absence of a bureaucratic church. In Christendom medicine became a learned
subject claiming the licensing privileges of the university corporation, again unlike
in China and India, where it was a practice of private individuals or guilds of
healers and magicians, and in Islam, where medicine was not admitted to the
theological/legalist–dominated madrasas. As we shall see in Chapter 12, this dif-
ferentiation of disciplines within the university was later to shape European intel-
lectual life in a distinctive pathway, after the establishment of the research univer-
sity in Germany around 1800.- The apex of papal power was during 1235–1248, when the German emperor was
successfully excommunicated, defeated in war by papal allies, and deposed. The
Germans were finally evicted from northern Italy in 1268 by a French army
financed by the pope. In the 1270s the French king began to claim the right to tax
the clergy for war expenses, which led to an open break in 1296–1303. This time
the pope lost. In 1305 the new pope was a Frenchman, compliant with French
policies, and in 1309 the Curia had moved to Avignon (Keen, 1968: 170–177,
207–221; Boase, 1933). - From here through the discussion of Ockham, we enter a progressively rarefying
level of philosophical abstraction. The reader is invited to scan the section “Nomi-
nalism versus Realism of Universals” in Chapter 15 (pages 826–830) to keep tabs
on the chess game of move and countermove in intellectual space. - Duns is a close parallel to Aquinas in this respect. Although there was opposition
in the Dominican order, Aquinas was clearly the favorite of its dominant faction.
As Albert’s star pupil, Thomas was named the Dominicans’ teacher at the papal
Curia in Rome; the Minister General of the order personally directed him to write
his great Summa contra Gentiles. When the Averroist controversy broke out in full
force in the 1270s, Aquinas was sent back to Paris to combat it (Gilson, 1944:
526). Duns similarly came from the inner circles of his order. His family had been
benefactors of the Franciscans for generations; his uncle was their Vicar General
for Scotland, and young John Duns was taken into his uncle’s priory. Extensively
educated at Oxford and Paris in the 1280s and 1290s, he was personally sponsored
by Gonsalvus of Spain, the Minister General of the Franciscan order. During these
years he must have been exposed to the teaching and debates of Giles of Rome,
Godfrey of Fontaines, and Henry of Ghent, and would have personally known
fellow Franciscans Richard of Middleton and Peter John Olivi (Bettoni, 1961: 2–6).
Scotus was a strong supporter of the pope in his struggles against the kings; in the
major theological movement of the time, Scotus helped the pope in establishing
the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary. - Ockham was likely a pupil, or at least a hearer, of Henry of Harclay (141 in Figure
9.4) at Oxford, who in turn probably heard Scotus at Paris. Harclay criticized
Duns from a nominalist direction that Ockham was to radicalize. At Avignon,
Ockham apparently lived in the Franciscan house with another critical philosopher,
Walter of Chatton (147), with whom he carried on a continuing controversy. He
also would have encountered there Duns Scotus’s major disciple (143), Francis
of Meyronnes (Gilson, 1944: 633–634; EP, 1967: 3:476–477; CHLMP, 1982:
863, 891).
990 •^ Notes to Pages 479–485