summer residence. On account of the mildness of the climate that prevails, and the amenity of the situation, it was selected as the site of a convalescent home, which has proved a boon to many of the hard-wrought population of Glasgow and its neighbourhood. On a conical hill close above the main pier stand the fragments of Dunoon Castle, the hereditary keepership of which was conferred by Robert Bruce on the family of Sir Colin Campbell of Loch Awe, an ancestor of the duke of Argyll. Near the hillock is the modern castle of Dunoon. Including the suburb of Kirn, the population at the census of was 3750.  DUNS SCOTUS,, one of the foremost of the schoolmen, was born in the. The and place of his birth are both uncertain. For the date and  have been assigned, without any decisive evidence in favour of either. The form of the surname seems to support the claim of Dunse, in Berwickshire, as the place, though the same ground has been pled, with less plausibility it must be admitted, for Downpatrick (Dununi) in Ireland, and for the village of Dunstane in Northumberland. In favour of Dunstane a statement at the close of a manuscript copy of the work of Duns Scotus, contained in the library of Merton College, Oxford, has been quoted ; but this, though it states expressly that the author was born at Dunstane, is inconclusive. The rival claims of England, Scotland, and Ireland have been naturally enough advocated by natives of the three countries respectively, Leland, Dempster, and Wadding, and have been the subject of considerable controversy, into which it would be a waste of time to enter. It is noteworthy, however, as a curiosity of literature, that Dempster published a quarto volume, the main object of which was to prove by twelve distinct argu ments that Duns Scotus was a Scotchman. It is said that when he was a boy his extraordinary ability was observed by two Franciscan friars, who took him to their convent at Newcastle. Whether this be so or not it seems certain that he joined the Franciscan order in early life, and that he studied at Merton College, Oxford, of which he was made a fellow. According to Wadding, he became remarkably pro ficient in all branches of learning, but especially in mathe matics. When his master, William Varron, removed to Paris in, Duns Scotus was appointed to succeed him as professor of philosophy. His lectures attracted an immense number of students, though the story that in his day the university was attended by no less than 30,000 is probably a gross exaggeration. He was removed to Paris, probably in, though the precise date is uncertain. In he received his doctor s degree from the university of Paris, and in the same year he was appointed regent of the theological school. His connection with the university was made memor able by his defence of the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, in which he displayed such dialectical ingenuity as to win for himself the title Doctor Subtilis. According to the account that is usually given he refuted one by one no less than two hundred objections urged against the doctrine by the Dominicans, and established his own position by &quot; a cloud &quot; of arguments. The doctrine con tinued long to be one of the main subjects in dispute between the Scotists and the Thomists, or, what is almost the same thing, between the Franciscans and the Dominicans. To judge from its subsequent acts, the university of Paris seems to have been deeply and lastingly impressed by the arguments of Duns Scotus. In it formally condemned the Thomist doctrine, and a century afterwards it required all who received the doctor s degree to bind themselves by an oath to defend the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception. In Duns Scotus was sent by the general of his order to Cologne with the twofold object of engaging in a controversy with the Beghards and of assisting in the foundation of a university. He was received with great ceremony by the magistrates and nobles of the city. After a very short residence, however, he died of apoplexy on the 8th November. The story told by Paulus Jovius, that on his grave being opened some time after his death his body was found to have turned in the coffin, from which it was inferred that he had been buried alive, is generally regarded as fabulous. Duns Scotus was one of the great leaders of scholastic thought, and, as a full account of his philosophical system must therefore necessarily be given in the general article on, a brief indication of its leading points will suffice here. It may be noted at the outset that the philo sophical position of Duns Scotus was determined, or at least very greatly influenced, by the antagonism that existed between the Dominicans and the Franciscans. Thomas Aquinas was a Dominican, Duns Scotus was a Franciscan ; and hence arose the schism between the Thomists and the Scotists. Aquinas ranks in philosophy with the realists as well as Duns Scotus, but his view in regard to the great philosophical controversy of the Middle Ages was a modified or eclectic one in comparison with that of Duns Scotus, who is the true representative and apostle of scholastic realism. Theologically, the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception was the great subject in dispute between the two parties. There were, however, differences of a wider and deeper kind. In opposition to Aquinas, who main tained that reason and revelation were two independent sources of knowledge, Duns Scotus held that there was no true knowledge of anything knowable apart from theology as based upon revelation. In conformity with this principle he denied that the existence of God was capable of being proved, or that the nature of God was capable of being comprehended. He therefore rejected, as worthless the ontological proof offered by Aquinas. Another chief point of difference with .Aquinas was in regard to the freedom of the will, which Duns Scotus main tained absolutely. He held also in an unqualified form the doctrine of predestination, and he reconciled free-will and necessity by representing the divine decree not as temporally antecedent, but as immediately related to the action of the created will. He maintained, in opposition to Aquinas, that the will was independent of the understanding, that only will could affect will. From this difference as to the nature of free-will followed by necessary consequence a difference with the Thomists as to the operation of divine grace. In ethics the distinction he drew between natural and theological virtues is common to him with the rest of the schoolmen, among others with his great opponent. (See, . .) Duns Scotus strongly upheld the authority of the church, making it the ultimate authority on which tliat of Scripture depends.