![[Blessed John Duns Scotus]](saintj55.jpg "17kb jpg detail of a portrait of Blessed John, date unknown, artist unknown; swiped off the Wikipedia web site; please do not write to ask about the image")
Doctor Subtilis Joannes Scotus The Subtle Doctor
John pointed out the richness of the Augustinian-Franciscan tradition, appreciated the wisdom of Aquinas, Aristotle and the Muslim philosophers, and still managed to be an independent thinker. His ideas led to the founding of a school of Scholastic thought called Scotism. In 1303 when King Philip the Fair tried to enlist the University of Paris on his side in a dispute with Pope Boniface VIII over the taxation of Church property, but John dissented and was given three days to leave France.
He returned to Paris in 1305, and received his doctorate. He then taught there, and in 1307 so ably defended the Immaculate Conception of Mary that the university officially adopted his position. Drawing on this work, Pope Pius IX solemnly defined the Immaculate Conception of Mary in 1854.
The Franciscan minister general assigned John to the Franciscan school in Cologne; he died there the next year.
New Catholic Dictionary Catholic Encyclopedia: Blessed John Duns Scotus Catholic Encyclopedia: Scotism and Scotists Google Directory Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Columbia Encyclopedia Erratic Impact Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate Island of Freedom Jacques Maritain Center, university of Notre Dame Wikipedia Book of Saints, by the Monks of Ramsgate Our Sunday Visitor's Encyclopedia of Saints, by Matthew Bunson, Margaret Bunson, and Stephen Bunson
Questions of Metaphysics
- Father Charles Balic, O.F.M., the foremost 20th-century authority on Scotus