DUNS SCOTUS, JOHN

(c 1266-1308) Franciscan scholastic; taught at Oxford, Paris, and Cologne; against Thomas Aquinas ; faith is primarily a matter of will, not of reason, therefore cannot be established by rational proofs. Wrote 1. Opus Oxoniense and 2. Questiones Quodlibetales . Said that the knowledge of God cannot come from reason, but must be accepted on the basis of the authority of the Church. "A thing may at the same time be true in philosophy and false in theology." Influential in creating doctrine of Immaculate Conception. Protestants later coined the word "dunce" in reference to him.