176 THE LIFE AND LEGEND OF MICHAEL SCOT 



carry the time of his mature literary activity back 

 to the year 1210. Vincent of Beauvais, writing 

 about 1245, talks of 'old Michael Scot' in such a 

 way as to suggest that he had by that time been 

 long in his grave. But the convincing evidence, 

 though hitherto little noticed, is to be found in the 

 poem of Henry d'Avranches, from which we have 

 already quoted some lines in another connection. 

 This author remarks regarding Michael Scot : 



' Thus he who questioned fate, to fate himself submitted,' 



which shows that the time of his death must have 

 been earlier than 1235, the date when Abrincensis 

 composed his poem. 1 



The question is thus reduced to the narrow 

 limit of five years ; since Bacon says Scot was alive 

 and busy in his great mission in 1230. Within 

 this period he must have passed away, and probably 

 his death happened nearer the earlier than the 

 later date ; considering the tone in which Henry 

 d'Avranches speaks of the departed sage. He may 

 well therefore have died while on the borders of 

 Scotland. This idea agrees curiously with the fact 

 that Italy has no tradition of his burial-place, while 

 on the other hand northern story points to his 

 tomb in Melrose Abbey, Glenluce, Holme Coltrame, 

 or some other of the great Cistercian foundations of 

 that country. Satchells, who visited Burgh-under- 

 Bowness in 1629, found a guide named Lancelot 

 Scot, who took him to the parish church, where he 

 saw the great scholar's tomb, and found it still the 



1 ' Veridicus Vates Michael, haec pauca locutus, 

 Plura locuturus obmutuit, et, sua mundo 

 Non paciens archana plebescere, jussit 

 Eius ut in tenues prodiret hanelitus auras. 

 Sicacusator fatorum fata subivit.' Op. cit. verse 80 et seq. 



