BIRTHPLACE AND EARLY STUDIES 7 



just as well as if he had first seen the light in the 

 sister isle. So certainly is this the case that when 

 we recall the name of John Scotus we find it was 

 customary to add the appellative Erigena to deter- 

 mine his birthplace. At that time the separation 

 of race was much less marked than it had become 

 in Michael's day, and it seems certain therefore 

 that if Michael Scotus was thought a sufficient 

 designation of the man by Bacon and Bonatti, they 

 must have used it in the sense of indicating that he 

 came of that part of the common stock which had 

 crossed the sea and made their home in Scotland. 

 But to find a conclusive answer to this difficulty we 

 need only anticipate a little the course of our 

 narrative by mentioning here a highly curious fact 

 which will occupy our attention in its proper place. 

 When Michael Scot was offered high ecclesiastical 

 preferment in Ireland he declined it on the ground 

 that he was ignorant of the vernacular tongue of 

 that country. 1 This seems to supply anything that 

 may have been wanting in the other arguments we 

 have advanced, and the effect of the whole should 

 be to assure our conviction that there need be now 

 no further attempt made to deny Scotland the 

 honour of having been the native land of so dis- 

 tinguished a scholar. 



Nor are we altogether without the means of 

 coming to what seems at least a probable conclusion 

 regarding the very district of the Scottish lowlands 

 where Michael Scot was born. Leland the antiquary 

 tells us that he was informed on good authority 

 that Scot came from the territory of Durham. 2 

 Taken literally this statement would make him an 



1 See infra, ch. vii. 2 Leland's work was published in 1549. 



