The absolute and transcendental perfection of the Di- vine Nature, which was regarded as indwelling in all derivative existence, led Erigena to deny the eternity of punishments. In the same manner maybe explained his anticipation of the doctrine of Leibnitz, that evil is not a positive entity, but only the privation of good. To the same principle may also be referred his position in regard to predestination, which repudiated predesti- nation to damnation.
IVIuch of the questionable doctrine of Scotus Erigena sprang from his dialectical procedure. Following Aris- totle, but imperfectly understanding him, he regarded division as the highest function of philosophy. Hence came the title and the treatment of his principal work. Haureau pointed out his identification of the degrees of abstraction with the grades of existence, and Ueberweg charges him with " hypostatizing the Tabula Logica" There is some truth in these charges, but they must not be pressed too far. It is, however, to this predominance of the dialectical procedure; to the conjunction of rea- son with authority; to the co-ordination of philosophy and theology; to the formal statement and refutation of objections; and to the array of scriptural, patristic, and other testimonies in support of his conclusions, that Scotus Erigena owes his title to be considered the pre- cursor of the schoolmen. He also furnishes the prelude to the great controversy between the Kealists and Nom- inalists by his doctrine of ideas and his (jualificd realism.
IV. Influence. — M. Guizot conceives that the influ- ence of Scotus Erigena died with him. This is true in respect to his direct and ostensilile intlnenee, which was scarcely noticeable even in the malurity of his career. He was outside of his age. Deep night and the obscu- ration of all philosophical inquiry followed his disap- pearance from the scene. I5ut he had awakened reflec- tion, though soon diverted into other currents. He had scattered seeds which lay dormant, not dead, in the soil. The impulse communicated by him must have been ob- scurely transmitted to other times, since pope Ilonorius
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III, in 1225 — nearly four hundred years later — deemed it ex|iedieiit to fulminate a pontifical censure against tlie JHvmiin of Nature. This was during the Albigensian crusades, when the pope ordered diligent search to be made for the work, and the burning of such copies as might be found. To this cause its extreme rarity may be referred.
V. Authorities:. — There has been no collected edition of the works of John Scotus Erigena. His several works have been published separately, at diiferent times. The first etlition of the De Uirisione Xutitro! was edited by (iale (Oxon. 1681, fol.). It has since been edited by Schlliter (IMiinstcr, 1838), and by Floss (Paris, 1853), in Migne's Bibliotheca. M. Guizot stated that he had been . iniable to find the De Divisione Naturm in any of the libraries of Paris. He acknowledges the kindness shown him in searching for it. His inquiries in England had been attended with like disappointment. He remarks that "'many foreign writers who have spoken of this work have not had it before them any more than my- self in it.s entire state. Of this they ought to have made their readers a\vare," as we now do, ex parte nostra, in regard to the complete texts of Erigena.
Notices, more or less comprehensive and satisfactorj', are to be found in Pagi, Crit. ad Annal. Baronii, Aim. 850-51; Brucker, I/ist. Crit. Philosophies, iii, 614-625; aynrt, Johaim Scotus Erigena, etc. (Copenhagen, 1823); Siaudenmaier, Jo/«fw??es Scotus Erigena (Frankf. 1834) ; Saint-Rene Taillandier, Scot Erighie, etc. (Paris, 1843) ; id. Erigene et la Fhilos. Schol. (Strasb. 1843) ; Moller, Joh. Scotus Erigena (INIayence, 1844) ; Caraman, Hist, des Rev. de la Philosophie, etc. (Paris) ; Christlieb, Lehen u. Lehre des Joh. Scot. Erigena ((iotha, 18G0) ; Hermeiis, Das Lehen des Scotus Erigena (Jena, 1868) ; Schmid, Dvr Mysticismus des Alittelalters (ibid. 1824) ; Ampere, Hist. Litt. de France, tome iii, s. v.; (iuizot, Hist, de la Civ. en France, le^. xxxix, (G. i\ H.)
Scongal, Henry, an eminent Scottish divine, the second son of Patrick Scougal, bishop of Aberdeen, was born in June, 1650, at Salton, in East Lothian. ■ At the age of fifteen he entered the University of Aberdeen, and had no sooner finished his studies than he was pro- moted to a professorship (1669). At the age of twenty- three he was admitted into hoh' orders, and settled at Auchterless, near Aberdeen. In 1674 he was appointed professor of divinity in King's College, Aberdeen. He died at the early age of twenty-eight, June 20, 1678, and was buried in King's College Church, Old Aberdeen. His principal work is entitled The Life of God in the Soul <f Man (Anon. 1671, ed. by bishop Burnet).
Scourge (usually some form of ti^ld, shut, to lash ; 'C^•a, shot, .Job V, 21 ; ix, 23; [sa. x, 26; xxviii, 18, a whip, as elsewhere rendered; IJ'^'ilV shdyit, Isa. xxviii, 15; bJIJilJ, shotel. Josh, xxiii, 13; but in Lev. xix, 20, r"ip3, hikloreth, chastisement in general ; ^jOayeXXiov, the Lnt. Jlagellum, or whip, John ii, 15; so the verb ^fiayEWow, Matt, xxvii, 26; Mark xv, 15; fiaari^, a severe kind of whip. Acts xxii, 24; Hcb. xi, 36; trop- ically, "plague," Mark iii, 10, etc.; so in a literal sense the verb /DOffrcydw, Matt, x, 17; xx, 19; xxiii, 34; Mark x. 34; Luke xviii, 33; John xix, 1 ; Heb. xii, 6; or jxanri^ii), Acts xxii, 25). The punishment of scourg- ing was very cfimmon among the Jews. Moses ordains (l)eut. XXV. 1-3) that if there be a controversy between men, and they come to judgment, then the judges may judge them ; and if the wicked man were found worthy to be beaten, the judge was to cause him to lie down, and to be beaten before his face, acconiing to his faidt, by a certain numlier of, l)ut not exceeding forty, stripes. Tliere were two ways of giving the lasli — one with thongs or whips made of rope-ends or straps of leather, the other with rods or twigs. In later times the of- fender was stripped from his shoulders to his middle and tied by his arms to a low pillar, that he might lean forward and the executioner the more easily strike his