John Scotus Erigena

John Scotus Erigena (815?-877?), Irish-born scholar, who produced the first great philosophical system of the Middle Ages.

It is believed that he was born in Ireland, as indicated by his use of the pseudonym Johannes Ierugena or Johannes Eriugena (meaning “Irish-born”). About 847 Charles I, king of France, appointed him supervisor of the court school. Charles also commissioned him to translate into Latin the Neoplatonic works of Dionysius the Areopagite. Erigena came into conflict with Pope Nicholas I when he did not submit his work to censorship, but Charles supported him, and he was retained at court until the king's death in 877. The councils of Valence (855), Langres (859), and Vercelli (1050) condemned his treatise De Divina Praedestinatione (Concerning Divine Predestination, 851), which defended the belief of Hincmar, archbishop of Reims, that the destiny of the individual is not completely dependent upon God but that free will has some part in determining salvation. Erigena also asserted in this writing that there is no damnation as traditionally understood. All human beings, he believed, will become pure spirits.

In his pantheistic work De Divisione Naturae (Concerning the Division of Nature, 865-70), he rejected the orthodox Christian belief that the universe was created out of nothing. He asserted that the world of space and time is the manifestation of ideas in the mind of God and described God as the consummation of all development. Erigena also insisted that reason does not need the sanction of authority; rather, reason itself is the basis of authority. De Divisione Naturae was condemned at the Council of Sens (1225), and Pope Honorius III ordered it burned.

It is believed that Erigena also composed a work denying the actual presence of Christ in the Eucharist. Although some of Erigena's views were considered heretical, he is respected for his great learning and is generally regarded as one of the first representatives of Scholasticism.