Of course the antagonism to the Scotists was only gradually developed. Occam was sent to Paris, and be- came regius professor of theology in the university. On his return to England he was appointed by the Francis- cans one of their professors at Oxford. This oftice he was compelled to renounce in consequence of a charge of exciting disturbances among the stiulents. The young collegians of that day were always read}- for an uproar — even more so than in our own — whether the question concerned town and gown, battles, or metaphysical qnodlibcts. Occam's bold doctrines and uncompromis- ing polemics might well occasion controversies and quarrels among doctors and disciples, especially as the Dominicans and Thomists mustered strong in the clois- ters and halls of Isis. The dates of Occam's scholastic career are exceedingly obscure and uncertain, and can- not be exhibited with any clear consistency. They can be determined only by vague conjecture, or by known synchronism with events historically deter- mined. We cannot undertake their conciliation. Oc- cam is said to have declined the archdeaconry of Stow
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in 1300. but to have accepted, two years later, a prebend at Bedford, and in 1305 to have been inducted into a living at Stow, which he did not resign till 1319. Dur- ing much of this period he was certainly in Paris; but benefices and residence were by no means inseparable in that day of papal provisions, non-ohstantes, and ex- epiptions. It was in tlie first years of the 14th centurj' that he engaged in the defence of the civil power, and obtained his earliest notoriety beyond the precincts of the schools by advocating the cause of Philip the Fair of France against the arrogant pretensions of Bon- iface VIII. and by inclining, through his advocacy, the balance iu favor of secular sovereignty. He maintained against the claims of the papacy the independence of princes in all temporal affairs, denied their subordina- tion to the Church, and asserted their responsibility to God alone. It was not the first time that temporal rulers had endeavored to establish a coequal authority with the chiefs of Christendom ; it was not the first time that the papal pretensions had been sternly re- buked in formal treatises; but it was the first time that the doctrine had been so explicitly proclaimed within the circle of the ecclesiastical order. For his reply to the bull Umun Sanctum Occam was excommunicated, and he was compelled to leave France in consequence, about twelve years later, on the death of Philip in 1314. In 1322 he was elected provincial general of the Eng- lish Cordeliers. In this capacity he attended the gen- eral chapter of the order held at Perugia. In that council was discussed the often-debated question be- tween the Fratricelli and the more worldly brethren of the fraternity in regard to the degree of poverty im- posed upon the order by its founder, and the propriety of ecclesiastical endowments. The (luestion had excited furious discords almost ever since the death of Francis of Assisi, and had recently assumed portentous propor- tions in the revolutionary attempts of the Dolcinists, whose leader, Dolcino, had perished at the stake in 1307. The more ascetic and earnest of the Mendicants denied the right of holding any property' at all, and ex- tended the denial to the whole spiritual body. The majority of the brethren, appreciating and enjoying the wealth accumulated from the fanatical admiration of their votaries, had curiously discriminated between cor- porate and individual property, between dominium and ■possvssio, between ownership and usufruct. Divisions on this subject had arisen even under the administra- tion of Elias of Bologna, the first general of the order in succession to the founder. During the brief pontificate of Nicholas III, who had himself been a Franciscan, an attempt was made to settle the contention by a papal bull, which authorized the sodality to hold property and enjoy it sub titiilo ecdesiw, the actual ownership being considered as vested in the general Church. This de- cision had not proved satisfactory to the more consist- ent and extreme Franciscans. Further offence was given when the bull of Nicholas III was revoked by the extravagant Ad Coiuliforem of John XXII, which condemned the severance of the domain from the use. The whole legal doctrine of uses is connected with these nice ecclesiastical fictions. The question was brought up for re-discussion in the Chapter of Perugia. Occam, iu concert with JMichele di Cesena, the general of the order, maintained the obligation of absolute poverty — of total abstention from all property — asserting that such had been the practice of Christ and his apostles, and that the whole spiritual community was bound by their example. His positions were so unlimited as to occasion the celebrated qiiwt-e — Whether the dominion, or only the usufruct of things eaten and drunk belonged to the consumer. The peril to the greedy pope and to ecclesiastical wealth was instinctively recognised by the holy court at Avignon. Proximiis Ucaler/on ardet. John imposed silence on the daring and logical Franciscan ; and, by the extravagant Cum infer, condemned his dogma regarding the absolute destitution of Christ and his apostles. The impetuous controversialist would not
be silenced, and, leaving the narrower field of the divis- ions in his order, he denounced without measure the avarice, the wealth, the corruption, the luxury, the worldliness, and the arrogance of tlie pope and the hie- rarchy. He was sustained by his general, Michele di Cesena. They had returned to France, and had proba- bly been summoned to appear before the pontifical court. They had been thrown into the pontifical dungeons at Avignon. They made their escape by the assistance of the emperor Louis of Bavaria, IMay 26, 1328, then in the midst of his warfare with the pope. With the em- peror they found refuge, and were excommunicated for their flight. Pontifical comminations had few terrors for Occam. His convictions and adhesions were un- shaken by spiritual censures, which had lost their force in the wild ravings of Boniface YIII, and in the outrage which had overtaken him. It must have been at this time that he promised the emperor to defend him with his pen, if he received in return the protection of the imperial sword. He fulfilled his promise, and the alli- ance remained unbroken. It marked an a;ra Avhen let- ters became a ruling power in the world by the side of the Church and the State. Haureau may truly remark that Occam "began a revolution." He lived for years under the shelter afforded by his imperial patron, throw- ing himself courageously and passionately into the thickest of the strife; indefatigable in his labors, fear- less in his opinions, keen in discernment, ingenious in argumentation, honest in motive, and quick in catching the aura popidatis of the approaching age. To his in- dication, or participation, maj' safely be ascribed the repudiation of papal jurisdiction in Germany, by the electors at Reuse, and by the Diet at Frankfort, 1338 — an early anticipation of Huss and Luther. Little infor- mation has been transmitted to us in regard to the later years of Occam. The time and place of his death have both been disputed, as has been the statement of his re- lief from the sentence of excommunication. Luke Wad- ding, in his History of the Order of the Minorites, rep- resents him as having died at Capua in 1350; but that writer stands alone in this opinion. The habitual state- ment is that he died in the monastery of his order at Munich, April 7, 1347, the year in which his protector, Louis of Bavaria, also died. By some authorities, 1343 is given as the year of Occam's death.