or Scotus, (John), a famous scholastic divine, born about the beginning of the ninth century; but where, is a matter of dispute among authors. Bale and Pits say he was born at St David's in Wales; Dempster, Mackenzie, and Henry, that he was born at Ayr in Scotland; which they infer from his names Erigena and Scotus, by the latter of which he was generally distinguished by his contemporary writers. But Du Pin and Sir James Ware assert that he was by birth an Irishman; Ireland being in those days called Scotia, and by the natives Erin. They agree, however, in relating that he travelled to Athens, where he acquired a competent knowledge of the Greek and other oriental languages; and that he afterwards resided many years in the court of Charles the Bald, king of France, who, on account of his singular abilities, treated him as his intimate friend and companion. He slept frequently in the royal apartment; and was constantly admitted to the king's table. "We may judge (says a modern historian) of the freedom which he used with Charles, by the following repartee. As the king and Scotus were sitting one day at table, opposite to each other, after dinner, drinking a cheerful glass, the philosopher having said something that was not quite agreeable to the rules of French politeness, the king in a merry humour asked him, Pray what is between a Scot and a set? To which he answered, Nothing but the table." See Henry's History of Great Britain, vol. I. p. 344; who quotes this story from Hoveden's Annal. ad ann. 86. Quer. What language were they talking when this bon mot was uttered?

During his residence with Charles, he wrote several books of scholastic divinity; which, though absurd enough, were at that time not sufficiently so to secure him from the imputation of heterodoxy; and on that account the pope commanded Charles the Bald to send him to Rome; but the king had too great a regard for his companion to trust him with his holiness. One of the chief controversies in which Scotus was engaged, and with which the pope was much offended, was con- cerning the real presence and blood of Christ in the wafer. His opinion of this weighty matter is expressed in these few words: "What we receive corporally is not the body of our Lord; but that which feeds the soul, and is only perceived by faith." He was also engaged in two other controversies of equal importance, but of a somewhat less delicate nature. The first was, Whether any part of the eucharist be evacuated by stool? and the second, Whether Christ was born of the Virgin Mary aperta vulva? Patachius was of opinion, that this could not be without some injury to her perpetual virginity; and therefore believed that Christ came into the world per vulvam clausam, as he came into the place where his disciples were assembled, through the door and not through the wall, without opening the door. Concerning the first of these delicate questions, Scotus with several others declared, that part of the eucharist was certainly evacuated by stool; for which they were honoured with the appellation of Stercorists. And as to the second question, he said, that the vulva clausa was a dangerous opinion: for it would thence follow, that he was not born, but issued: non est natus, sed erumpit. See MacKenzie, vol. I. p. 55.

Whether this John Scotus returned to England, or ended his days in France, is a matter of doubt. Some of our historians tell us, that he left France in the year 864; and that, after residing about three years in Oxford, he retired to the abbey of Malmesbury, where his scholars stabbed him with their pen-knives. There is no foundation for this story. Probably he died about the year 874; but whether in France or England, is uncertain, and of little importance. Some have related, that he was invited to England by king Alfred; but in this they confound him with John, abbot of Eutheling, who was assassinated in 895; and to this mistake the various accounts concerning this author are to be attributed. Regardless of his history, he appears from his writings to have been a man of parts, and, in point of learning, superior to any of his contemporaries. He wrote, 1. De divisione naturae, lib. v. 2. De predestinatione Dei. 3. Excerpta de differentiis & societatibus Graecis Latinaeque verbi. 4. De corpore et sanguine Domini. 5. Ambigua S. Maximi seu, scholia ejus in difficilis locos S. Gregorii Nazianzeni, Latine versis. 6. Opera S. Dionysii quattuor in Latinam ling. concisa. All published. 7. De visione Dei, and several other works, in manuscript, preserved in different libraries.