A rationalistic mystic, the most distinguished scholar and thinker of the 9th century, of Irish birth; taught at the court of Charles the Bald in France, and was summoned by Alfred to Oxford in 877; died abbot of Malmesbury; held that "damnation was simply the consciousness of having failed to fulfil the divine purpose"; he derived all authority from reason, and not reason from authority, maintaining that authority unfounded on reason was of no value; d. 882.