Michael of Cesena had asked William to review arguments surrounding Apostolic poverty.

A theological commission had been asked to review his Commentary on the Sentences, and it was during this that William of Ockham found himself involved in a different debate. The Franciscan Minister General, Michael of Cesena, had been summoned to Avignon, to answer charges of heresy. It is generally believed that these charges were levied by Oxford chancellor John Lutterell. Īn alternative understanding, recently proposed by George Knysh, suggests that he was initially appointed in Avignon as a professor of philosophy in the Franciscan school, and that his disciplinary difficulties did not begin until 1327. In 1324, his commentary was condemned as unorthodox by a synod of bishops, and he was ordered to Avignon, France, to defend himself before a papal court. However, William's commentary was not well received by his colleagues, or by the Church authorities. William of Ockham was among these scholarly commentators. ĭuring the Middle Ages, theologian Peter Lombard's Sentences (1150) had become a standard work of theology, and many ambitious theological scholars wrote commentaries on it. Because of this he acquired the honorific title Venerabilis Inceptor, or 'Venerable Beginner' (an inceptor was a student formally admitted to the ranks of teachers by the university authorities). It is believed that he then studied theology at the University of Oxford from 1309 to 1321, but while he completed all the requirements for a master's degree in theology, he was never made a regent master. He received his elementary education in the London House of the Greyfriars. William of Ockham was born in Ockham, Surrey, in 1287. William is remembered in the Church of England with a commemoration on the 10th of April. He is commonly known for Occam's razor, the methodological principle that bears his name, and also produced significant works on logic, physics and theology.

He is considered to be one of the major figures of medieval thought and was at the centre of the major intellectual and political controversies of the 14th century. 1287 – 10 April 1347) was an English Franciscan friar, scholastic philosopher, apologist, and Catholic theologian, who is believed to have been born in Ockham, a small village in Surrey. William of Ockham, OFM ( / ˈ ɒ k əm/ also Occam, from Latin: Gulielmus Occamus c.

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