John Duns Scotus: Commentary on the Sentences.
In the Middle Ages, Peter Lombard's Four Books of Sentences became the standard theological text. Like many of the theologians of his time, John Duns Scotus lectured and wrote commentaries on this work by Peter Lombard. He lectured for years on The Sentences and compiled two commentaries on them that he used as his personal texts for his lectures. It was known that he also used them as textbooks for his students and understudies to use. Although the Four Books of Sentences in itself is a very powerful work, its commentaries, written by various authors, supplement it superbly. These commentaries, including the two by John Duns Scotus, kept Peter Lombard's ideas and thoughts alive, centuries after his death.
.
John Scotus was born in c.1265 in Duns, Berwickshire, Scotland and adopted his middle name from the town of his birth. He was raised in a Christian family and as a child, suffered from a learning disability that was later healed by an apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In 1208, he earned his noviciat for the Order of the Friars Minor, who were an order of Franciscans in Dumfries, Scotland. Then, in 1291, he was ordained a priest by the Bishop of Lincoln, England and began developing his theological and philosophical background first at Cambridge, and then later at Oxford. It is here that he first lectured on the Four Books of Sentences by Peter Lombard. .
.
In 1303, while lecturing at the University of Paris, John Duns Scotus was exiled from Paris by the king of France, Phillip IV. King Phillip IV was debating with Pope Boniface VII over the taxation of church property and John Duns Scotus often objected to Burant 2 King Phillip's argument. His exile was soon reversed and he returned to lecture at the University of Paris until 1307, when he was sent to Cologne, Germany. It is here that he spent his last year lecturing, and then died on November 8, 1308.
