Testimonies concerning John Scotus Erigena.

...of reading and curious, sharp but inelegant, as I have said, in his skill for interpreting; which I think he did (to use the words of Anastasius, the librarian of the Roman Church) for no other reason than because, being humble in spirit, he did not presume to depart from the literal property of the word, lest in some way he should fall away from the truth of the meaning. He was learned to the point of envy, acting as a follower of the Greeks original: "græcorum pedissequus", who sprinkled his books with many things that Latin ears do not receive: which, not being ignorant of how offensive they were to readers, he used to hide either under the persona of his interlocutor or under the cloak of the Greeks. For this reason, he was even thought to be a heretic, and a certain Florus wrote against him. For there are in his book On the Divisions of Nature original: "περὶ φύσεων" (Peri physeon) very many things which, in the estimation of many, seem to deviate from the Catholic faith. Pope Nicholas is known to have been of this opinion, who says in a Letter to Charles Charles the Bald, King of West Francia: It has been reported to our Apostleship that a certain John of yours, of the Scottish race In the Middle Ages, "Scotus" referred to the Irish, has recently translated into Latin the work of the blessed Dionysius the Areopagite, which he wrote in the Greek tongue concerning the divine names or the Celestial orders; which, according to custom, ought to have been sent to us and approved by our judgment, especially since the same John, although he is proclaimed to be of much knowledge, was formerly said by frequent rumor not to be of sound mind in certain matters. Therefore, let your industry supply what has been omitted until now, and send the aforementioned work to us without any hesitation.

Because of this infamy, therefore, as I believe, he grew weary of France and came to England to King Alfred, enticed by whose munificence, and by his teaching—as I have understood from his writings—he resided in the sublime Malmesbury. There, after some years, having been pierced through with the styluses metal pens used for writing on wax tablets of the boys whom he was teaching, he shed his soul in grave and bitter torment; so that while the strong wickedness and the weak hand often frustrated him, and often attacked him, he met a bitter death. He lay for some time in that Church which had been conscious of the unspeakable slaughter; but when divine favor granted a fiery light over him for many nights, the Monks, being warned, transferred him into the greater Church, and having placed him to the left of the altar, they proclaimed him a martyr with these verses:

Buried in this tomb is the holy Sage John,

Who while living was enriched with wondrous doctrine;

By martyrdom he finally deserved to ascend to heaven,

Where all the Saints reign forever through the ages.

But Anastasius also praises him for his distinguished holiness while he was still living, in these words to Charles: It is also to be wondered at how that barbarian man—I mean John—who, placed at the ends of the world, might be believed to be as far removed from the speech of another tongue as he is from the conversation of men, was able to grasp such things with his intellect and translate them into another language—I mean John the Scot-born original: "Scottigenam", a man, as far as I have found, holy in all things. But that craftsman Spirit worked this, who made him equally burning and speaking; for unless he had glowed with the fire of charity from His grace, he would undoubtedly never have received the gift of speaking in tongues. For mistress Charity taught him what he performed for the instruction and edification of many. Therefore, diverse writings alternate concerning his praises and his infamy, although for a long time now the praises have carried more weight. His eloquence was so powerful for a craftsman that all of Gaul surrendered to his teaching. But if any breathe a greater audacity, such as the Synod which was gathered in the time of Pope Nicholas II at Toul original: "Tutonis"; they hurl a harsher sentence not against him, but against his writings. These, then, are almost the things that give rise to the controversy.