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Ockham’s vision of the primitive Church
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 March 2016
Extract
Gordon Leff once suggested that a distinctive feature of late medieval ecclesiology was ‘a new critical historical attitude to the church’. He argued that the recognition of a disparity between the apostolic and the contemporary Church is discernible equally in the thought of various thinkers such as Dante, Marsilius, and Wyclif, and in the popular movements of the Franciscan Spirituals and the Waldensians. One of the important characteristics in this new criticism was historical interpretation of the Bible. Concomitant with this, biblical studies had been experiencing a shift: Holy Scripture was no longer perceived as a mystified unity of divine words but as a record of historical events written by human authors. And yet, Holy Scripture had been considered by the most learned men in the medieval world to be ‘the most difficult text to describe accurately and adequately’. Among the historical critics of the Church, too, could perhaps arise a concern with biblical hermeneutics: what is the most appropriate way to recover the truly historical vision of the apostolic Church as found in Scripture?
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References
1 Leff, Gordon, ‘The making of the myth of a True Church in the later Middle Ages’, JMRS, 6 (1971), pp. 1–15 Google Scholar. See also idem, ‘The apostolic ideal in later medieval ecclesiology’, JThS, 18 (1967), pp. 58–82.
2 Leff, ‘The making of the myth’, p. 1.
3 Ibid., p. 2.
4 See Minnis, A. J., Medieval Theory of Authorship, 2nd edn (Philadelphia, 1988), pp. 72, 103–12.Google Scholar
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6 Goddu, André, The Physics of William of Ockham (Leiden, 1984), pp. 9–10.Google Scholar
7 Tierney, Brian, Origins of Papal Infallibility, 1150–1350, Studies in the History of Christian Thought 6, 2nd edn (Leiden, 1988), p. 230 Google Scholar. Ockham’s biblical hermeneutics have attracted less attention than they deserve. This topic received cursory treatment, for example, in de Lubac, Henri, Exegese médiévale: les quatre sens de l’écriture, 2nd part, 2 vols (Paris, 1961-4), 2, p. 382 Google Scholar. Systematic analysis and positive assessment were given probably for the first time by Schlageter, Johannes, ‘Hermeneutik der Heiligen Schrift bei Wilhelm von Ockham’, Franziskanische Studien, 57 (1975), pp. 230–83 Google Scholar, but he did not discuss in detail how Ockham applied his exegetical method in political discourse. Since Schlageter’s seminal article, we have only Hermann Schussler’s important Der Primat der Heiligen Schrift als theologisches und kanonistisches Problem im Spätmittelalter (Wiesbaden, 1977).
8 III Dialogus I, i, 5–7, in Monarchia sancii romani imperii, ed. Melchior Goldast, 3 vols (Frankfurt, 1614) [hereafter Monarchia], 2, pp. 776–9. Cf. Breviloquium de principatu tyrannico [hereafter Brev.] ii, 3–4, in Wilhelm von Ockham als politischer Denker und sein Breviloquium de principatu tyrannico, ed. Richard Scholz (Stuttgart, 1944), pp. 56–9; Octo quaestiones de potestate papae [hereafter OQ], i, 6, in Cuillelmi de Ockham Opera politica, ed. H. S. Offler, 3 vols (Manchester, 1940-) [hereafter OP], 1, p. 29; De imperatorum et pontificum potestate [hereafter IPP], 1–3. For IPP, I have used H. S. Offler’s edition which is to be included in the forthcoming volume of OP. Prof. D. E. Luscombe, who is in charge of its publication, kindly gave me permission to use a set of the galley proofs.
9 Acts 15.19-31; II Cor. 3.17; Gal. 2.3-5, 4.31, 5.12-13; and Jas. 1.25.
10 ‘It has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us not to impose on you any further burden than these necessary things.’
11 III Dialogus I, i, 7, p. 778.
12 ‘So I write these things while I am absent, so that when I am there, I shall not act too severely according to the authority that the Lord has given me for building up and not for destruction.’
13 III Dialogus I, i, 7, p. 778: ‘Ad hoc respondetur, quod licet Apostoli plures canones condiderint, et praeceperint multa praeter ilia, quae enumerantur Actuum decimo quinto, nihil tamen praeceperunt subditis minime requisitis et non consentientibus, nisi quae erant de lege divina et iure naturali: et necessitas vel utilitas publica postulabat: et quorum praeceptio absque dispendio non poterat praetermini.’
14 Ibid., p. 779: ‘Ex quibus [II Cor. 13.8, 10] colligitur quod Apostoli nullam potestatem habuerunt a Deo super fidelibus, nisi quae ad utilitatem subiecti vel communitatis cuiuscunque inducit.’
15 See Brev. ii, 5, pp. 59–63; OQ i, 7, pp. 34–8; iii, 4, pp. 103–6; IPP 6.
16 IPP 7.
17 Ibid., 8.
18 Ibid., 6.
19 Ockham’s indebtedness to Thomas Aquinas in political thought was emphasized by Bayley, C. C., ‘Pivotal concepts in the political philosophy of William of Ockham’, JHI, 10 (1949), pp. 199–218 Google Scholar; Morrall, J. B., ‘Some notes on a recent interpretation of William of Ockham’s political philosophy’, Franciscan Studies, 9 (1949), pp. 335–69 Google Scholar; and Grignaschi, Mario, ‘L’interprétation de la Politique d’Aristote dans le Dialogue de Guillaume d’Ockham’, in Liber memorialis Georges de Lagarde (Louvain and Paris, 1970), pp. 59–72.Google Scholar
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22 Matt. 20.25-8, 23.11; Mark 10.42-5; Luke 22.25-7; and I Pet. 5.3. See OQ i, 7, pp. 36–7; iii, 4, pp. 103–6; III Dialogus I, i, 9, p. 781; IPP 7.
23 Opus nonaginta dierum 94, in OP, 2, pp. 714–15.
24 OQ i, 8, p. 39.
25 III Dialogus, I, ii, 15, p. 800.
26 Ibid., ii, 20, p. 808. Prof. Brian Tierney has kindly suggested to me in correspondence that Ockham’s reference to Matt. 12.3-4 and Luke 6.3-4 which followed the citation of the De regulis iuris (X 5.41.4: Corpus iuris canonici, ed. E. L. Richter and E. Friedberg, 2 vols [Leipzig, 1879–81], 2, col. 927) was possibly based on its gloss.
27 III Dialogus I, ii, 21, pp. 808–9.
28 Ibid., ii, 25–6, pp. 812–15.
29 ‘A disciple is not above the teacher, nor a slave above the master.’
30 III Dialogus I, ii, 22, pp. 809–10.
31 Ibid., ii, 24, pp. 811–12.
32 Ibid., iv, 24, pp. 865–6.
33 Ibid., iv, 24, p. 866: ‘Apostoli autem scientes ordinationem Christi ex humilitate et obedientia, promptissimi erant obedire Petro pro toto tempore vitae suae.’
34 St Jerome, Epist. 146, Ad Evangelum (PL 22, 1192–5).
35 Marsilius of Padua, Defensor pads, ed. C. W. Previté-Orton (Cambridge, 1928) [hereafter DP], II, xv, 5–8, pp. 267–70.
36 Ibid., II, xvi, pp. 273–88.
37 de Lagarde, Georges, La Naissance de l’esprit laïque au déclin du moyen-âge, new edn, 5 vols (Louvain and Paris, 1956-70), 5, pp. 106–7 Google Scholar.
38 III Dialogus I, iv, 13, p. 859.
39 On Ockham’s ‘two-sources’ theory, see Oberman, Heiko Augustinus, The Harvest of Medieval Theology, 3rd edn (Durham, N.C., 1983), pp. 378–82 Google Scholar.
40 I Dialogus, ii, 1–3, in Monarchia, 2, pp. 410–14; III Dialogus I, iii, pp. 819–45.
41 III Dialogus I, iv, 13–16, pp. 859–61.
42 Prof. Janet Coleman recently produced a penetrating analysis of the relation between Ockham’s intuitive cognition theory and his political discourse. In it, emphasis was laid on Ockham’s application of logical method to biblical hermeneutics. See her ‘The relation between Ockham’s intuitive knowledge and his political science’, in Jean-Phillipe Genet and Yves Tiliette, eds, Théologie et droit dans la science politique de l’état moderne (Rome, 1991), pp. 71–88. See also her Ancient and Medieval Memories (Cambridge, 1992), pp. 500–37.
43 III Dialogus I, iv, 1, p. 846.
44 To be sure, Ockham also argued that an intuitive cognition of non-existence could be produced by an act of divine absolute power: see William of Ockham, Scriptura in librum primum sententiarum (Ordinatio) [hereafter Ordinatio] i. Prologue, q. 1, a. 1, in Venerabilis inceptoris Guillelmi de Ockham Opera philosophica et theologica ad fidem codicum manuscriptorum edita, eds Philotheus Boehner, Gedeon Gal et al., 17 vols (St Bonaventure, N.Y., 1967–88), Opera theologica [hereafter OTJi], 1, pp. 31, 38–9. Similarly, Ockham suggested that the primary, true meaning of a scriptural testimony might possibly be known to someone by a new divine revelation: see especially III Dialogus I, iii, 16–18, pp. 832–6. However, he also commented that no such case could ever be found: see I Dialogus ii, 25, p. 429.
45 Marilyn McCord Adams, William Ockham, 2 vols (Notre Dame, Ind., 1987), 1, p. 502, which refers to Ordinatio i, Prologue, q. 1, a. 1, in OTTi, 1, pp. 31–2;
46 Adams, William Ockham, 1, pp. 502–3, which refers to Ordinatio i, Prologue, q. 1, a. 1, in OTh, 1, p. 32; Quodl. v, q. 5, in OTh, 9, p. 496.
47 See above, n.44.
48 Freddoso, Alfred J., ‘Ockham’s theory of truth conditions’, in Freddoso, Alfred J. and Schuurman, Henry, eds, Ockham’s Theory of Propositions: Part II of the Summa Logicae (Notre Dame, Ind., 1980), pp. 1–76.Google Scholar
49 III Dialogus I, iv, 13, p. 859.
50 Ibid., iv, 15, p. 860.
51 Ibid., iv, 15, p. 860.
52 ‘Going therefore teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.’
53 III Diabgus I, iv, 6, p. 853.
54 DP II, xv, 2, p. 264.
55 Quillet, Jeannine, ‘Politique et évangile dans l’oeuvre de Marsile de Padoue’, Bulletin de philosophie médiévale, 31 (1991), pp. 155–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
56 I am grateful to Prof. D. E. Luscombe, Prof.McGrade, A. S., DrLahey, Stephen E., MrConway, Stephen M., and MrSheppard, James A. for their comments on an earlier draft of this paperGoogle Scholar.