In return for protection and patronage William wrote treatises that argued for emperor Louis to have supreme control over church and state in the Holy Roman Empire. After studying the works of John XXII and previous papal statements, William agreed with the Minister General. Sketch labelled "frater Occham iste", from a manuscript of Ockham's Summa Logicae, 1341īecause of the pope's attack on the Rule of Saint Francis, William of Ockham, Michael of Cesena and other leading Franciscans fled Avignon on, and eventually took refuge in the court of the Holy Roman Emperor Louis IV of Bavaria, who was also engaged in dispute with the papacy, and became William's patron. This brought them into conflict with Pope John XXII. The Franciscans believed that Jesus and his apostles owned no property either individually or in common, and the Rule of Saint Francis commanded members of the order to follow this practice.
Michael of Cesena had asked William to review arguments surrounding Apostolic poverty. A theological commission had been asked to review his Commentary on the Sentences, and it was during this that William of Ockham found himself involved in a different debate. The Franciscan Minister General, Michael of Cesena, had been summoned to Avignon, to answer charges of heresy. It is generally believed that these charges were levied by Oxford chancellor John Lutterell. In 1324, his commentary was condemned as unorthodox by a synod of bishops, and he was ordered to Avignon, France, to defend himself before a papal court.Īn alternative understanding, recently proposed by George Knysh, suggests that he was initially appointed in Avignon as a professor of philosophy in the Franciscan school, and that his disciplinary difficulties did not begin until 1327.
However, William's commentary was not well received by his colleagues, or by the Church authorities. William of Ockham was among these scholarly commentators. Because of this, he acquired the honorific title Venerabilis Inceptor, or "Venerable Beginner" an inceptor was a student formally admitted to the ranks of teachers by the university authorities.ĭuring the Middle Ages, theologian Peter Lombard's Sentences 1150 had become a standard work of theology, and many ambitious theological scholars wrote commentaries on it. It is believed that he then studied theology at the University of Oxford from 1309 to 1321, but while he completed all the requirements for a master's degree in theology, he was never made a regent master. He received his elementary education in the London House of the Greyfriars. William of Ockham was born in Ockham, Surrey in 1285. In the Church of England, his day of commemoration is 10 April. He is commonly known for Occam's razor, the methodological principle that bears his name, and also produced significant works on logic, physics, and theology.
He is considered to be one of the major figures of medieval thought and was at the centre of the major intellectual and political controversies of the 14th century. William of Ockham was an English Franciscan friar, scholastic philosopher, and theologian, who is believed to have been born in Ockham, a small village in Surrey. It is vain to do with more what can be done with less.
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