Duns Scotus

Duns Scotus, John, was born after the middle of the 13th century, but neither the precise date nor even his nationality has been ascertained. He joined the Franciscan order, became a fellow of Merton College, Oxford, and in 1301 was appointed professor of philosophy in that university. His lectures appear to have been immensely popular. At the.end of three or four years he proceeded to Par-is, where ho took a doctor's degree, and became regent of the school of theology in 1307. His contest with the Dominicans and their leader, Thomas Aquinas, as to the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, won for him the title of Doctor Subtilis, and led to the long-standing opposition between Scotists and Thomists. Both were realists, but Scotus and his disciples held that all knowledge was based on revelation, whilst Aquinas recognised reason as an intellectual factor. The former maintained both the freedom of the will and the doctrine of predestination, the latter making the will dependent on the understanding and other antecedent causes. Hence a distinction between the two schools as to the theory of divine grace. Duns Scotus was invited to Cologne in 1308 for the purpose of establishing a university, but he died of apoplexy before the close of the year. He left a number of works which have been printed with apocryphal additions. The most valuable of his remains consist of commentaries on Aristotle.