William of Ockham

William of Ockham (also spelled Occam; c. 1287 – 9 or 10 April 1347) was an English Franciscan friar, scholastic philosopher, and theologian. A major figure in medieval thought, he stood at the center of the 14th century’s most significant intellectual and political disputes. Fifteenth-century nominalists saw him as a founder of their movement. He is best known for Occam’s razor, the methodological principle named after him, and wrote important works on logic, physics, and theology. The Church of England commemorates him on 10 April, the date commonly given for his death.

He was likely born around 1287 in Ockham, Surrey. As a youth, he joined the Franciscan Order and began his theological training at the Franciscan school in London. He later studied at the Franciscan school at the University of Oxford, probably from some unknown date until 1321. Though he completed all requirements for a master’s degree in theology, he never became a regent master, which led to him being called an “inceptor”—someone recognized by the university as qualified to begin as a regent master.

To become a Master of Theology, a scholar had to lecture on Peter Lombard’s *Sentences*, usually in the form of disputed questions. These lectures were often copied and circulated, and a “Commentary on the Sentences” was typically a theologian’s main publication. Ockham’s disputations on the *Sentences* likely took place between 1317 and 1319; his commentary has been edited in his *Opera Theologica*.

After qualifying for the mastership, his order sent him to one of its schools, probably the London school where he had previously studied. Most of his work from this period was philosophical, including commentaries on several of Aristotle’s logical treatises, a commentary on Aristotle’s *Physics*, and a *Summary of Logic*. His output was prodigious, and these works have been edited in his *Opera Philosophica*.

His teaching was interrupted in 1324 when he was summoned to the papal court in Avignon to defend his *Sentences* commentary. (An alternative hypothesis, recently proposed by George Knysh, suggests he was initially appointed as a professor of philosophy at the Franciscan school in Avignon, with disciplinary troubles beginning only in 1327.) Pope John XXII directed former Oxford chancellor John Lutterell, who had come to Avignon seeking advancement, to gather suspect passages from Ockham’s commentary. A committee of theologians reviewed them; their preliminary reports were critical, but the process was never concluded.

While in Avignon, Ockham became involved in the dispute over Apostolic poverty. The Franciscan Rule commanded members to practice the poverty of Jesus and his apostles, who, the Franciscans argued, owned nothing individually or in common. Pope John rejected this doctrine in several papal bulls. In *Ad conditorem canonem*, he argued that no one could justly consume something owned by another (e.g., food or clothing), so providing consumables transferred ownership. He also claimed it was impossible to transfer durable goods to another’s use permanently without transferring ownership. In *Cum inter nonnullos*, John condemned as heresy the statement that Christ and the Apostles had nothing individually or as a group. The Franciscan Minister General, Michael of Cesena, asked Ockham to study the pope’s bulls. Ockham found in them “a great many things that were heretical, erroneous… adverse to orthodox faith.” Together with Michael, Bonagratia of Bergamo, Francis of Marchia, and perhaps others, Ockham secretly left Avignon on 26 May 1328. The dissident Franciscans took refuge in Munich under the protection of Holy Roman Emperor Louis IV of Bavaria, who was also in dispute with the pope over whether he needed papal approval to become emperor. On 6 June 1328, Ockham and the others were excommunicated for leaving Avignon without permission.

Most Franciscans submitted to the pope’s decrees. Ockham and the small band of dissident “Michaelists” in Munich campaigned for years to have John XXII and his successors Benedict XII and Clement VI deposed. The writings Ockham published during these years, often called his “political writings” (*Opera Politica*), deal with many matters of political philosophy. After leaving Avignon, he seems to have written nothing more on his earlier academic topics. He died probably on 9 or 10 April 1347, just before the Black Death broke out in Munich.

Ockham incorporated much from earlier theologians, especially Duns Scotus, from whom he derived his views on divine omnipotence, grace and justification, and much of his epistemology and ethics. He disagreed with Scotus on predestination, penance, universals, and the formal distinction “on the part of the thing” in creatures.

William of Ockham held that theology is not a science. Only faith, he argued, gives access to theological truths. The ways of God are not open to reason, because God freely chose to create a world and establish a way of salvation within it, apart from any necessary laws that human logic or reason could grasp.