§ 110. DUNS SCOTUS. 685
Subtle doctor, and the mystical element, so perceptible in the writings of Anselm, Thomas, and Bonaventura, gives way to a purely speculative interest.
What a contrast Duns presents to the founder of his order, Francis d'Assisi, the man of simple faith and creed, and pop ular speech and ministries ! Of all the Schoolmen, Duns wandered most in the labyrinth of metaphysical subtleties, and none of them is so much responsible as he for the current opinion that mediaeval theology and fanciful speculation are interchangeable terms. His reputation for specious ratiocina tion has given to the language the term " dunce." l
Of his personal history scarcely anything is known, and his extensive writings furnish not a single clew. Even the time and place of his entering the Franciscan order cannot be made out with certainty. The only fixed date in his ca reer is the date which brought it to a close. He died at Co logne, Nov. 8, 1308. The date of his birth is placed between 1265-1274.2
England, Scotland, and Ireland have contended for the honor of being the Schoolman's native land, with the proba bility in favor of England. Irishmen since the fifteenth cen tury have argued for Dun, or Down, in Ulster. Scotchmen plead for Dunse in Berwickshire, while writers, unaffected by patriotic considerations, for the most part agree upon Dunstane in Northumberland.3 The uncertain tradition runs that he studied at Merton College, Oxford, and became teacher there on the transfer of William of Ware to Paris. In 1304, he
1 " Remember ye not," said Tyndale, "how within this thirty years and far less, the old barking curs, Dunce's disciples, and like draff, called Scotists, the children of darkness, raged in every pulpit against Greek, Latin and Hebrew ?" — Quoted by Trench : The Study of Words, p. 91.
2 1274 is the date accepted by Wadding, Cavellus, and Schwane. Dollinger, Rigg, and Seeberg adopt an earlier date. Seeberg, pp. 36 sqq. , lays stress upon the refusal of the bishop of Lincoln, in 1300, to grant to Duns the privi lege of hearing confession. A rule of the Franciscans, 1292, required that members of the order should be thirty before aspiring to this privilege. In this case Duns was born before 1270.
8 Dollinger attaches much weight to a statement made in a MS. of one of Duns1 works in Merton College, to the effect that he was born in Dunstane, England. O'Fihely, MacCaghwell, and Wadding, all Irishmen, are loyal to
686 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1049-1294.
was in the French capital, where he won the doctor's degree. In 1308, he was transferred by the general of his order to Cologne, where he died soon after. The story ran that he was buried alive.1 In 1707, the Franciscans tried in vain to secure his canonization. A monument, reared to Duns in the Franciscan church at Cologne, 1513, bore this inscription: —
Scotia gave me birth, England nursed me, Gaul educated me, Cologne holds my ashes.2
Among the stories told of Duns Scotus is the following, behind which more wisdom hides than is found in whole chap ters of his labored discussions. On one occasion he stopped to speak to an English farmer on the subject of religion. The farmer, who was engaged in sowing, turned and said: "Why do you speak to me ? If God has foreknowledge that I will be saved, I will be saved whether I do good or ill." Duns replied : "Then, if God has foreknowledge that grain will grow out of this soil, it will grow whether you sow or withhold your hand. You may as well save yourself the labor you are at."
The works of Duns Scotus include commentaries on Aris totle, an extended commentary on the Sentences of the Lom bard, called the Opus oxoniense, his theological lectures deliv ered at Paris, known as the Reportata parisiensia 3 and his Qucestiones quodlibetales, being sundry discussions on theolog ical and philosophical problems. A commentary on Genesis and one on the Gospels, sermons and other writings of doubt ful or denied authenticity are ascribed to Duns.4
In philosophy Duns was a moderate realist. The universals are not intellectual fictions, fictiones intellectus. Our ideas
the theory that he was of Irish nativity. Dempster gives twelve reasons to prove Duns was a Scotchman. See Diet. Natl. Biog., XVI. 216, and Seeberg, p. 34.
1 Seeberg, pp. 46 sqq. MacCaghwell in two tracts learnedly denied his being buried alive.
2 Scotia me genuit, Anglia me suscepit, Gallia me docuit, Colonia me tenit.
8 It fills 3 vols. in the Paris ed.; the Opus Oxoniense, 14 vols.; the Quodlibetales, vols. XXV., XXVI.
4 Trithemius, 1495, distinctly speaks of two volumes of Duns' Sermons. Seeberg, p. 63.