Testimonies concerning John Scotus Erigena

Consult Vossius, Ussher, Mauguin, Cellot, as well as Pierre de Marca, Jean Mabillon, and Pierre Allix These are prominent 17th-century scholars and historians. William of Malmesbury has informed us of the manner of death by which John perished; however, he does not designate with certainty the exact time he ceased to be among the living. It is established from Roger of Wendover that Scotus returned to England in the year of salvation 883, or, as others say, in the year 884. The great Baronius Cesare Baronio, a cardinal and historical scholar wrote that he met his fate in this very year, 883. Truly, he praises our own local historians as the sole witnesses for his opinion, yet they do not actually say this; for they speak of his death in that year only by a certain anticipation prolepsis, or speaking of an event before it happened. William of Malmesbury says that several years after 883, he gave up his soul after being stabbed through by styluses original: "graphiis perfossus"; tradition holds he was stabbed to death by his students' writing instruments. In the second year after the arrival of Grimbald (who came to England in the year 885), Scotus lectured at Oxford, if faith is to be placed in the Annals of Hyde; they are either the first or the only ones to affirm this. Regarding the remainder of his lifespan, I have found nothing certain.

He perished by an unworthy death: a grateful posterity desired to make him immortal, and therefore celebrated his birth-day meaning his feast day or day of death entering eternal life on the 4th Ides of November for a long time. Arnold Wion mentions him honorably in his Tree of Life; he notes that in the Roman Martyrology printed in the year 1580, his place and full honor remained intact, though subsequent editions of the Martyrology have entirely removed him. It seems to me that John was born to such a fate that he would always undergo the alternating judgments of men. Anastasius the Librarian proclaims him a man holy in all respects; others tear him apart as a liar, a fool, a madman, and a heretic. The boys of Malmesbury kill him, the Monks build his tomb, some Abbots pursue him with almost the same honor as their own Aldhelm, while Warin an 11th-century Abbot of Malmesbury who reportedly disrespected Erigena's remains treats him almost as refuse. Some enter him into the calendars of saints, others strike him out. Thus his fame and name have long been afflicted by a sort of recurring fever.

Concerning the location of his burial alone, there is agreement among all. The Catalogue of Saints Buried in England (which is now kept in the Benedictine college at Cambridge) writes of him thus, in Saxon letters: Saint Maildun, Saint Aldhelm, and John the Wise rest in Malmesbury. The Cottonian Codex from Goscelin of Saint-Bertin holds the same, nor does the Librarian of Malmesbury William of Malmesbury depart from these, as we have seen; nor does a certain ancient note which was once read in the Merton Library at Oxford — Saint Aldhelm and John the Wise rest in the place called Malmesbury. There was also a statue placed in honor of this John in the church of Malmesbury Abbey, with this inscription: John Scotus, who translated Dionysius from Greek into Latin referring to his famous translation of Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite. So says Leland in his Itinerary. These are the things I had to say regarding John Erigena for now.