William of Ockham

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Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production of iHeartRadio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Holly Fry and I'm Tracy V. Wilson. Bill Nye inspired this podcast. Yeah. Yes, I was recently on a flight. I think it was when I was coming back from south By Southwest, and I was watching the Master Class with Bill Nye on my flight. He just just casually mentioned William of Oakham and Ockham's Razor and I was like, oh, yeah, there's got to be a person behind that whole thing. And then I started looking stuff up on my phone on the flight, and now it's an episode. I would say, this person is from longer ago then I would have imagined just from the phrase Akham's razor in the way it's thrown around the internet. Yes, and often not quite with the real sense of meaning of the writings of William of Ockham. We'll talk about that, you know, towards the end. And also some behind the scenes. Yeah. Like I said, I started researching him and then discovered things about him that I was like, what, there's some good drama in this one. So that is who we are talking about today, and specifically really his clashes with the Pope. There were a lot so way before the clashing with the Pope started. William was born in the winter that straddled the years of twelve eighty seven and twelve eighty eight. His exact date of birth within that winter is unknown, As his name suggests, he was born in the village of oak Hamlet or Ockham, southwest of London. While there's only speculation about his earliest years, we know that sometime between the years of twelve ninety four and thirteen oh one, so at some point when he was younger than thirteen, he was sent to London to study with the Franciscan Order, also known as the Order of the Friars Minor. It appears that as part of this move, William's family relinquished any control or rites that they had regarding his future. He was essentially given over to the Order. This may have been done because an education within the London Gray Friars as they were called, would have just exceeded any opportunity that he had otherwise, and after getting a solid foundational education in his childhood in teen years with the Grayfriars in his early twenties, which would have put it in the late thirteen teens, Williams started really studying theology. There's a little bit of uncertainty about where he started studying religion more seriously, but he did even chilly Land at Oxford in a two year course studying the theological compendium Sentences that's also known as the Book of Sentences, and it's believed to have been written right in the middle of the twelfth century. That text was written by a man named Pierre Lombard, who you'll also see as Peter Lombard. This was a French theologian, the Bishop of Paris. Lombard. Sentences consisted of four books with different spiritual themes. Book one examined God, the Holy Trinity, and concepts of a divine force leading humans to good, the nature of evil and predestination. Book two covers all of the elements that went into and led up to human kinds fall from grace, including writing on angels and demons. Book three focuses on Jesus Christ and the path to human redemption, and Book four goes over the sacraments and the final stages of mortal life, so death, judgment, and the transition to the hereafter, whether that's heaven, or hell. Achham did not receive a degree from Oxford. Once he had completed that two year course, he returned to the Greyfriars in London and settled into life there. And he wrote a lot of his most well known works in the years immediately following his time at Oxford, and they were not always especially popular. These were primarily commentaries on sentences and sometimes called the long accepted text into question. This led to friction and William having to defend his work before regional leadership of the Order. It is also possible that his contentious views on the sentences are the reason that he left Oxford without what would be the equivalent of a master's degree. Backham was not the only person who was invited to leave Oxford during this time. A member of the Dominican Order named John Lutrell was chancellor at Oxford when was there, but he was so disliked that he was pushed out of his position not long after William of Ockham left. To be clear, though, that two of them did not share the same ideology. For a lot of history, it has been believed that because of Acham's views, which often clashed with other members of the Order, he was sent to Avignon to be charged with teaching heresy before the papal court. There is also sometimes a direct link made between his early exit from his time at Oxford and his travel to Avignon, meaning it was the summons to appear before the Pope that interrupted his academic work. Just as a note if you're like Avignon, this was during the sixty seven year period when the papacy was seated in Avignon instead of Rome, which started when Pope Clement the Fifth refused to relocate from France to Rome when he was elected Pope in thirteen o nine. There is more to that story, but that is outside of today's focus on William of Ockham. As we said, this is how Okam's moved to France has been characterized for centuries. But an article that appeared in nineteen seventy eight in the journal Franciscan Studies made the case that the motivation for traveling to France was much more benign for William of Ockham. That article was by George Nish titled Biographical Rectifications concerning Okam's Avignon period. This site's letters written by Pope John the twenty second to established a slightly different timeline and points to the trip to Avignon being catalyzed by nothing more than just the next step in Ockham's academic studies. Regardless of the situation that brought him to France, Akham was free to basically do what he wanted while he was there, so long as he stuck to Avignon. One account that I read described this situation as a loose house arrest, which I don't know why I really loved. And he never returned to England. But perhaps most importantly, he was once again in contact with John Lutterell, who had gone to Avignon after being outstood at Oxford in the hopes of cozying up to the papacy and securing his career that way. And when it came to Akam, Lutterell was ready. He had studied Okham's teachings on the sentences and had compiled a list of fifty six points on which he felt Okham was incorrect and even heretical. Lutterell was, as you remember, working on his own image with the church, so it benefited him to point out the perceived failings of Akham's teachings. He also sat on a committee with five other people to review Akham's work and specifically his commentary on the Sentences, to do that more deeply, to write reports for the Pope about it. Two reports were produced by the committee, and their findings squarely pointed to Akham being out of step with accepted religious teachings of the time. Akham seems to have been pretty unwilling to bend to anyone's criticism of his interpretations of the Sentences, because when those reports were filed, he in turn wrote a new commentary of the Sentences with corrections, meaning that he further criticized the long respected books of Pierre Lombard. If this seems like Akam was rebellious, it's actually a little more complicated than that. He was what would come to be known as a theologian logician, meaning that he applied pretty fairly rigid logic to his interpretations of religious matters. He held God as the most important figure in his analysis, of course, and based his logical analyzes on the acceptance that God is omnipotent and that omnipotence allows the deity to provide salvation for humans. So, when confronted with his alleged heresy, Akam used all of his logic to essentially walk critics through his flow chart of the logical thinking it had brought him to his determinations on matters of religion, and he was apparently very skilled when it came to debating such matters. This all seemed like it was going to get Acam condemned by the Catholic Church, but he wasn't, at least not yet, and that was probably because there were other pressing issues to attend to for the papacy. Before we get to those, we should talk about Pope John the twenty second, and we will get to that after we pause for a sponsor break. Pope John the twenty second, who was born Jacques Duiz, became the pope after a lot of conflict over who was going to succeed his predecessor, Pope Clement the Fifth, who died on April twentieth, thirteen fourteen. Clement the Fifth had made Duez Cardinal Bishop of Porto a year and a half before he died. Duez background was in both cannon and civil law. Because of his legal knowledge, he had in his career argued the absolute supremacy of the Church in all matters when it came into conflict with government and royal interests, particularly regarding Pope Boniface the eighth and his bull of papal supremacy in thirteen oh two, when Clement the fifth died, the Holy See was vacant for more than two years because the Council of Cardinals responsible for selecting the new Pope was in such a state of conflict between two factions that they couldn't even agree on where to meet to have the discussion. After the first council dissolved because of these issues, various royals got involved to try to urge the Church to find a way forward. This was very destabilizing for Europe. After Philip the fifth of France and Navarre took his throne in November of thirteen sixteen, he got very serious with the Catholic Church about resolving this matter, and he decided himself that the cardinals would meet in Lyon in a Dominican monastery and they would emerge with a decision. So there is a bit of an interesting twist in that Jacques Duez, who argued for ultimate power of the Church over monarchies, was only elected to become Pope John the twenty second after the King of France kind of made it happen. As we mentioned before, the break Akam seemed to have dodged a condemnation. He had kind of settled into life in Avignon. He was continuing his philosophical works, completing, among other things, the work that came to be known as the Quadlabets. There was a whole other problem brewing in the Catholic Church's leadership over the way some aspects of the church operated. The Franciscan order believed that religious leaders and brothers in their orders should live like Jesus, meaning they could not acquire wealth or own anything, but should instead live off the kindness of others and things that they could manage to generate themselves, like growing produce, although that involved the use of loaned land. This was just a basic part of living as a Franciscan, and Pope John the twenty second, who was head of the church at the time, was not on the same page the head of the Franciscans at the time. Italian theologian Michael of Chesenna, traveled to Avignon to confront John the twenty second about this issue. This is sometimes characterized as the Pope having sent for Michael, and other accounts kind of make it seem like Michael of Chiesenna initiated the trip. Michael of Chesena had arrived in Avignon in thirteen twenty seven, but the conflict lasted into the following year and the arguments over the issue only intensified. The crux of the matter was, as we said, whether religious figures, and specifically Franciscans could own property. But it had come into sharp focus over a man named Bonagratia of Bergamo. Like Pope John the twenty second, Bonagratia had studied both cannon and civil law, but unlike the Pope, he was quite adamant that Franciscan's in particular should maintain their poverty. The reasons was such a hot issue for Pope John the twenty Second was that, as you'll recall, he became the pope when there was a lot of infighting in the church and one of the issues that had divided people was Franciscan poverty. So it was one of the first problems he was expected to solve, and here he was a decade later, still having arguments over it. So when Michael of Chezenna arrived in France, it was to try to untangle this problem and specifically to advocate on behalf of Bonegracia of Bergamo. To support his argument, Michael asked Akham to do an academic survey of Pope John the twenty second's own writings and to basically compile a report as an aside. Bonagracia of Bergamo was never freed from his confinement and Avignon and died there. So Akam began to pore over everything that had been written on the matter, and specifically what had been written and discussed in the year since John had become the Pope, and even more specifically writings by Pope John the twenty second. There is a passage in the second chapter of the Rule of Saint Francis which is titled on those who wish to adopt this life, and the Pope had quoted this in his writings on the matter. It is about clothes. Here is what the Pope wrote. Quote first, when it is said in the rule that those who have promised obedience may have one tunic with a hood, and another if they so wish, without a hood, and likewise let the brothers wear poor clothes. Over the sense of those words, the declaration of our predecessors, Nicholas the third and Clement the fifth limpidly flow and the aforementioned Clement was led to leave the judgment of poor clothes to the ministers, custodians and the guardians of the Order. There had apparently been lot of disagreement about the level of poverty involved in assuming a life with the Franciscan Order. What did poor clothes mean? Did they mean that they were of poor quality? Was it that they were worn down? The specific meaning was important because it related to their basic day today way of living, and if it was not agreed upon, strife would only continue. John the twenty second wrote the following statement on the issue. Quote, we, after seriously listening to arguments from both sides and fully understanding them, wish to put a final end to this business. On the council of our brothers. We declare and say that when it says in the rule, let all the brothers wear poor clothes, this sort of poorness of clothes, both in the external habit and in the tunic underneath. The aforementioned Clement decreed must be understood according to the custom and conditions of a particular area, and consequently the poorness is left to the judgment of the ministers, and no less do we commit to the judgment of the minister's custodians and guardians the authority to determine, that is, to judge and prescribe the length, width, size, weave, form or figure, and other similar accidents of the habit and the tunic underneath in which these brothers in the Order of Miners must be clothed. Above all, whether these clothes are in accordance with the rule and with papal declarations. So if that's not clear, He's like, it's going to be different no matter, like depending on where you live. So we'll just let the different areas decide. John the twenty second also wrote a lot of notes about the rules as set forth by Saint Francis, and there are entire scholarly papers dedicated to listing them. There is no consensus regarding when these notes were made. They could have come years later after the events were talking about today, and William of Ockham's place in them. All of this is historically important because John the twenty seconds time as Pope is sometimes called by scholars quote a black time. This wasn't only about tunics, obviously, but that whole discussion is kind of a representative of a larger set of proclamations that were made by John the twenty second about the Franciscans. He was making these decisions after considering them almost exclusively, it seems, through a legal lens, and that makes sense because he didn't have any serious religious training. He was not a theologian by training, but someone who rose to power in the Church through his knowledge of canon law regarding the issue of the Franciscans, and to settle the ongoing disputes about what Saint Francis meant in various rules, Pope John the twenty second made three declarations about the operation of the Franciscan Order. The first was the papal bull add Condatorum to the Founder, which was issued on December eighth, thirteen twenty two. In it, the Pope undid one of the big ways that the Church had made it possible for the Franciscans to function prior to this bull. The way they had gotten around Saint Francis's rule that no Franciscan could receive or even touch money or to have possession of anything, was that anything that was given to the Franciscans to help the order, whether it was land, clothing, books, etc. That was technically all owned by the papacy and not by the Order. The Franciscans could use things, but they could not, as individuals or an order, own things. This bull undid that arrangement, and so that the Franciscan Order would have to own their own stuff. This decision was made by the Pope using the logic of Roman law, where if using a thing destroys its substance, you have to own that thing, yeah, otherwise it would be theft. The second bull come into Nonulos when among Some was issued in November thirteen, twenty three, and it further dismantled Franciscan ideology. In it, John the twenty second rejected the idea that Jesus and the Apostles had owned nothing. This is a basic tenant of why the Franciscans lived the way they did. The entire reason the Franciscan Order required adherents to give up all earthly possessions was based on the belief that they were living as Jesus and the Apostles had. So the Pope issuing this bull was kind of like saying may you're all wrong. The third bull that John the twenty second issued quia courandum because some responded to all of the critics of the first two and to once again assert that you cannot use the thing if you don't own it. When we come back from a quick sponsor break, we'll talk about Okam's report, which came to some pretty bold conclusions. After all of his study, Okham's report on all of this ended up being pretty bad for everyone. Okam came to the conclusion that Pope John the twenty seconds rejection of Apostolic poverty was heretical, willfully heretical, making the leader of the Catholic Church a heretic, which meant that he should not be pope. Akham wrote that he found in John the twenty seconds writings quote, a great many things that were heretical, erroneous, silly, ridiculous, fantastic, insane, and defamatory, contrary to orthodox faith, good morals, natural reasons, certain experience, and fraternal charity. He also noted that the pope didn't have a strong theological background, and this surely angered John the twenty second because he had made a significant effort at studying theology, as he rose to power, and this was likely kind of a sensitive subject. Cut to William Evakam and Michael of Juzana secretly leaving Avignon in the middle of the night on May twenty sixth thirteen twenty eight. The two Franciscans, who were traveling with supporters who also chose to leave Avignon over the Pope's position, all went to Pisa, Italy. There they stayed with Emperor Louis the Fourth, the Bavarian, who had his own beef with the papacy. And Louis the Fourth's case, it was because he supported the idea of the Holy Roman Empire existing with some separation politically from the Papacy. In large part, it was because he and others believed that the empire should be able to elect their own emperor without the leadership of the Catholic Church getting involved. At this time, the convention was for the Holy Roman Emperor to be elected by the people, but then approved by the Pope before he could take his throne. Louis the Fourth wanted to omit this papal approval step. He wanted to consolidate power. He also accused the Pope of heresy, so he had some things in common with William of Ockham and Michael of Tusannah, although to be clear, those two men were not after a power in the way that the Emperor was. There is so much more to Louis the Fourth story, of course, and the many machinations of his rise to power in his time as emperor, including the installation of the anti Pope Nicholas the Fifth. That is all outside the scope of this episode. The important thing is they all just had a lot of gripes against John the twenty second. Michael and Okam were officially excommunicated on June sixth, thirteen twenty eight. That was just two weeks after they had left Avignon. But the official reason for William of Ockham's excommunication was not that he had challenged the Pope's legitimacy. It was recorded that he was excommunicated for leaving Avignon without permission. But even though these men had left Avignon and were no longer part of the Catholic Church, they continued to bicker with the pope. First, Michael of Juzana wrote detailed criticisms of the Pope after they left. The Pope responded with another bull going point by point through Michael's document, and then in thirteen thirty two, William of Ikam wrote a criticism of that document of the Popes called the Work of ninety Days. One of the ways Akam attacked the Pope's arguments regarding property was to point out that a moral right to use a thing is enough justification one doesn't have to own it. He invoked the Garden of Eden and how the perfect world intended for man started without any concept of ownership that did not come into play until the original sin, and so the Franciscan way of life was closer to the desired state than one in which they were forced to take ownership of physical things. Akam noted in his work that once the concept of property and a human life law was introduced into the world, the original design for using things was impeded. He also made the case that there are just going to be things that have to be used out of necessity, and in such cases the morality of the situation may still be to respect the rights of others, but that the necessity is more important than an owner's legal right to prevent use. Franciscans, he explained, didn't exercise any legal rights, but were bound by moral rights. They would never, for example, get into a property dispute if usage permission were withdrawn, but they should be able to use the thing if they needed to without bringing ownership into the situation, which would go against their beliefs. Yeah, they were generally like non confrontational on all things. One of the illustrative stories that included in a discussion of this in one of the papers I read was like they brought up a story of Franciscan's staying in a place a building, and animals coming and moving in, and them yielding to the animals because they were like, Okay, it's not ours, so you go ahead. After an exhaustive case made regarding the nature of the Franciscan order and how it relates to the law, Akham spent the last two sections of the Work of ninety Days outlining again all of the ways in which Pope John the twenty second was a heretic. At the most basic level, just by changing the rules of poverty that had been part of Catholic truth meant that he was heretical in Okham's view. He also examined the concept of Catholic truth and defined it as anything that is taught in the Bible, anything that at any time is accepted as the Catholic truth by all Catholics with no descent on the matter, and any new revelations attested by miracle. And he explains that the big issue with John the twenty second is not that he has had heretical beliefs, because anyone can make them a stake, but that even when shown the heresy of that belief through a well made argument what Acham calls a legitimate correction, still holds it. It was a pretty slick way to say, we keep explaining this to you and you refuse to change your position, so you must be a heretic. He also made the case that a pope holding heretical ideas shouldn't just be removed as pope. He stopped being pope the second he became a heretic. Sometime in thirteen twenty nine, Louis the fourth returned to Munich and the refugees from Avignon went with him. William of Ockham stayed in Munich for the rest of his life, and although we don't know much about his day to day life there, we do know that this was a very productive time in which he wrote almost exclusively about political concepts and ideology. A lot of these examined the conflict that caused the papacy in King Louis the Fourth to part ways. Akam made the case in his later writings that government's head this did before Christianity, so it made sense for them to continue to function that way. He recognized that there were secular rulers in the world and that the idea of papal supremacy was problematic. He also envisioned a world that all functioned under one world monarchy that would see to peace for all. Acham is reported as having died late April ninth or early April tenth, thirteen forty seven. He was about sixty at that time. It is sometimes reported that he died in thirteen forty nine, when a plague swept through Munich, but thirteen forty seven does appear to be the correct date. He never reconciled with the Catholic Church. Over the centuries, William of Acham has been categorized as being a founder or member of a lot of different branches of philosophy. Although he's most commonly associated with nominalism. He's also labeled as a conceptualist and sometimes as a terminist. But for most people, the most idea associated with William of Ockham is Okham's razor, but he did not coin that term, nor did any of his contemporaries. It didn't appear in print until five hundred years after his death, when mathematician William Rowan Hamilton referenced Ockham's razor, and that was spelled with two cs instead of ock You'll see various spellings of his name, and he referenced that in a paper in eighteen fifty two, so you've probably heard Okham's razor explained as the idea that the simplest explanation for something is probably the most likely, or that the simplest way to solve a problem is the best. It was never quite the way William of Ockham talked about approaching things, which in his case these are normally questions of philosophy. Akham's approach has been more accurately explained as don't multiply entities beyond necessity, or among competing hypotheses, the one with the fewest assumptions should be selected. This idea of shaving away extraneous assumptions or anything that's not always clear to the thinker is what led Hamilton to associate this idea with a razor. Akham himself described his position on assumption and simplicity of reason this way quote for nothing ought to be posited without a reason given unless it is self evident, literally known through itself, or known by experience, or proved by authority of sacred scripture. And you can actually trace that idea back to one of Akham's biggest influences, Aristotle, who wrote quote, we may assume the superiority other things being equal of the demonstration, which derives from fewer postulates or hypotheses. Maybe it should be called Aristotle's racer, but Akham's racer sounds kind of cooler. I don't know. It's fun to say that's William of Acham. It's interesting because he gets in some cases, like all of his arguments with the Pope are really well documented, But then there are whole chunks of his life where it's like, no, you seem to be just hanging out and writing a lot of other stuff. Do you have some listener mail? I do. This is from our listener Karen, and I love the subject of her email because it says yeay theater history, and Karen writes, Hello Holly and Tracy, this theater historian was so excited to open my podcast app today to find your topic of the day is Augustine Daily. One of my favorite possibly apocryphal stories about Daily is one that speaks to his sometimes tyrannical manipulation of actors in his company. The story is that during a rehearsal and actress had difficulty reaching the emotional heights or truth that he believed the scene required, or perhaps that the actress arrived late to the rehearsal, but at any rate, in frustration, he pulled out his pocket watch, threw it on the ground, and then stomped on it. Realizing that he had just smashed his grandfather's or father's watch, he began sobbing, which got him the behavior he wanted from the actress. It turns out he hadn't many watches, and he used this manipulative trick several times. Thank you for all your amazing research and carefully written podcasts. If you've got a taste for some other really interesting theatrical figures in history, she gives us some suggestions. I'm not giving them in case they're a fun surprise for later. All the best to you from our House of Humans and Felines. PS. The attached photo is of our senior kitty, Cassie, the bestest kitty ever. Cassie is a little sweet looking Calico. Yeah, so I love or like a torty. She might be a torty. Actually I see no white to torty, I think, which is even better because they're usually very sassy and smart. Thank you Karen for that that cute anecdote. I mean it's a cute anecdote for us because we're not living through being manipulated, but it's a good indicator of how times have changed and how people accept behaviors of people in our There are also still a lot of people manipulating others because they are in power. But I feel like if that if that got exposed today on the part of a director, people would at least recognize that he's kind of a monster. If you would like to write to us, you can do so at History Podcasts at iHeartRadio dot com. You can also follow us on social media app misst in History, and you can subscribe on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts. Stuff you Missed in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.