12 THE LIFE AND LEGEND OF MICHAEL SCOT 



city by the Wear. If the question of his birthplace 

 be regarded as now determined in favour of Scot- 

 land, no reason remains for this association so con- 

 vincing as that which would derive it from the fact 

 that he pursued his education there. The Cathedral 

 School of Durham was a famous one, which no 

 doubt exerted a strong attraction upon studious 

 youths throughout the whole of that province. In 

 Scot's case the advantages it offered may well have 

 seemed a desirable step to further advances ; his 

 means, as one of a family already distinguished from 

 the common people, allowing him to plan a complete 

 course of study, and his ambition prompting him to 

 follow it. 



The common tradition asserts that when he left 

 Durham, Scot proceeded to Oxford. This is not 

 unlikely, considering the fame of that University, 

 and the number of students drawn from all parts of 

 the land who assembled there. 1 The only matters, 

 however, which offer themselves in support of this 

 bare conjecture are not, it must be said, very con- 

 vincing. Roger Bacon shows great familiarity with 

 Scot, and Bacon was an Oxford scholar, though his 

 studies at that University were not begun till long 

 after the time when Scot could possibly have been 

 a student there. It is quite possible, however, that 

 the interest shown by Bacon in Scot's labours and 

 high reputation not by any means of a kindly sort 

 may have been awakened by traditions that were 

 still current in the Schools of Oxford when the 



1 Not excepting the north. 'Morebatur eo tempore (c. 1180) 

 apud Oxenfordiam studiorum causa clericus quidam Stephanus nomine 

 de Eboracensi regione oriundus,' Acta Sanctorum, Oct. 29, p. 579. At 

 the exodus in 1209, no less than three thousand students are said to 

 have left Oxford. 



