Scotus for Dunces: An Introduction to the Subtle Doctor

1 Scotus’s Life and Works

13 SCOTUS’S LIFE AND WORKS Chapter 1 Scotus’s Life and Works At the outset of such an introductory study, it is important to have a chapter whose purpose is to give the reader some sense of the man and the time in which he lived. This is particularly important in the present case, because, in this book, I pre-suppose that Scotus’s Franciscan commitments play an enormously important role in his thought. This point has become a foundational affirmation for the present study; indeed, I have chosen to organize this book, not around the philosophical underpinnings of his writings, but rather around key insights that are central to the spirituality of the Franciscan tradition. In this first chapter, then, I sketch out the biographical information we have available, the historical context that forms the background for his thought, how he figures in the thirteenth century Franciscan theological tradition (between Bonaventure and Ockham) and, finally, how all these elements help to define what is specific about his approach to reality. When it comes to historical figures, it is always important to have a life somewhat shrouded in mystery. Where John Duns Scotus is concerned, we have more mystery than clarity. Indeed, we have very little solid information on his life. The best scholarly guess puts his birth in Duns,Scotland, possibly in the spring of 1266. A tourist visiting Duns can see the commemorative statue in the town square, dedicated to the local hero. His child- 14 SCOTUS FOR DUNCES hood years leave no record of any significant events for the hagiographers to relish.There may have been a Franciscan connection in the family (an uncle or cousin) because at an early age (possibly as young as fourteen) he left home to enter the Franciscan mendicant order (Order of Friars Minor). He may have done some philosophical study near his birthplace before his teachers recognized the youth’s intellectual acumen and took him to Oxford where he could study with the great masters of the order and the university. The name of John Duns Scotus first appears in ecclestiastical records in 1291, the year of his ordination to the priesthood on March 17. As did most thirteenth century scholars (and particularly those in religious orders), John benefitted from study at the universities of Oxford as well as Paris where he incepted as Master in Theology in 1305. This event would have been the equivalent to finishing his doctorate (in the modern American system), and would have come at the end of twelve to fourteen years of formal study. His years of professional teaching were few, however. The Franciscan died on November 8, 1308 in Cologne , Germany. Five historical dates frame our knowledge of Scotus’s life: March 17, 1291 (his ordination to the priesthood in Oxford); summer, 1300 (the date he records at the beginning of the Ordinatio); June, 1303 (the date of a document on which his name is recorded as a member of the Franciscan community of Paris); 1305 (his inception as Master in Paris); and November, 1308 (his death in Cologne). Beyond these wide markers, we have only conjecture with which to fill in the details. Much of this conjecture is grounded on inference from one of these five dates. For instance, the record of his ordination on March 17, 1291, enables historians to suggest a birth date of spring, 1266. This conjecture is given greater probability because there had been an ordination in December 1290, for which he was apparently not eligible. Since canon law required a minimum age of twenty-five for ordination, there is good reason to conclude that Scotus celebrated his 25th birthday between December, 1290 and March, 1291. 15 SCOTUS’S LIFE AND WORKS In addition, his inception as Master in 1305, when considered in light of recorded university procedures for the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, provides good historical ground for the conjecture that he began his formal studies of theology in 1288. Since professional university studies took from twelve to fourteen years (depending upon the university), Scotus would have had to begin prior to his ordination, unless some exception had been granted in his case. Had he entered the Franciscan novitiate in 1284 (at the age of 18, normal for that time) he would have made vows in 1285. This leaves a three-year gap in his education, between 1285 and 1288. Recent historical research points to...