THE LAST DAYS OF MICHAEL SCOT 161 



this for a reason which showed how high was the 

 conception he had formed of the pastoral office. 

 His nolo episcopari proceeded on the ground that 

 he was ignorant of the Irish language. He would 

 not, it seems, be a chief pastor without the power 

 to teach and feed the flock committed to his 

 care. He would not consent to be intruded upon a 

 people to whom he must have proved unacceptable, 

 nor would he, in the too common fashion of the 

 day, commit his duties in Ireland to a suffragan, 

 while enjoying ample revenues and a lordly title 

 in Italy. 



It is somewhat startling to find a principle 

 not unheard of in the Scotland of our own century 

 so clearly grasped and so conscientiously followed 

 by this non-intrusionist countryman of ours six 

 hundred years ago. Yet Michael Scot did not 

 stand alone in his sacrifice even in these slack 

 times, as may be seen by the case of his name- 

 sake, John Scot, who was Bishop of Dunkeld during 

 the pontificate of Clement iii.^ This earlier Pre- 

 late ruled a vast diocese which included the country 

 of Argyll as well as the more eastern parts of 

 central Scotland. His conscience became uneasy 

 under the responsibility, and, unwilling to continue 

 the spiritual overseer of those whom from his 

 ignorance of their language he could not edify, 

 he wrote to the Pope, desiring that Argyll might 

 be disjoined from Dunkeld, and that Ewaldus his 

 chaplain, who knew Erse, might have charge of 

 the new diocese as its Bishop. This was actually 

 done in 1200, and the good Bishop died in great 

 peace two years later. ' How can I give a com- 



1 Milman's Church History, vol. iv. p. 17. 

 L 



