How Scotus ended his life we know not. William of Malmesbury, whom many other authorities blindly follow, states that it was a common report—ut fertur—that he was invited to England by King Alfred, that he lectured at Oxford, and afterwards retired to Malmesbury, where he was stabbed to death by his pupils with their pens, or perhaps penknives (graphiis). His body was at first secretly buried in the Church of St. Laurence, where the crime was committed, but a bright light shining nightly on the spot warned the monks to transfer the holy remains of the martyred scholar to the left corner of the high altar in the great Church of Malmesbury, where they reposed in peace and honour until another abbot, Warinus de Lira, exhumed the bodies of Scotus and other saints, and buried them without honour or ceremony in an obscure corner of the Church of St. Michael. But his memory was long venerated as a holy martyr, and his feast celebrated on the 10th of November, on which day his name was inserted in the Antwerp edition of the Roman Martyrology, until Cardinal Baronius had it expunged. The story of William of Malmesbury is altogether improbable, and we have no contemporary evidence in its support. It arose in the beginning from confounding Scotus Erigena, or, as he was sometimes called, Joannes, with another John, abbot of Etheling, who was invited to England by Alfred, about the year A.D. 880. In the letter written by Anastasius in A.D. 875, he not obscurely speaks of John Scotus as already dead, at least he uses the past tense throughout. It is not improbable, therefore, that shortly after the Pope’s letter in A.D. 862, Scotus may have deemed it prudent to retire from Paris, and, with an Irishman’s love of home, returned to his native country, where he is said to have died in peace and holiness in the year A.D. 874.
It has been said, too, that he travelled to Athens, and visited various parts of the East, and that he was skilled in most of the Oriental languages. But these statements appear unfounded; they are certainly destitute of any reliable authority. What we know for certain is that Scotus was an Irishman, that he was the first scholar of his time, that he acquired his knowledge even of the Greek language, in the schools of his native country. He was loved and honoured by friends who knew him, and misjudged both during his life and after his death by many who knew neither the man himself nor his writings. His career was short and brilliant; comet-like he blazed for a while in the sunshine of royal favour; he appeared and disappeared in a strangely eccentric orbit. For ages he was lost to view, but in our own time is seen again shining in the literary heavens with even more than his ancient splendour. We are not inclined to extol him unduly, neither does it become us to judge him harshly; but whatever may be said of his errors, all must admit that John Scotus Erigena was a man of saintly life, a prodigy of learning, and an honour to the country which gave him his name and his knowledge.
IV.—Foreign Scholars in Ireland.
We have already spoken of several foreign scholars, who came to our Irish Schools; but there are a few others to whom it is necessary to make more explicit reference.
The hill of Slane, on the banks of the Boyne, near Drogheda, is one of the historic sites of Ireland. It commands a noble prospect of all the swelling plains of Meath and Louth, bounded on the north by the distant Mourne Mountains rising from the sea, and on the south beyond the smoky pall of Dublin, by the many topped summits of the Wicklow Hills. There, close at hand on this same left bank of the river towards Drogheda are Brugh and Dowth and New Grange, the cemeteries of pre-historic kings; while just in front beyond the river is Rosnaree, where the great King Cormac sleeps with his face to the rising sun, the daily herald of his immortal hopes. Further off in the distance to the south and west, may be seen Royal Tara, and Skreen of Columcille, and Kells of the Crosses, and the towers of Trim and all the other storied ruins that once guarded the passes of the Boyne from Newtown of the Normans, by Bective, Navan, and Donore, whence fled the chicken-hearted James, down to the obelisk by yonder bridge that marks the spot where the gallant Schomberg fell.
It was on this hill of Slane that St. Patrick lit his Paschal fire for the first time in Erin, within view of King Laeghaire and his Druids from Tara. And it was here too that Erc, “the sweet spoken judge of Patrick,” built his oratory and little cell, which in after ages grew to be a great monastery and a great college. There is now no trace of the oratory of St. Erc at Slane. The ivy-clad ruins that still remain on the hill seem to be of Norman origin, dating probably from the twelfth century. The history of the ancient monastery has likewise disappeared, almost as completely as its buildings. One interesting fact, however, is still preserved by local tradition,[434] and that tradition has been amply confirmed by the researches of scholars in our times. It is said that a king of France was educated long ago at the great College of Slane, but his name and date are forgotten. We are, however, enabled to supply these particulars. St. Sigebert III. was king of the Austrasian Franks from A.D. 632 to 656. This pious king was more given to prayer than to warlike enterprise; and so Grimoald, Mayor of the Palace, became virtually ruler of Austrasia. When Sigebert died in A.D. 656, Grimoald, wishing to have the name as well as the power of a king, caused the late king’s son, Dagobert, to be tonsured, and then sent Dido, Bishop of Poitiers, to carry off the boy secretly to Ireland, to be educated there as a monk in one of its famous monastic schools. Tradition tells us that the school was Slane, and that Dagobert spent eighteen or twenty years in its halls, and acquired during that long period all the learning of the Scots. Meanwhile Grimoald received the fitting reward of his treason. He was captured by Clovis of Neustria, and put to death with torture, not long after he had sent the young prince to Ireland. When Dagobert was grown to man’s estate he returned home to Austrasia, and mounted his father’s throne as Dagobert II., by which name the student of Slane College is known in French history.[435] It is obvious that Slane was selected, not because it was the most celebrated school at the time, but because it was in Meath, where the High-kings mostly dwelt; and it was only natural to bring the royal boy to some college near the royal court. It was through the agency of Wilfrid, Archbishop of York, that Dagobert was restored to his friends and his kingdom about the year A.D. 674, after the deposition and death of King Childeric II.
Another eminent saint and scholar of foreign origin, contemporary with Dagobert in Ireland, was Egbert of Northumbria. Bede gives a very interesting account of this eminent man.[436] He was sprung from the nobility of Northumbria, and appears to have been born in A.D. 639.
With another young noble named Ethelun, Egbert went over to Ireland, like the crowds of his countrymen, ‘to pursue divine studies, and lead a continent life.’ They sojourned in the monastery, called in Irish Rathmelsigi, which Bede’s editor and translator[437] foolishly calls ‘Melfont.’ He meant Mellifont, near Drogheda; but there was no monastery at Mellifont for nearly five hundred years afterwards. As the same learned editor makes Columba’s noble monastery of Dair-magh to be Derry, instead of Durrow, we need not attach much importance to his notes on Bede concerning Irish matters. Colgan says that this monastery of Rathmelsigi was in Connaught; but he does not specify, and probably did not know, the exact locality. In the Martyrology of Donegal, we find reference to “Colman[438] Rath-Maoilsidhe” (at Dec. 14th), which is in all probability the monastery referred to by Colgan. This Colman is different from Colman of Innisboffin, whose festival day is the 8th of August. It is not improbable that his monastery was situated at the place called Rath-maoil, or Rath-Maoilcath, both of which were situated near Ballina, on the right bank of the Moy. Everything points to the fact that most of the young Northumbrian nobles and ceorls, who came to the West of Ireland in crowds at this period, landed in the estuary of the Moy, and then going southward, took up their abode, or founded their religious houses wherever they could obtain suitable accommodation. St. Gerald’s Abbey of Mayo was not then established (in A.D. 664); and so Egbert and his companions put themselves under the guidance of St. Colman, or some of his successors, in this monastery of Rath-Maoilsidhe.
Just then the terrible Yellow Plague made its appearance in Ireland, and carried off one-half of its population. All the companions of Egbert and Ethelun were cut off by the plague; and now they themselves were attacked, and became grievously ill. Then Egbert, whilst he had yet a little strength remaining, rose up in the morning, and going out of the chamber of the sick, he sat down alone, and began to think of his past sins; and he asked God’s pardon for them with many tears. He prayed, too, earnestly that God would not yet take him out of the world, but would give him time to atone by his good works for the sins of his youth. And if God deigned to hear his prayer, he vowed never to return again to his native Britain, but to live as a pilgrim in some strange land; and, moreover, to recite the Psalter daily, and to fast continuously for twenty-four hours once a week. When he returned to the sick chamber, Ethelun, his companion, was asleep; but presently awaking, he told Egbert that his prayer was heard by God; then he gently rebuked him, for he had hoped that together they would go into life everlasting. Next day Ethelun died; but Egbert recovered from his sore sickness, and lived to be ninety years of age, when he departed from this life.
He was ordained a priest; “and his life,” says Bede, “adorned the priesthood, for he lived in the practice of humility, meekness, continence, justice, and all other virtues.” He loved the Irish greatly, and lived amongst them for fifty years (A.D. 664-715), preaching the Gospel, teaching in his monastery, reproving the bad, and encouraging the good by the bright example of his blameless life. He not only kept his vow, but he added to it, says Bede; for during the whole Lent he took but one meal in the day, and that was nothing but bread in limited quantity, and thin milk from which the cream had been skimmed off. Whatever he got from others—and he got much—he gave to the poor.