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MAJOR (or MAIR), JOHN (1470-1550)

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Originally appearing in Volume V17, Page 450 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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MAJOR (or MAIR), JOHN (1470-1550)  , Scottish theological and
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historical writer, was born at the
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village of Gleghornie, near North Berwick, Scotland, in the
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year 1470 . He was educated at the school of Haddington, where John Knox was later a pupil . After a short period spent at Cambridge (at
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God's House, afterwards Christ's College) he entered the university of Paris in 1493, studying successively at the colleges of St Barbe, Montaigu and Navarre, and graduating as master of arts in 1496 . Promoted to the doctorate in 1505, he lectured on philosophy at Montaigu College and on
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theology at Navarre . He visited Scotland in 1515 and returned in 1518, when he was appointed
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principal regent in the university of
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Glasgow, John Knox being among the number of those who attended his lectures there . In 1522 he removed to St Andrew's University, where 111.1525 George Buchanan was one of his pupils . He returned to the college of Montaigu in 1525, but was once more at St Andrew's in 1531, where he was head of St Salvator's College from 1534 until his
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death . Major's voluminous writings may be grouped under (a) logic and philosophy, (b) Scripture commentary, and (c)
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history . All are in Latin, all appeared between 1503 and 1530, and all were printed at Paris . The first
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group includes his Exponabilia (1503), his commentary on Petrus Hispanus (1505-1506), his Inclitarum artium libri (15o6, &c.), his commentary on J.
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oannes Dorp (1504, &c.), his Insolubilia (1516, &c.), his introduction to Aristotle's logic (1521, &c.), his commentary on the ethics (1530), and, chief of all, his commentary on Peter Lombard's Sentences (15o9, &c.); the second consists of a commentary on Matthew (1518) and another on the Four Gospels (1529); the last is represented by his famous Historia Majoris Britanniae tam Angliae quam Scotiae per J . M . (1521) .

, In

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political philosophy he maintained the Scotist position, that
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civil authority was derived from the popular will, but in theology he was a scholastic conservative, though he never failed to show his approbation of
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Gallicanism and its plea for the reform of ecclesiastical abuses . He has
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left on record that it was his aim and hope to reconcile realism and nominalism in the interests of theological peace . He had a
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world-wide reputation as a teacher and writer . Buchanan's severe
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epigram, perhaps the only unfriendly words in the flood of contemporary praise, may be explained as a protest against the compromise which Major appeared to offer rather than as a
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personal attack on his teacher . Major takes a more
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independent attitude in his History, which is a remark-able example of historical accuracy and insight . He claims that the historian's chief duty is to write truthfully, and he is careful to show that a theologian may fulfil this condition . The History, on which his fame now rests, was reprinted by
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Free-bairn (
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Edinburgh, 1740), and was translated in 189z by Archibald Constable for the Scottish History Society . The latter
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volume contains a full account of the author by
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Aeneas J . G . Mackay and a bibliography by Thomas Graves Law .

End of Article: MAJOR (or MAIR), JOHN (1470-1550)
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