JOHN SCOTUS ERIUGENA, John The Scot (=Irishman) c. 810–c. 877, philosopher. An Irishman, he went abroad and gained the patronage of Charles the Bald, who gave him charge of the palace school at Laon. So far as is known, he held no ecclesiastical appointment, but was a scholar in attendance on the king. The latter years of his life are very obscure. [The tradition that he was invited to England by Alfred and taught in the abbey of Malmesbury rests on a mistaken identification with a later John made by William of Malmesbury.]

Erigena’s philosophy, which was condemned as heterodox at a much later date (13th cent.), is an attempted reconciliation of the Neoplatonist idea of emanation with the Christian idea of creation. In his greatest work, Periphyseon or De Divisione Naturae, he emphasizes the salvation of humankind through an apokatastasis, (restoration) in which all beings are saved “in their nature” while evil fantasies are eternally punished and the elect enjoy theosis, deification.

In the same work he divides Nature into four categories.

[1] First, Nature which is not created but creates, i.e. God;

[2] secondly, Nature which is created and which creates, i.e. the world of primordial causes or Platonic ideas;

[3] thirdly, Nature which is created and which does not create, i.e. things perceived through the senses;

[4] and lastly, Nature which neither creates nor is created, i.e. God, to whom all things must in the end return.

Thus the world was held to begin and end with God. There is a strong savor of pantheism about his teaching; and the treatise was condemned at Paris in 1210 and again by Honorius III at Sens in 1225. In his De Divina Praedestinatione, written against Gottschalk, he argued that in reality, i.e. for God, evil is non-existent, and in consequence sin and its punishment are corollaries, the sin bearing the punishment in itself.

Erigena was a deeply original thinker and a great scholar, with a knowledge of Greek which was quite exceptional for his time. He did an important work in translating the writings of Dionysius the Ps.-Areopagite into Latin and writing a commentary on his Celestial Hierarchy. He also translated the Ambigua and the Quaestiones ad Thalassium of St Maximus the Confessor and the De Hominis Opificio of St Gregory of Nyssa (which he called De Imagine), and wrote a number of exegetical works.

Collected Works, ed. H. J. Floss for J. P. Migne, PL 122. 125–1244. Crit. edns. of Periphyseon (De Divisione Naturae), bks. 1–3, with Eng. tr. by I. P. Sheldon-Williams and L. Bieler (Scriptores Latini Hiberniae, 7, 9, and 11; Dublin, 1968–81); bk. 4, ed. É. A. Jeauneau, with Eng. tr. by J. J. O’Meara and I. P. Sheldon-Williams, ibid., 13; 1995); also by É. A. Jeauneau (CCCM 161–4; 1996–2000); bk. 5 ed. id. (ibid., 165; 2003); of his Carmina, with Eng. tr., by M. W. Herren (Scriptores Latini Hiberniae, 12; 1993) of his De Divina Praedestinatione by G. Madec (CCCM 50; 1978); of his Expositiones in Hierarchiam Caelestem by J. Barbet (ibid.31; 1975); of his tr. of Maximus the Confessor’s Quaestiones ad Thalassium by C. Laga and C. Steel (CCSG 7 and 22; 1980–90); of his comm. on the prologue to Jn., with Fr. tr., by É. Jeauneau (SC 151; 1969) and of his (incomplete) comm. on Jn. by id. (ibid. 180; 1972); two letters, ed. E. Dümmler, MGH, Epistolae, 6 (1925), pp. 158–62; full text of his comm. on the De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii of Martianus Capella first ed. C. E. Lutz (Mediaeval Academy of America Publication 34; Cambridge, Mass., 1939) his tr. of Gregory of Nyssa’s De Imagine ed. M. Cappuyns, OSB, in RTAM 32 (1965), pp. 205–62. Eng. tr. of Periphyseon by I. P. Sheldon-Williams, rev. by J. J. O’Meara (Cahiers d’études médiévales, Cahier spécial, 3; Montreal, 1987). The comm. on Boethius’ Opuscula Sacra attributed to Erigena ed. E. K. Rand (Quellen und Untersuchungen zur lateinischen Philologie des Mittelalters, 1, Heft 2; 1906); the authenticity of the ascription of this work to Erigena has been challenged by M. Cappuyns, OSB, ‘Le plus ancien commentaire des “Opuscula sacra” et son origine’, RTAM 3 (1931), pp. 237–72; H. Silvestre, ‘Le Commentaire inédit de Jean Scot Erigène au mètre ix du livre III du “De Consolatione Philosophiae” de Boèce’, RHE 47 (1952), pp. 44–122; E. K. Rand, ‘The Supposed Autograph of John the Scot’, University of California Publications in Classical Philology, 5 (1920), pp. 135–41, with plates [fasc. 8].

M. Cappuyns, OSB, Jean Scot Erigène: Sa vie, son œuvre, sa pensée (Universitas Catholica Lovaniensis. Dissertationes … 2nd set. 26; 1933); J. J. O’Meara, Eriugena (Oxford, 1988), incl. Eng. tr. of homily on prologue of Jn. (pp. 158–76), and bibl. D. Moran, The Philosophy of John Scottus Eriugena (Cambridge, 1989); W. Otten, The Anthropology of Johannes Scottus Eriugena (Brill’s Studies in Intellectual History, 20; Leiden, 1991). Proceedings of various international conferences on Erigena, esp. R. Roques (ed.), Jean Scot Érigène et l’histoire de la Philosophie (Colloques Internationaux du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 561; 1977); W. Beierwaltes (ed.), Eriugena: Studien zu seinen Quellen (Abh. (Heid.), 1980, Abh. 3); G.–H. Allard (ed.), Jean Scot Écrivain (Cahiers d’études médiévales, Cahier spécial, 1; Montreal and Paris, 1986); W. Beierwaltes (ed.), Eriugena Redivivus (Abh. (Heid.), 1987, Abh. 1); B. McGinn and others (eds.), Eriugena East and West (Notre Dame and London [1994]); G. Van Riel and others (eds.), Iohannes Scottus Eriugena: The Bible and Hermeneutics (Louvain, 1996), with bibl. covering 1987–95, pp. 367–400. D. Carabine, John Scottus Eriugena (Great Medieval Thinkers, New York and Oxford, 2000). M. Brennan, A Guide to Eriugenian Studies: A Survey of Publications 1930–1987 (Fribourg [1989]). R. Roques in Dict. Sp. 8 (1974), cols. 735–61, s.v. ‘Jean Scot (Érigène)’.

Carmina
AuthorsJohannes Scotus Erigena approximately 810-approximately 877,(Author)Michael W Herren(Editor)Andrew N J Dunning(Editor)Giovanni Mandolino(Editor)Chiara O Tommasi 1973-(Writer of introduction)Gregory of Nyssa, Saint, approximately 335-approximately 394. Print Book2020 Turnhout : Brepols Publishers, 2020. SummaryJohn Scottus Eriugena's poetry reflects not only his central philosophical and theological ideas, but also his literary education and his life in the court of Charles the Bald. This corpus of Eriugena's poetry includes recent discoveries of new items. Works laid under contribution by the poet have also been expanded.
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