He linked the doctrines of nominalism on to the principles of the logic of Psellus, which had been introduced into the West in the Summulae of Peter of Spain, and made them intelligible to common understandings. He revived nominalism by collecting and uniting isolated opinions upon the meaning of universals into a compact system, and popularized his views by associating them with the logical principles which were in his day commonly taught in the universities. The expression is nowhere found in his writings. The common account of his philosophical position, that he reintroduced nominalism, which had been in decadence since the days of Roscellinus and Peter Abelard, by teaching that universals were only flatus vocis, is scarcely correct. William of Occam was the most prominent intellectual leader in an age which witnessed the disintegration of the old scholastic realism, the rise of the theological skepticism of the later middle ages, the great contest between pope and emperor which laid the foundations of modern theories of government, and the quarrel between the Roman curia and the Franciscans which showed the long-concealed antagonism between the theories of Hildebrand and Francis of Assisi and he shared in all these movements. The date of his death and the place of his burial are both uncertain. Michael of Cesena died in 1342, and Occam, who had received from him the official seal of the order, was recognized as general by his party. It was for Occam's share in this controversy that he was best known in his lifetime. He and his companions - Michael of Cesena, general of the order, and Bonagratia - managed to escape, and found their way to Munich, where they aided Louis IV or V of Bavaria in his long contest with the papal curia. His share in this revolt resulted in his imprisonment, on the charge of heresy, for seventeen weeks in the dungeons of the papal palace at Avignon. Probably, however, Occam was present at the assembly. It has generally been held that in 1322 he appeared as the provincial of England at the celebrated assembly of the Franciscan order at Perugia, and that there he headed the revolt of the Franciscans against Pope John XXII but, according to Little ( English Historical Review, VI, 747), the provincial minister on this occasion was William of Nottingham. He probably left France about 1314, and there are obscure traces of his presence in Germany, in Italy, and in England during the following seven years. Unattested tradition says that the Franciscans persuaded him while yet a boy to enter their order, sent him to Merton College, Oxford, and to Paris, where he was first the pupil, afterwards the successful rival, of John Duns Scotus. William of Ockham (or Occam), English schoolman, known as Doctor invincibilis and Venerabilis inceptor, was born in the village of Ockham, Surrey, towards the end of the 13th century.
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