190 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1294-1517.
ciscans and John XXII. 's theory of the beatific vision, and in 1333 was declared by a commission guilty of eleven errors. His theological views are found in his commentary on the Lombard, begun when he was a young man and finished in his old age. He showed independence by assailing some of the views of Thomas Aquinas. He went beyond his pi;^lecessors in exalting the Scriptures above tradition and j)ronouncing^ their statements more authoritative thanjhe dicta of_Aristotl^ and other philosophers."* All real existence is in the individual. The universal is not an entity which can be divided as a chunk of wood is cut into pieces. The universal, the unity by which objects are grouped together as a class, is deduced from individuals by an act of the mind. That which is common to a class has, apart from the individuals of the class, no real existence.
On the doctrine of the eucharist Durandus seems not to have been fully satisfied with the view held by the Church, and suggested that the words " this is my body," may mean " contained under " — contentum sub hoc. This marks an approach to Luther's view of consubstantiation. This theologian was held in such high esteem by Gerson that he recommended him, together with Thomas Aquinas, Bradwardine and Henry of Ghent, to the students of the college of Navarre. ^
The most jprofound scholastic thinker of the fourteenth century was the Englishman, AVilliam Ockam, d. 1849, called doctor invincihilis, the invincible doctor, or, with reference to his advocacy of nominalism, veyierahilis inceptor^ the venerable inaugurator. His writings, which were more voluminous than lucid, were much published at the close of the fifteenth century, but have not been \)vX into print for several hundred years. There is no complete edition of them. Ockam's views combined elements which were strictly mediieval, and elements which were adopted by the Reformers and modern
^ Natnralis philosophies non est scire quid Aristoteles vel alii philosophi senserunt sed quid hahet Veritas rerum, quoted by Deutsch, p. 07. Durandus' commentary on the sentences of the Lombard was publ. Paris, 1508, 1515, etc. See Deutsch, art. Durandus, in Herzog, V. 95-104.
2 Schwab : J. Oerson, p. 312.
§ 20. OCKAM AND THE DECAY OF SCHOLASTICISM. 191
philosophy. His identification with the cause of the Spiritual Franciscans involved him in controversy with two popes, John XXII. and Benedict XII. His denial of papal infallibility has the appearance not so much of a doctrine proceeding from theological conviction as the chance weapon laid hold of in time of conflict to protect the cause of the Spirituals.
Of the earlier period of Ockam's life, little is known. He was born in Surrey, studied at Oxford, where he probably was a student of Duns Scotus, enteredjhe FrajicisnaiLxaid fiir., and was probably master in Paris, 1315-1320. For his advocacy of the doctrine of Christ's absolute poverty he was, by order of John XXII., tried and found guilty and thrown into confinement. i With the aid of Lewis the Bavarian, he and his companions, Michael of Cesena and Bonagratia, escaped in 1328 to Pisa. From that time on, the emperor and the Schoolman, as already stated, defended one another. Ockam accompanied the emperor to Munich and was excommunicated. At Cesena's death the Franciscan seal passed into his hands, but whatever authority he possessed he resigned the next year into the hands of the acknowledged Franciscan general, Farinerius. Clement VI. offered him absolution on condition of his abjuring his errors. Whether he accepted the offer or not is unknown. He died at Munich and is buried there. The distinguished Englishman owes his reputation to his revivaljof nominalism, his political theories andTMs (Tefinition of theiiiiaJ geat of religious authority.
His theory of nominalism was ex23licit, and offered no toleration to the realism of the great Schoolmen from Anselm on. Iildiyi_dual_things alone have factual existence. The universals are mere terms or symbols, fictions of the jnirui — fictiones, signa moitaUa, iiomina, signa verhalia. They are like images in a mirror. A universal stands for an intellectual act — actus intelligenda — and nothing more. Did ideas exist in God's mind as distinct entities, then the visible world would have been created out of them and not out of nothing.^
1 It lasted four years, MUller, Ludwig der Baier, p. 208.
2 Xrilhim universale est aliqua substantia extra animam existens, quoted by Seeberg, in Herzog, p. 269. Quoddam fictum existens objective in mente.