Personalities at the Process against Ockham at Avignon, 1324-26

PERSONALITIES AT THE PROCESS AGAINST OCKHAM AT AVIGNON, 1324-26. The process against Ockham at Avignon lasted for the best part of two years, from the time of his arrival circa1 July 1324 to March2 1326. After his arrival, he lived in the Franciscan convent until the night8 of 26 May 1328, when he escaped. His subsequent excommunication on 6 June was for apostacy, and had no doctrinal connexion with the process, though John XXII was satisfied that Ockham's sudden and unexpected departure was owing to his sense of guilt.4 There were in fact two processes and therefore two reports, and evidence of both has survived. A copy of the second report has been preserved in MS Vat. Lat. 3075, and was edited by Mgr. Auguste Pelzer in 1922, with notes and introduction.5 Sometime later, two manuscript texts of the first report were discovered, and they were edited by Joseph Koch8 in 1935—6. As neither of these reports is without its complications , it may be useful to glance at a few portions of the second, before comparing them. Both reports consist of 51 articles taken from Ockham's Commentary on the Sentences, and upon each of them the judges offered their comment in the form of a response. At first sight the second report in itself makes dull reading, for Ockham is never easy, especially when presented in small quantities. This is particularly true of Art. 9 which consists of a single sentence: "Item7 1 In his letter to the chapter general at Assisi, Whitsun 1334, Ockham says: "Noveritis itaque et cuncti noverint Christiani, quod fere quatuor annis integris in Avenione mansi . . .": K. Mueller, Zeitschrift für Kirchengeschichte , Band 6, 1884, p. 108. 2 A. Pelzer, "Les 51 articles de Guillaume Occam censurés, en Avignon' en 1326", Revue d'Histoire Ecclésiastique, vol.18, 1922, pp. 240 sqq. On p. 242, he shows that Dominic Grima is mentioned as bishop elect of Pamiers at the beginning oí the report, and as bishop in the postscript. According to C. Eubel, Hierarchia Catholica Medii Aevi (Munster 1898), p. 94, the date of Grima's elevation was 3 March. On the other hand, Durand of St. Pourçain had been translated from Ie Puy to Meaux by 13 March: ibidem, p. 349. 8 Eubel, Bull. Franc., V, no. 714. 4 Ibidem, no. 711: "tamquam sibi male conscius inde nuper occulte absque licentia nostra recesserit". * See note 2 supra. * J. Koch, "Neue Aktenstücke zu dem gegen Wilhelm Ockham in Avignon geführten Prozeß", Recherches de théologie ancienne et médiévale, tome 7, 1935, pp. 353—380: tome 8, 1936, pp. 79—93, and 168—197. 7 Sent. IV q. 8 and q. 9 § S. The Process against Ockham5 dicit quod omne positivum in peccato potest causari sine omni peccato". Its meaning, hardly self-evident without a context, is in part illustrated by the judges in their response, where they adequate "tale positivum" to the notion "odireDeum".The fact that Ockham makes use of this notion of hating God becomes clear only when we reach8 Art. 35. Neither in their response toArt. 9 nor in their response to Art. 35 do the judges cite9 the passage in Ockham where he says: "nullus potest ordinate odire Deum". Moreover, several of the articles include material from more than one passage in Ockham's Sentences, Art. 10 providing the fullest example, where no less than six10passages have been combined into one, so that it may be asked how much of the original text has been passed over in this articulation of scattered fragments. In this same Art. 10 the "magistri" who were acting as his judges represent Ockham as saving that supernaturally a man may have an intuitive cognition11 of a non-existent, but not an intuitive cognition of God conceded by Him without His presence as the object of that cognition. Ockham based his view upon the doctrine of the Potentia Dei Absoluta, by which God can achieve as the first cause what He more generally achieves through secondary12 causes, provided that the operation does not include a contradiction. Therefore in Ockham's words, "contradictio est Deum non esse...