DUNSTAN
199
DUNSTAN
467; Pluzanski, Essai sur la philosophie de D. Scot. (Paris,
1888); Werner, Joh. Duns Scoliis (Vienna, 1881); Idem, Die
Psychology und Erkennlnisslehre des Joh. Duns Scotus (Vienna,
1877); Seebero, Die Theologie ties Duns Scotus (Leipzig, 19(X)):
MiNGEs, 1st Duns Scotus Jndelerminislf (Miinster, 1905); Idem,
Der Gottesbegriff des Duns Scotus auf seinen angeblich excessiven
Indeterminismus gepruft (Vienna, 1907): Idem, Die Gnaden-
Ithre des Duns Scotus auf ihren angeblichen Pelagianismus
un.I S, nj,i~l"'nanismus gepriifl (Munster, 1906); Idem, Ver-
A '.- n Glauben und Wissen, Theologie und Philoso-
- .' /' /.i Sco/i« (Paderborn, 1908); Idem, Dfranaeb/icA
190S); Idem,
ningica quoad
iiiaracchi, 1908),
l.s by the same
-' ((/j/.s in Zeilschr.
des Dii
Jonnnis D'/ns Scoti doctrm ' /
prcecipuas proposita. exf"
I, II; cf. also the fol^.^. i
author: Die angeblich la i> /.-
f. kalh. Theol. (Innsbrurk, 1
Werke nach Duns .S'co^/n in 7'
76-93; Beitrag zur Lchn-
des Duns Scotus iiber </i.
Person Jesu Chrisli (Tu-
bingen), 384-124; Bedeu-
tung von Objekt, Umstanden
und Zweck fur die Sittlich-
keit eines Aktes nach Duns
Scotus in Philosophisches
Jahrbuch (Fulda, 1906),
338-347; Beitrag zur Lehre
des Duns Scotus uber du
Univocation des Sein.-^bi-
griUes (Fulda), 306-323.
Lexicographic Aids: — De Varesio, Promptua- rium Scoticum (Venice, 1690), I, II; Garcia, Lest- con Scholasticon {Scoticum). (Quaracchi, 1906-1908), distributio, 1-4.
Parthenids Minges.
Dunstan, Saint,
archbishop and con-
fessor, one of the great-
est saints of the Anglo-
Saxon Church ; b. near
Glastonbury on the
estate of his father,
Heorstan, a West Sax-
on noble. His mother,
Cynethryth, a woman
of saintly life, was mir-
aculously forewarnetl
of the sanctity of the
child within her. She
was in the church of St.
Mary on Candlemas
Day, when all the
lights were suddenly
extinguished. Then the
candle held by I'yne-
thryth was as suddenly
relighted, and all pres-
ent lit their candles at
this miraculous fiame,
thus foreshadowing
that the boy "would be the minister of eternal light" to the Church of England. In what year St. ]5un- stan was born has been much disputed. Osbern, a writer of the late eleventh century, fixes it at "the first year of the reign of King Aethelstan",
and committed to the care of the Irish scholars, who
then frequented the desolate sanctuary of Glaston-
bury. We are told of his childish fervour, of his vision
of the great abbey restored to splendour, of his nearly
fatal illness and miraculous recovery, of the enthusi-
asm with which he absorbed every kind of human
knowledge, and of his manual skill. Indeed, thro\igh-
out his life he was noted for his devotion to learning
and for his mastery of many kinds of artistic crafts-
manship. With his parents' consent he was tonsured,
received minor orders, and served in the ancient
church of St. Mary. So well known did he become
for devotion and learning that he is said to have
., ( I ul.iim.li, 1907), been summoned by his uncle Athelm, Archbishop of - . — m— — r-.,» - Canterbury, to enter
T)ichii'iicrfcviptii|,'nViiiiiiS)},i5iiic fiibriif II I fa r'tfttvjpiopjmnianii sn>un(Vfliii.
Fol. 1 recto, .MS. Auct., F. IV. 32, Bodleian Library,0.xford, 956
his service. By one of
St. Dunstan 's earliest
biographers we are in-
formed that the young
scholar was introduced
by his uncle to King
.\ethelstan, but there
must be some mistake
here, for Athelm prob-
ably died about 923,
and Aethelstan did not
come to the throne till
the following year.
Perhaps there is con-
fusion between Athelm
and his successor Wulf-
helm. At any rate the
yoimg man soon be-
came so great a favour-
ite with the king as to
e.xcite the envy of his
kinsfolk at court. They
accused him of study-
ing heathen literature
and magic, and so
wrought on the king
that St. Dunstan was
ordered to leave the
court. As he quitted
the palace his enemies
attacked him, beat him
severely, boimd him,
and threw him into a
filthy pit (probably a
cesspool), treading
him down in the mire.
He managed to crawl
out and make his way
to the house of a friend,
whence he journeyed to
Winche.sterandentered
the service of Bishop Aelfheah the Bald, who was hii
relative. The bishop endeavoured to persuade him to
become a monk, but St. Dunstan was at first doubtful
whether he had a vocation to a celibate life. But an
attack of swelling tumours all over his body, so severe
924-5. This date, however, cannot be reconciled that he thought it was leprosy, which wa.s perhaps
with other known dates of St. Dimstan's life and in- some form of blood-poisoning caused by the treatment
volves many obvious absurdities. It was rejected, to which he had been subjected, changed his mind,
therefore, by Mabillon and Lingard ; but on the He made his profession at the hands of St. Aelfheah,
strength of "two manuscripts of the Chronicle" and and returned to live the life of a hermit at Glaston-
"an entry in an ancient Anglo-Saxon paschal table", bury. Against the old church of St. Mary he built a
Dr. Stubbs argued in its favour, and his conclusions little cell only five feet long and two and a half feet
have been very generally accepted. Careful examina- deep, where he studied and worked at his handicrafts
tion, however, of this new evidence reveals all three and played on his harp. Here the devil is said (in a
[)a,ssages as interpolations of about the period when late eleventh-century legend) to have tempted him
( »sbern was writing, and there seem to be very good and to have been seized by the face with the saint's
rea.sons for accepting the opinion of Mabillon that the tongs.
saint was born long before 92.5. Probably his birth While Dimstan was living thus at Glastonbury he
dates from about the earliest years of the tenth cen- became the trusted adviser of the Lady Aethelflaed,
tury. King Aethelstan's niece, and at her death found hira-
In early youth Dunstan was brought by his father self in control of all her great wealth, which he used in
