THE INVESTIGATION INTO WILLIAM of OCKHAM in the Early 1320S
CHAPTER FIVE THE INVESTIGATION INTO WILLIAM OF OCKHAM In the early 1320s, William of Ockham found himself in diffi culty over his writings. He was investigated by his own order, and subsequently summoned to Avignon so that his writings could be examined for errors. While Ockham’s confl ict with the papacy is an important event in the history of medieval religion, much of it took place outside the confi nes of Oxford and England in general, and are therefore outside the general scope of this book. As a result, only the earliest develop- ments will be examined in detail here. William of Ockham and John Lutterell Ockham was born at Ockham in Surrey around 1287.1 He was received into the Franciscan order quite young, before he was 14, and most likely received his basic philosophical education at the Franciscan house at London. He was probably ordained as a subdeacon in Southwark in 1306, and was licensed to hear confessions by the bishop of Lincoln in 1318.2 Th ere is some possibility, but no evidence, that he studied briefl y at Paris; eventually he was sent to Oxford, where he lectured on the Sentences of Lombard from 1317 to 1319 (although it is possible that he lectured fi rst at London and then at Oxford in that period).3 He would have lectured on the Bible for a year starting in 1319. In 1321, he was appointed lecturer in philosophy at one of the Franciscan schools, most likely the London house. As a ‘formed bachelor’, he was waiting for his order to assign him the opportunity to proceed to the doctorate, but because the number of positions was limited and the waiting list substantial, as events turned out he never received that opportunity; consequently he was nicknamed ‘the 1 William Courtenay, “Ockham, William (c.1287–1347)”, in ODNB, 41:422–28; William Courtenay, Ockham and Ockhamism: Studies in the Dissemination and Impact of His Th ought, (Leiden, 2008), pp.
[Show full text]