Scotus Beatified

John Duns Scotus has been mentioned previously in these pages.  On this day, March 20, in 1993, Pope John Paul II recognized Scotus with beatification.  Scotus requires a miracle be attributed to him to be considered for sainthood, but beatification is a significant designation in the Catholic Church.  The man from whom the word dunce derived was in fact one of the greatest minds of his age (13th century).

As mentioned in another post, Walter Scott acquired the nickname Duns Scotus, and from John Gibson Lockhart's "Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott" comes the following anecdote:

'Among the most intimate of Scott's daily associates from this time [around 1792], and during all his subsequent attendance at the bar, were, besides various since-eminent persons that have been already named, the first legal antiquary of our time in Scotland, Mr. Thomas Thomson, and William Erskine, afterwards Lord Kinedder. Mr. Clerk remembers complaining one morning on finding the group convulsed with laughter, that Duns Scotus had been forestalling him in a good story, which he had communicated privately the day before—adding, moreover, that his friend had not only stolen, but disguised it. 'Why,' answered he, skilfully waiving the main charge, this is always the way with the Baronet. He is continually saying that I change his stories, whereas in fact I only put a cocked hat on their heads, and stick a cane into their hands—to make them fit for going into company.'

Duns Scotus

'The debating club formed among these young friends at this era of their studies was called The Literary Society; and is not to be confounded with the more celebrated Speculative Society, which Scott did not join for two years later. At The Literary he spoke frequently, and very amusingly and sensibly, but was not at all numbered among the most brilliant members. He had a world of knowledge to produce; but he had not acquired the art of arranging it to the best advantage in a continued address; nor, indeed, did he ever, I think, except under the influence of strong personal feeling, even when years and fame had given him full confidence in himself, exhibit upon any occasion the powers of oral eloquence. His antiquarian information, however, supplied many an interesting feature in these evenings of discussion. He had already dabbled in Anglo-Saxon and the Norse Sagas: in his Essay on Imitations of Popular Poetry, he alludes to these studies as having facilitated his acquisition of German:—But he was deep especially in Fordun and Wyntoun, and all the Scotch chronicles; and his friends rewarded him by the honorable title of Duns Scotus.'

From John Gibson Lockhart's "Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott".  The "Subtle Doctor", John Duns the Scot, died on November 8, 1308.  Like Fordun and Wyntoun, Duns was a man of the cloth, though of the Catholic faith.  He was ordained a Franciscan in 1291, and had a significant influence on Middle Age thought.  The term "Scotism" applies to the school of philosophical and theological thought that Scotus developed.  For more, see: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/duns-scotus/

According to Lockhart, the Duns Scotus nickname stuck with Walter Scott for many years.