DPNSTAX, SAINT. 



DUNSTAN, SAINT. 



HI 



who was present, Pclbortus h Tcmeswar, mys that ha resolved the 

 -t syllogisms of hi* adversaries u Samson did the bands of 

 Delilah. The result waa the conversion of the whole university to the 

 iloctrine thus demonstrated, and the passing of a regulation that no 

 person should afterward* be admitted to a degree without swearing to 

 defend the immaculate conception. On this occasion, it is said, there 

 was formally conferred on Scot us the title of the Subtle Doctor (Doctor 

 rel Ifagistor Subtilis), by which ho is commonly distinguished among 

 the schoolmen. He taught in his new chair with as much applause as 

 at Oxford, but he was not allowed to remain long at Paris. In 130S 

 he was ordered by the general of his order to remove to Cologne to 

 found a new university there. On reaching Cologne he was met by 

 nearly the whole body of the citizens, and drawn into the city in a 

 triumphal car. But his splendid career wag now near its close. On 

 the s-th of November, in this same year, he wax carried off by a fit 

 of apoplexy. Some accounts make him to have died in his forty-third, 

 others in bis thirty-fourth year. Pauhm Jovius relates that he was 

 buried before he was dead, and that it was afterwards found, upon 

 inspection of the grave, that iu his misery he had knocked out his 

 brains against his coffin. Another version of the story is, that he 

 was found to have gnawed the flesh from his arms. 



Various separate treatises of Duns Scotus were sent to the press 

 soon after the invention of printing, and several of them have been 

 repeatedly printed. At length, in 1639, bis collected works appeared 

 at Lyon, in 12 vols. folio, under the title of 'R. P. F. Joannis Duns 

 Scoti, Doctoris Subtilis, Ordinis Minorum, Opera omuia quae hucusque 

 rept'riri potuerunt, collccta, recognita, notis, scholiis, et commentariis 

 illustrate; h I'l". Iliberuis Collegii Uonmni 8. Isidori Professoribus, 

 Jussu ct Auspiciis RmL T. F. Joannis Baptisto a Companea, MiuUtri 

 Genernlis.' A complete copy of this collection is exceedingly rare. It 

 is dedicated to Philip IV. of Spain, and the editor is Luke Wadding, 

 :m Irishman by birth. It does not however, as has 'been often stated, 

 contain all the works of Scotus, but only those designated his ' Opera 

 Speculative,', the ' Positiva,' if they should be completely recovered, 

 having been intended to form a future publication. The principal 

 pieces of which it is composed are Questions or Commentaries on the 

 Sentences of Peter Lombard, and on the physical, logical, and meta- 

 physical writing* of Aristotle. There are also a treatise on Grammar ; 

 four books (forming a volume) entitled ' Reportatorum Parisiensium ;' 

 and a volume of ' Qutcstioues Quodlibitates, the authenticity of which 

 however is doubted by Wadding. The following are enumerated by 

 Wadding as the ' Opera Positiva ' of Scotus : ' Tractatus de Perfec- 

 tione Statuum ' (of doubtful authenticity) ; ' Lectura in Qenesim ;' 

 'Commentarii in Erangelia;' ' Commentarii in Epistolas Pauli;' 

 'Sermones de Tempore ;' and 'Sermones de Sanctis.' 



The admirers of Scotus extol his acuteness and subtlety as unrivalled, 

 and he bos always been accounted the chief glory of the Franciscans, 

 as Thomas Aquinas has been of their rivals the Dominicans. If in his 

 abort life he actually wrote all the works that are commonly attributed 

 to him, his industry at least must have been prodigious. His fame 

 during hU lifetime, and long after his death, was not exceeded by that 

 of any other of the scholastic doctors. From him and Aquinas two 

 opposing sects in theology took the names of Scotists and Thomists, 

 nnd divided the schools down almost to tbe last age. The leading 

 tenet of the Scotists was the immaculate conception of the Virgin, and 

 they also differed from the Thomists on the subjects of free-will and 

 the efficacy of divine grace. In philosophy the Scotista are opposed 

 to the OccamwU. or followers of William Occam, who was himself a 

 pupil of Scotus, but differed from his master on the subject of 

 Universal*, or general terms, which the Scotists maintained to be 

 expressive of real existences, while the Occamists held them to bo 

 nothing more than names. Hence the ScotiiU are called Realists, the 

 Occamista Nominalists. It is a favourite opinion of Baylo's, that this 

 doctrine of the Scotixte was nothing less than an undeveloped Spinoziam. 

 ('Diet. Crit.,' nrt ' Abelard,' note C, and 'Andre" Cisalpin,' note B.) 

 It n. ay 1# added that tho English term ' dunce ' has been commonly 

 considered to be derived from the name of the subtle doctor 

 " perhaps," says Johnson, " a word of reproach first used by the 

 Thomists, from Duns Scotus, their antagonist" It is worth noting 

 however that a dolt or a blockhead appears to be a very modern 

 meaning of the word ' dunce,' or Dun*. H doe* not seem to have 

 been known in this sense, for instance, to Richard SUnihunt, the 

 compiler of tbe ' Description of Ireland ' in llnlinshed, who speaks of 

 the name of Scotus being a term " so trivial and common in all schools, 

 that wboeo snrpssseth others either in cavilling sophistry or subtilo 

 philosophy is forthwith nicknamed a Duns." This was no doubt the 

 kind of reproach originally intended to be conveyed by the epithet 



Wadding has prefixed to his edition of the works of Scotus an 



elaborate life of the author, which was reprinted at Mons in 12mo in 



Ml. There is nbo a ' Tractatus de Joannis Soott Vita, Ac., Aurtore 



. F. Joanne Colgano, or.linis Kratriim Minorum Hibcrnorum 1'adiue, 



12mo, Antwerp, 1C55. Both these works, the latter especially, are 



full of legendary matter, detailed with the mot confiding gravity. 



TAN, 8A1 :<T, was born of noble parent* at or near Ola*U>f> 

 bnry m HomerseUMre, in the first year of the reign of Athenian, 25 

 His father's name wa, Heorstan ; his mothers, Cynethrjth, or Cyne 

 dryda. HU earliest instruction in the learning of l.is time was 

 rewired in the neighbouring monastery ; but afterwards, under the 



itronage of his uncle, Athhelm, archbishop of Canterbury, he waa 

 ntroduced at Athelstan'i court, where he pasted some yean. The 

 ealousy of the courtiers at his superior attainments at length led 

 ,hem to circulate against him a charge of sorcery ; and, finding that 

 IB had lost the favour of the king, he retired to Winchester. Urged 

 >y the entreaties and remonstrances of his nncle to become a monk, 

 Junstan, who is said to have been passionately in love with a young 

 ody of surpassing beauty, for a time strongly resisted ; but, visited 

 >y a serious illness, which his unele pronounced to be a manifestation 

 of the divine displeasure at his preference for an earthly bride to the 

 :loly Church, he mode a vow to renounce the world. Accordingly, on 

 lis recovery, he built for himself, against tho walls of the church of 

 jlaatonbury, according to the common account, but, as others say, 

 against Winchester Cathedral (Wright, 'Biog. Brit,' 448), a sort of cell, 

 with an oratory, employing his time partly in devotional austerities, and 

 lartly in the exercise of such manual arts as were useful to the service 

 of the church, in the formation of crosses, censer', &c. He is also 

 reputed to have painted, and to have copied manuscripts. His austeri- 

 ties procured for him a general reputation for extraordinary sanctity, 

 while he himself believed that he was the object of continual perse- 

 cution by demons and evil spirits. The story is well known, how on 

 one occasion the devil came to him at his smithy (for in his cell he 

 Kept a forge for tho manufacture of metal articles of ecclesiastical 

 furniture), and brought him a piece of iron which he wished him to 

 forge to a particular form. Dunstan willingly undertook the task, 

 but soon discovering who his visitor really was, seized him by the 

 nose with a pair of mi-hot pincers, as he put his head into the cell, 

 and held him there till the malignant spirit made the whole neigh- 

 bourhood resound with his bellowiugs. The story was said to have 

 been told by Duustan himself to the people who flocked to his cell to 

 learn the cause of the extraordinary noise. It may readily be set 

 down as one of those monkish fictions with which the biographies of 

 the saints were in the middle ages so profusely garnished. 



Glastoubury having by the successive incursions of the Danes been 

 reduced nearly to ruin, Edmund, the successor of Athelstan, appointed 

 Dunstan to be the abbot of that house, with full power to draw funds 

 from the royal treasury for its restoration. This was in 942, and 

 from a charter granted in 944 the work appears to have been soon 

 accomplished. 



Edred, the successor of Edmund, on the retirement of Turketul to 

 the cloister, in 948, surrendered his conscience, his treasure?, and bis 

 authority into the hands of Dunatan. Taking advantage of the 

 implicit confidence reposed in him by the king, Dunstan determined 

 to carry out his favourite project of the establishment of a strictly 

 monastic system, and the bringing the clergy under the more direct 

 supremacy of the papal power. As tha first step, he imported into 

 England a new order of monks, the Benedictines, who, by changing 

 the state of ecclesiastical affairs, excited on their first establishment 

 the most violent commotions. The discontinuance of marriage among 

 the clergy, and the adoption of the most rigid monastic rules, were his 

 great objects, and he introduced that reformation into the monasteries 

 of Glastonbury and Abingdon. This conduct however incurred the 

 resentment of the secular clergy, who, joining with such of tho 

 courtiers as had become indignant at the haughty demeanour of 

 Dunstan, formed a powerful party against him. Upon the death of 

 Eil red, and succession of Edwy, Dunstan was accused of malversation 

 in his office. On attempting to maintain his authority, he even went 

 so far as to use personal violence to the king [Knwy] ; but he was 

 deprived of his abbacy, and banished the kingdom in 955, demoniacal 

 laughter being heard to ring through the church, according to his 

 partisans, at his departure, as, on the other hand, miraculous mani- 

 festations hod on various occasions been exhibited on his. behalf. 

 Edgar, who succeeded Edwy in the following year, restored him to 

 Glastonbury, having promoted him first to the see of Worcester ; ho 

 then mado him bishop of London, and in 959 advanced him to the 

 archiepiscopal see of Canterbury. Dunstan repaired to Rome to 

 receive tbe papal sanction to his appointment, and not only obtained 

 that, but the pope's own appointment of him to be tbe papal legate 

 in England. Upon his return, so absolute did his influence over the 

 king become, that he was enabled to give the Romish see an authority 

 and jurisdiction of which tho English clergy had been before to a 

 considerable degree independent. In order more effectually and 

 completely to accomplish this object, the secular clergy were excluded 

 from their livings and disgraced, and tho monks were appointed to 

 supply their places. Tho scandalous lives of the secular clergy 

 furnished one plea for this measure, and it was uot altogether ground- 

 less; but the principal motive was that of rendering the papal power 

 absolute iu tno English Church. Dunstan, supported by Edgar's 

 authority, overpowered tho resistance which the country hod long 

 maintained against the papal dominion, and gave to tho monks an 

 influence, the baneful effects of which were experienced iu England 

 till tho Reformation. Dunstan has accordingly been highly extolled 

 by the monk* and partisans of the Roinisli Church. During the 

 whole reign of Edgar, Dunstan maintained his interest at court ; and 

 upon Edgar's death, in 975, his influence served to raise Edward, 

 Edgar's eldest son, to the throne, though the succession of Kthelred, 

 the youn.'cr son, was much pressed by Klfiida. Whilst Edward wan 

 in his minority, Dunstau ruled with absolute sway both iu church and 



