Page:Illustrations of the history of medieval thought and learning.djvu/300

282 gone to England as late as 884, he must have been called by Alfred at an age when one can look forward to little or no future activity as a teacher,' and when he could hardly have had much inclination to change his country and enter upon new surroundings. Setting aside the fact that Asser's notice, if indeed it refers to John Scotus, is not placed under any particular date, it is evident that one cannot assert the impossibility of a man's working power lasting until or beyond his seventieth year. At the same time there is no positive ground for excluding the alternative date for John Scotus's birth, which would make him fifty-three in 878 or fifty-nine in 884.

8. Another question arises about John's ecclesiastical position. Here we must note that William of Malmesbury makes no mention of him as anything but a plain teacher. It is true that Staudenmaier, whose conclusion on this head is repeated by the later biographers, insists that William's John was abbat; but the only reason he can give is that the historian relates the destruction of John's tomb in connexion with Warin de Liro's sacrilegious treatment of past abbats of Malmesbury. The passage is as follows:

Huic [Turoldo] substitutus est Warinus de Lira monachus. ... Is, cum primum ad abbatiam venit, antecessorum facta parvipendens, tipo quodam et nausia sanctorum corporum ferebatur. Ossa denique sanctae memoriae Meildulfi et cete- rorum qui, olim ibi abbates posteaque in pluribus locis antis- tites, ob reverentiam patroni sui Aldhelmi se in loco tumulatum iri iussissent, quos antiquitas veneranda in duobus lapideis crateris ex utraque parte altaris, dispositis inter cuiusque ossa ligneis intervallis, reverenter statuerat; haec, inquam, omnia pariter conglobata, velut acervum ruderum, velut reliquias vilium mancipiorum, ecclesiae foribus alienavit. Et ne quid impudentiae deesset, etiam sanctum Iohannem Scottum, quem pene pari quo sanctum Aldhelmum veneratione monachi cole- bant, extulit. Hos igitur omnes in extreme angulo basilicae sancti Michahelis, quam ipse dilatari et exaltari iusserat, inconsiderate occuli lapidibusque praecludi praecepit.

Reading this extract carefully, it should appear that we