this line of argument into what seemed almost blasphemous examples: God
did not have to become incarnated as a man, Jesus Christ; he could just have
well chosen to be incarnated as an ass, or a stone.
Ockham lets loose conservative anti-rationalism and mysticism on one side,
radical empiricism on the other, and a technical logic in yet another direction.
He goes along with the conservative demand to keep theology safe from the
invasions of the philosophers. The realm of theology is miraculous; Ockham
also concludes that the order of nature must always be investigated in concrete
cases, since a priori reason conveys nothing, and any general principles could
be overturned by God’s miraculous intervention. In effect, Ockham has turned
back the clock to the struggle between Abelard’s sophisticated nominalist logic
and Saint Bernard’s anti-rational faith. Since the intervening generations had
built up an enormous middle ground of metaphysical realism, Ockham’s revo-
lution consists in combining the old enemies into a single position.
The Arts Faculty and the Nominalist Movement
It is tempting to portray a “nominalist movement” springing up in rebellion
against the metaphysical establishment, progressive thinkers unified around
empiricism and taking many steps toward the eventual dominance of natural
science. But William of Ockham himself has few personal pupils of significance,
and his network soon peters out. Although there were henceforward many
“nominalists” and even “Ockhamists,” these labels are loosely applied to a
rather decentralized and intellectually diverse set of thinkers. Often these are
terms of abuse, bestowing unity only through the ill will of opponents.
This at least gives us a clue to the structural situation. After 1300 intellec-
tual life was rapidly moving toward factional orthodoxy. The Dominicans had
made Aquinas their compulsory theology in 1309; the Augustinians and the
Cistercians about this time also joined the Thomist camp, the latter through
the teachings of Giles of Rome (Geyer, 1928: 549). The Franciscans in response
prohibited the reading of Aquinas in their order. Thomas Aquinas was sainted
in 1323 with the support of several orders. The Franciscans were unable to
have Duns Scotus canonized despite repeated efforts, in part because of internal
splits, but a self-conscious Scotist movement grew up in rivalry to the Thomists
and zealously defended its turf in the universities (de Wulf, 1934–1947: 3:214–
215).
What constituted a “nominalist” opposition was the residual category
outside these rival orthodoxies, where free-floating innovation still went on.
This category included, first of all, true “nominalists,” specialists in developing
Ockhamist logic. Also lumped in were a second faction, the Averroists. In the
form of a “religion of reason” Averroism was not in itself forward-looking
Academic Expansion: Medieval Christendom^ •^487