Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 5.djvu/234

This page needs to be proofread.

DUNNE


194


DUNS


tial See of Dunkeld, until lona became the seat of tlie Bishop of the Isles at the end of the fifteenth century. About the same time Dunkeld (together with Dun- blane, Galloway, and Argj'll) became a suffragan of the newly-constituted Archbishopric of Glasgow; but during the primacy of Archbishop Foreman of St. Andrews (1513-1522) it was restored to the metropoli- tan province. Thirty-five bisliops occupied the See of Dunkeld from its foundation in 1107 until the ex- tinction of the ancient hierarchy in the sixteenth cen- tury. Of this line of prelates the most distinguished were James Kennedy (143S-1440), illustrious for his birth, learning, and piety, who was translated, after two years at Dunkeld. to the Bishopric of St. .\ndrews; the famous poet-prelate Gavin Douglas (1516-1521), who died in exile in England; and John Hamilton (1545-1547), who succeeded the murdered Cardinal Beaton at St. .Andrews, and closed his troubled career on the scaffold at Stirling in 1571. The last pre- Reformation Bishop of Dunkeld was Robert Crichton (nephew of a former occupant of the see), who sur- vived until 15S6.

For close on tliree centuries, the Diocese of Dun- keld, like the other Scottish bishoprics, remained va- cant, until, on 4 March, 1S7S, it was restored by Leo XIII by liis Bull, "Ex supremo apostolatus apice". The diocese, as then re-constituted, is one of the suf- fragan sees of the archiepiscopal province of St. An- drews, and includes the counties of Perth, Forfar, Clackmannan. Kinross, and the northern part of Fife. Since the revival of the see, it has been held by three bishops: George Rigg (d. 1SS7); James G. Smith (transferred to St. .\ndrews in 1900); and the Right Rev. Angus Macfarlane, consecrated 1901. The bish- op's pro-cathedral is in Dundee, the residence of the great majority of the Catholics of the diocese, and the cathedral chapter, erected in 1S95, consists of a pro- vost and eight canons. The total number of secular priests in the diocese (190S) is 35; regulars (Redemp- torists), 12. The missions and chaplaincies number 17, the churches, chapels, and stations 31, and the parochial schools 15. There are two monasteries of men (Redemptorists and Marists), four convents of women (Sisters of Mercy, Little Sisters of the Poor, Ursulines, and Sisters of Charity), and the Catholic in- stitutions comprise a home for aged poor, a house of mercy for servants, and a working girls' home. The Catholic population of the diocese is estimated to be rather more than 30,000. The old cathedral of Dun- keld, beautifully situated on the Tay amid wooded hills, was erected between 1220 and 1500. The build- ing was much damaged in the reign of Robert II, and suffered later at the hands of the Earl of Buchan, styled the " Wolf of Badenoch ". It fell partly into ruins in the sixteenth century, since when the choir has been used for Presbji:erian worship. The Dukes of AthoU, long the owners of the building, have spent a good deal on its preservation and repair, and an ex- tensive restoration of the choir was carried out in 190S, chiefly at the cost of Sir Donald Currie. There is now no Catholic church or resident priest in the vil- lage of Dunkeld.

Sken-e, Cellic Scotland fEdinburgli. 1S76-S0), II, 370; Mtln, Vilci Epiic. Dunkeld. (Edinburgh. 1831); Fordux, Scotichroni- crni, ed. Goon.iLL (Edinburgh. 1759). XVI. xx\-ii; Theiner. Vet. Mon. Hibem. alque Scot. (Rome. 1864\ 506; Dunkeld: His- torical and Descriptive (Dunkeld. 1879); Walcott. The .Ancient Church of Scotland (London, 1874), 208-217; Catholic Directory for Scotland (1908).

D. O. Hunter-Bl.ur.

Dunne, Edward J. See D.a.llas, Diocese of.

Dunne, John. See Bathurst, Diocese of.

Dunne, Johm. See Wilcaxxia, Diocese of.

Dunne, Robert. See Brisb.vxe, Diocese op.

Duns Scotus, Joh.v, sumamed Doctor Subtili.s, d. 8 Nov., 1 308 ; he was the founder and leader of the fa-


mous Scotist School, which had its chief representatives among the Franciscans. Of his antecedents and life very little is defuiitely known, as the contemporary sources are silent about him. It is certain that he died rather young, according to earlier traditiojis at the age of thirty-four years (cf. Wadding, Vita Scoti, in vol. I of his works) ; but it would seem that he was somewhat older than this and that he was born in 1270. The birth-place of Scotus has been the subject of much discussion, and so far no conclusive argument in favour of any locality has been advanced. The surname Scotus by no means decides the question, for it was given to Scotchmen, Irishmen, and even to na- tives of northern England. The other name. Duns, to which the Irish attach so much importance, settles nothing; there was a Dun.s also m Scotland (Ber- wick). Moreover, it is impossible to determine whether Duns was a family name or the name of a place. Appeal to supposedly ancient local traditions in behalf of Ireland's claim is of no avail, since we can- not ascertain just how old they are; and their age is the pivotal point.

This discussion has been strongly tinged with na- tional sentiment, especially since the beginning of the sixteenth century after prominent Irish Franciscans like Mauritius de Portu (O'Fihely), Hugh MacCaghwell, and Luke Wadding rendered gi-eat service by editing Scotus's works. On the other hand, the English have some right to claim Scotus; as a professor for several years at Oxford, he belonged at any rate to the English province; and neither during his lifetime nor for some time after his death was any other view as to his nationality proposed. It should not, however, be for- gotten that in those days the Franciscan cloisters in Scotland were afBhated to the English province, i. e. to the cu.stodia of Newcastle. It would not there- fore be amiss to regard Scotus as a native of Scotland or as a member of a Scottish cloister. In any case it is high time to eliminate from this discussion the famous entry in the Merton College MS. (no. 39) which would make it appear that Scotus was a member of that college and therefore a native of Northern England. The statutes of the college excluded monks; and as Scotus became a Franciscan when he was quite yovmg, he could not have belonged to the college pre\-ious to joining the order. Besides, the entry in the college register is under the date of 1455, and consequently too late to serve as an argument.

The case is somewhat better with the entry in the catalogue of the library of St. Francis at Assisi, under date of 13S1, which designates Duns Scotus's commen- tary on the " Sentences " of Peter Lombard as " mag- istri fratris Johannis Scoti de Ordine Minorum. qui et Doctor Subtihs nuncupatur, de provincia Hiberniae" (the work of master John Scotus of the Franciscan Order, known as the subtle doctor, from the province of Ireland). This, though it furnishes the strongest evidence in Ireland's favour, cannot be regarded as decisive. Since Scotus laboured during several years in England, he cannot, simply on the strength of this evidence, be assigned to the Irish province. The li- brary entry, moreover, cannot possibly be accepted as contemporary with Scotus. Add to this the geo- graphical distance and it becomes plain that the dis- cussion cannot be settled by an entry made in far-off Italy seventy-three years after Scotus's death, at a time too when geographical knowledge was by no means perfect. Finally, no decisive evidence is of- fered by the epitaphs of Scotus; they are too late and too poetical. The question, then, of Scotus's native land must still be considered an open one. When lie took the habit of St. Francis is unknown; probably about 1290. It is a fact that he lived and taught at Oxford; for on 26 July, 1300, the provincial of the English province of Franciscans asked th3 Bishop of Lincoln to confer upon twenty-two of his subjects iurisiliction to hear confessions. The bishop gave the