Preface.

To lay to rest the controversies that arose in past centuries concerning Johannes Eriugena Johannes Scottus Eriugena (c. 810–877), an Irish theologian and Neoplatonist philosopher at the court of Charles the Bald. and his writings, learned men have deemed it most advisable to publish the very books over which the disputes occurred. In this way, by bringing the records to light, as it were, everyone will have a freer and more ready opportunity to form a judgment.

At the request of Hincmar and Pardulus Hincmar was the Archbishop of Reims and Pardulus the Bishop of Laon; both were powerful figures in the 9th-century Carolingian Church. (who were then greatly celebrated in Gaul for their erudition and sanctity), Eriugena wrote a book against Gottschalk Gottschalk of Orbais, whose teachings on "double predestination" caused a major theological crisis. concerning Predestination. The churchmen of those times offered quite varied judgments regarding that book. Those who consider themselves to judge this matter with a bit more insight say that the Scot’s original: "Scoti" — Eriugena was often called "the Scot," as Ireland was then known as Scotia. adversaries did not attack him directly, but rather sought to strike at Hincmar through his sides. That work began to appear only among a few people; indeed, for some time, only nineteen chapters which his enemies had extracted were being circulated. It often happens that in obscure matters, we imagine more than what is true. Many, therefore, began to suspect that Eriugena was being treated with malicious intent; they complained that the man had been overwhelmed by fabricated crimes and false envy. It seemed these complaints would never end until the work was published in its entirety. And so, those who would have preferred to condemn it to darkness finally released it.

The same Johannes Eriugena composed a work on the Eucharist by order of Charles the Bald; immediately, opinions were divided regarding this writing as well. Two hundred years later, the Scot’s book was burned on ill-fated pyres. You ask for what reason? Vincent of Beauvais A 13th-century Dominican friar and author of the "Speculum Maius," a massive medieval encyclopedia. answers in his Mirror of Doctrine original: "speculo doctrinali" that it was because Berengar Berengar of Tours (d. 1088), who was condemned for his views on the Real Presence in the Eucharist. had admired the Scot too much. When genius is punished, its authority spreads; once that book was destroyed, the disagreements over it grew more and more. For nearly nine centuries, this saw has been pulled back and forth A metaphor for a long-standing, repetitive dispute. through suspicions and obscure, doubtful conjectures. At last, that book was published under the name of Ratramnus Ratramnus of Corbie, a contemporary of Eriugena whose work "De Corpore et Sanguine Domini" was often confused with Eriugena's lost treatise., as some contend. What happened then?

A poetic quotation, likely from Virgil's Aeneid, describing the sudden calming of a storm.

For that little book is found to be neither so sacred nor so horrible, provided a malicious interpreter is absent. Thus, the greatest angers—which are sometimes truly great—do not always cause the greatest injuries.