Scotus's Cambridge Lecture

SCOTUS'S CAMBRIDGE LECTURE The fact that Duns Scotus lectured at Cambridge as well as at Oxford and Paris was first brought to light by Father Andre Callebaut's discovery of a biographical note in the colophon of Codex 66 (Merton College, Oxford).1 Written in an early fourteenth century hand2 the note reads in English translation: "This is the from the Ordinate of the Venerable Friar John Duns of the Order of Friars Minor, who flourished at Cambridge, Oxford and Paris and died in Cologne."4 The second clue that Scotus taught at Cambridge is a reference in the Codex A5 to a 'Cambridge lecture' he wanted to be added to 'André Callebaut, "Le Bx. Jean Duns Scot a Cambridge vers 1287—1300" in Archivum franciscanum historicum 21 (1928), 608—611. He admitted the word 'Cant.' was ambiguous and could refer either to Canterbury or Cambridge, but argued persuasively for attributing it to Cambridge where it was far more likely die Franciscans at Scotus' time would have had a major general study house of theology. The note follows a table of questions in a second hand (f. 12Ova—b) which ends with die words: "Haec de Ordinatione venerabilis fratris Ioannis Duns, de Ordine Fratrum Minorum, qui floruit Cantabrigiae, Oxonii et Parisius et obiit in Colonia." See the "Disquisitio histórico—critica" of Carl Baliç in the first volume of the Vatican edition of Duns Scotus, p. 33*—hereafter cited as "Disquisitio." The translation is from the footnote in Andrew G. Little's "Chronological Notes on the Life of Duns Scotus" in die English Historical Review, 47 (1932), p. 571. '"Ordinatio" is a echnical term used by medieval scholastics to indicate the transcript of a lecture that is not simply an auditor's, or professional scribe's, report or reportatio, but rather the author's final version, put in order or re—edited in die quiet of his study. Scotus' "Ordinatio" is the revision of original bachelor lectures on the four books of die Sentences of Peter Lombard, his "testament to posterity," as Baliç liked to call it. From the date in question two of die prologue, we know Scotus began working on his Ordinatio in the summer of 1300 at Oxford. He added to it later, but left it incomplete when he left Paris for Cologne, where he died as lector of theology in 1308. Originally published by Luke Wadding as Scotus' Oxford work (Opus oxomense), in the critical Vatican edition, still in progress, Scotus' revision is called simply his Ordinatio.¦•Callebaut ascribed the biographical note to an unknown Friar minor. The editors of die Vatican edition suggest die note is by William Rede, who studied at Oxford about 1337 and died as bishop of Chichester in 1385. Cf. F. M. Powicke, The Medieval Books of Merton College, Oxford, 1931, p. 168 note 3. For the life of Rede, see Dictionary of National Biography 47 (1896), 374—376. 'Codex A is the principal manuscript upon which the critical Vatican edition of die Ordinatio of Scotus is based. It is from the communal library of Assisi, codex 137 and contains all four books of Scotus' Commentary on the Sentences of Peter Lombard. 313 Franciscan Studies 58 (2000) 314Allan B. Wolter, O.F.M. the first book of his Ordinatio as the initial question of distinction 4, "Utrum ista sit vera: Deus generat alium Deum?" The brief note begins: "Alia quaestio de 'alius.' Habetur in quaestione Cantabrigiensi."6 It apparently meant that Scotus wanted inserted here another question about how "other" is used when applied to the procession of one divine person from another or others in the Trinity. It is obviously a special use of "other" or "another" if the Father's generation does not produce in his Son a distinct nature as well as a really distinct personality. In natural generation parent and offspring have both natures as well as their own individuality. In God, however, though the Father generates the Son as a really distinct person, he does not give him a divine nature really distinct from himself, but rather communicates that numerically identical divine nature he possesses so that it is equally shared with his eternally begotten...