26
May 1328 A.D. William
of Ockham flees Avignon Castle, Avignon Papacy, France
Graves, Dan. “William of Ockham Fled
Avignon.” Christianity Today. April
2007. http://www.christianity.com/church/church-history/timeline/1201-1500/william-of-ockham-fled-avignon-11629857.html. Accessed Apr 24, 2014.
Glancing over his shoulder,
William of Ockham breathed a sigh of relief. He was well outside the white
stone walls of Avignon. He and his two companions had moved quickly in the last
hour, only too glad to be in fresh air, rather than locked in a musty prison
within the pope's fortress palace. They had almost come to that.
William of Ockham was in trouble.
A scholar--one of the greatest of the Middle Ages--he had spoken his mind too
freely.
William was an Englishman who had
joined the Franciscans. The friars or "brothers" were supposed to
live in poverty like St. Francis, their founder, preaching and doing good. Some
also studied. Ockham taught at Oxford University while he studied for a higher
degree. But Ockham's teaching didn't suit everyone. John Lutterell, who had
been a top man at Oxford, complained to Pope John XXII that Ockham's ideas
disagreed with teachings of the church. "They are heresy," he said.
At that time, the popes lived in
Avignon, not Rome, because Rome had grown so dangerous. Pope John ordered
Ockham to come to Avignon. For four years, Ockham lived there under house
arrest. He had to remain in the convent at Ockham. Six scholars studied his
teachings and declared that some of them were indeed wrong. However, Ockham was
not condemned or punished. Some of his errors were considered to be minor. At
any rate, he always agreed with the most important teachings of the church such
as salvation and resurrection and he believed
the Bible was God's word.
At that time, the Franciscans
were arguing among themselves whether they had to remain poor or not. Their
general (Michael Cesena) said they should. The pope disagreed. Cesena asked
William to answer the pope. Although it put him in deadly danger, because his
position could not please everyone, William wrote the reply. He accused the
pope himself of holding false ideas and teaching heresy.
William, Michael Cesena and
another friend learned the pope was about to condemn them. This could mean
imprisonment or even death. On this day, May
26, 1328, they escaped from Avignon and fled to the protection of King
Louis IV, the Bavarian.
At the court of King Louis,
William kept on writing. He said that the pope only had authority over the
church and its beliefs, not over kings and their kingdoms. This went against
Catholic teaching. But because William was a great thinker, his ideas
influenced his age. Reformers like Wycliffe, Hus and Luther who came after him,
listened to his views.
But we remember him now mostly
because he developed the tools of logic. He insisted that we should always look
for the simplest explanation that fits all the facts, instead of inventing
complicated theories. This rule is called "Ockham's razor."
Bibliography:
- Adams, Marilyn McCord. William Ockham. University of Notre Dame, 1987.
- Copleston, Frederick. A History of Philosophy, III; Ockham to Suarez. Westminser, Maryland: Newman Press, 1953.
- Guillen, Michael. Bridges to Infinity. Los Angeles: Tarcher, 1983. pp. 121 - 122.
- McGrade, Arthur Stephen. The Political Thought of William of Ockham. London: Cambridge, 1974.
- McKeon, Richard. Selections from Medeival Philosophers, I; Roger Bacon to William of Ockham. New York: Scribners, 1930.
- "Ockham, William of." Dictionary of Scientific Biography, edited by Charles Coulston Gillespie.
- "Ockham, William of." Edwards, Paul, editor. The Encyclopedia of Philosophy. New York, Macmillan, 1967.
- Various histories or collections of philosophy, such as Durant, Runes, Russell.
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