Page:Illustrations of the history of medieval thought and learning.djvu/83

Rh of openness to conviction. He was not a mere patron of scholars, he was their friend to whom they deferred on difficult points; he liked to enter into disputation with them, laid down theses and invited them to discuss them without reserve. As emperor he wished to appear a loyal son of the catholic church, but he refused to condemn opinions unless they were plainly shewn to be hostile to it, and he was generally discreet enough to hesitate about the proof and to hold his judgement free. The keenness of his intelligence conspired with a natural elasticity of temper to produce in his political action what certainly degenerated into an habitual irresolution and infirmity of purpose. But the vices of a statesman are often virtues in private life, and in this view Charles’s indecision bears the character of a judicial tolerance, a tolerance to which his continued intercourse with John the Scot is a speaking witness; although it would be unsafe to infer from the scanty notices we have of their relation, that he shared with the philosopher more than a general sympathy with his spirit of free enquiry.

John certainly had e disciples, but they cannot have been numerous. Among near contemporaries of Auxerre, and his pupil, saint Remigius, both teachers of great repute, may be proved to have been indebted