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Johannes Scotus Eriugena was an Irishman, educated in Ireland. He moved to France (about 845) and took over the Palatine Academy at the invitation of Carolingian King Charles the Bald. He succeeded Alcuin of York (735–804) as head of the Palace School.<ref name="freemantle">Freemantle, Anne, ed. (1954–1955), "John Scotus Erigena", [https://archive.org/details/ageofbelief007499mbp The Age of Belief], The Mentor Philosophers, Houghton Mifflin Company, pp. 72–87</ref> The reputation of this school, part of the Carolingian Renaissance, seems to have increased greatly under Eriugena's leadership, and the philosopher himself was treated with indulgence by the king. Whereas Alcuin was a schoolmaster rather than a philosopher, Eriugena was a noted Greek scholar, a skill which, though rare at that time in Western Europe, was used in the learning tradition of Early and Medieval Ireland, as evidenced by the use of Greek script in medieval Irish manuscripts.<ref name="freemantle" /> He remained in France for at least thirty years, and it was almost certainly during this period that he wrote his various works.
The latter part of his life is unclear. There is a story that in 882 he was invited to Oxford by Alfred the Great, laboured there for many years, became abbot at Malmesbury, and was stabbed to death by his pupils with their styli. Whether this is to be taken literally or figuratively is not clear,<ref name="caribine">Caribine, Deirdre, Great Medieval Thinkers, John Scottus Eriugena, Oxford University Press, p. 14.</ref> and some scholars think it may refer to some other Johannes.<ref name="cappyuns">Cappuyns, M (1933), Jean Scot Érigène, sa vie, son oeuvre, sa pensée, Louvain, Belgium; Mont César, pp. 252–53. Figuratively, present day professors might recognize the irony in dying from the results of their students' pens.</ref> He probably never left France, and the The date of his death is generally given as 877.<ref name="haureau">The nineteenth-century French historian, [[w:Barthélemy Hauréau|Haureau]] advanced some reasons for fixing this date</ref> From the evidence available, it is impossible to determine whether he was a cleric or a layman; the general conditions of the time make it likely that he was a cleric and perhaps a monk.
==Works==