THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
dogma. The infidel can " attain all the knowledge, whether simple or complex, which the believer can have "; the difference is in the possession of faith. The act of belief depends on the fides infusa, and proceeds from the cooperation of this with the fides acquisita derived from instruction, Bible-reading, and intelligent meditation on various truths. Theology is not thus in the strict sense a science; it is not a form of natural metaphysical cognition, but a special mode of cognition effected by the operation of the infused " habit " of faith. In the application of these principles to the faith of the church of his day, Occam accepts and even enhances the ecclesiastical positivism of Scotus. The faith of the Church must be accepted in toto, either explicitly or implicitly. Reason may question the doctrines or ordinances of the Church, but the Christian as a Christian accepts them. The more critical activity awoke, the more need there was for this counterbalancing thought. The legal conception of the Church finds expression here; he who wishes to belong to it must subject himself to its laws, whether or not he is personally convinced of their justice. Here again there is need of the miraculous fides infusa; but this is itself an article of faith which is learned only by authority, not " by reason, by experience, or by logic." So it comes back to the point that a man must accept the teachings of the Church because he wishes to belong to it. The authority of the Church's teaching was essentially based, for Occam, on that of the Bible. This in itself was nothing new, as all the scholastics (following Augustine) had regarded church doctrine as the formulated expression of Scriptural truth. The novelty here is that Occam is driven by the party conflicts of his day into acknowledging that the authorities of the day may diverge from Scriptural teaching, and thus he comes to a more consciously strict application of the principle of Scriptural infallibility. Popes and councils may err, but the written word is sure. " A Christian is not bound to believe, as necessary to salvation, anything which is neither contained in the Bible nor may be plainly and of necessity inferred from what is contained there." It is true that he does not realize how far this principle might lead — how far it was one day going to lead Luther; nor does he seem disposed to apply it except where the necessities of his own position, as in the controversy on poverty, forced him to it. In practise, throughout his whole dogmatic system, the authority of the Fathers and of the Roman Catholic Church stands out as coequal with that of the Scripture, and in fact has the last word; the doctrine of transubstantiation, which is not expressly taught in Scripture, is unquestioningly accepted on that authority. In spite of this, a special place must be given him in the history of the principle of Scriptural faith.
Space forbids more than a cursory glance at the individual doctrines held by him; but this is less to be regretted since his strength lies in the critical rather than the positive, in which he is generally influenced by Scotus. In regard to the nature and attributes of God, he applies a critical solvent to the principal proof given for his existence by
Scotus, showing that the reality of God as the infinitus intensive can as little be demonstrated from efficientia, causalitas, eminentia, as from the divine knowledge of the infinite or from 3. Doctrine the simplicity of his nature. Neverof God, theless he considers the recognition of Salvation God to proceed from the idea of and Sin. causality, if not by strict syllogistic deduction, yet " by authority and reason." And in the same sort of way the infinity of God is confirmed. As to his unbounded power and absolute will, Occam distinguishes potentia absoluta and potentia ordinata, the two being, however, only different modes of considering a power which is essentially one; in practise it is always ordinata, the absolute power being merely the hypothetical possibility of God's doing anything whatever which does not involve a contradiction in terms. The absolute freedom of God is the characteristic trait in the theology of Occam. The entire scheme of salvation planned by the voluntas ordinata is based on no inner necessity, but is determined by the fact that it pleased God, as a matter of fact, to do thus and no otherwise. The distinction of the two aspects of the divine power comes in here; the merits of the saints, e.g., are accepted as valid only because it pleases God to accept them — but since it has pleased God to establish this system, merit is absolutely necessary. God and his grace do all, yet only in such a way that the cooperation of man is required. The freedom of the human will can not be, strictly speaking, demonstrated, but is recognized as true by experience. Sin consists in the violation of the will of God. By it, however, no " real " change takes place in the soul. Sin consists in individual acts; it does not take away freedom nor weaken the soul, but simply destroys the future good, the reward, ordained by God for those who do his will. Since there is no fundamental connection between sin and punishment, God could by his absolute power forgive sin and infuse grace even without repentance. In the same connection appears the relation of original sin to original righteousness. The latter is "an absolute something superadded to man as he is in a state of nature "; the former is " a certain lack of the righteousness which he ought to have." Thus original sin is the result of the divine ordinance; God wills to consider the offender against his law as unworthy of acceptance, together with all his posterity. This explains his view of the immaculate conception of Mary. As a member of the human race, she would have been in the first instant of her conception a debtor to original righteousness; but it is not inconceivable that God should have chosen to renounce the exaction of that righteousness from her and refused to impute its absence as a fault. By a subtle train of reasoning he concludes that she was not even for an instant in original sin.
In his Christology, Occam holds firmly to the hypostatic union, while distinguishing sharply between the two natures. As with Duns Scotus, so here the union consists in a " relation," the human nature being assumed by the divine. The special result of Christ's work is to be seen in the institu-