William of Ockham 749and metaphysical works of Aristotle. His Golden Summa,
which followed the form of PETERLOMBARD’s Sentences,
was one of the first to incorporate into and reconcile a
limited Aristotelianism with Christian theology. He died
in Rome on November 3, 1231.
See alsoWILLIAM OFAUVERGNE.
Further reading:Walter H. Principe, The Theology of
the Hypostatic Union in the Early Thirteenth Century.Vol.
1, William of Auxerre’s Theology of the Hypostatic Union
(Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1963).
William of Malmesbury (ca. 1085–ca. 1142)English
Benedictine monk, historian
William was born in Wiltshire about 1085, the son of a
Norman and Saxon family. After receiving some primary
education, he entered as an adolescent at the Benedictine
monastery of Malmesbury, where he remained for the rest
of his life. William became precentor of that abbey in
about 1137 and was much involved with its library. In
1139 he represented the monastery at the Council of
Winchester but always refused election as abbot. William
died about 1142.
William of Malmesbury was among the best histori-
ans of his time. Between 1119 and 1125, he compiled a
version of the history of the popes. After this he was
commissioned by Queen Matilda (1102–67) to write a
History of the Deeds of the Kings of England.He spent
the next 15 years writing these histories. Just before his
death he wrote the unfinished New Historyabout the
events of the civil war in ENGLANDbetween Matilda
and Stephen (ca. 1097–1154). He did research in
LIBRARIES and paid attention to documents. He also
composed lives of local saints, a treatise on the MIRA-
CLES of the Virgin MARY, a history of GLASTONBURY
Abbey, and biblical commentaries. He wrote in a fine
Latin style but included some dubious but interesting
stories and anecdotes.
Further reading:William of Malmesbury, The Histo-
rian Novella,trans. K. R. Potter (New York: Thomas Nel-
son, 1955); William of Malmesbury, Chronicles of the
Kings of England: From the Earliest Period to the Reign of
King Stephen,trans. J. A. Giles (London: Bell and Dalchy,
1866); John Scott, The Early History of Glastonbury: An
Edition, Translation, and Study of William of Malmesbury’s
De antiquitate Glastonie ecclesie(Woodbridge, England:
Boydell Press, 1981); R. M. Thomson, William of Malmes-
bury(Woodbridge, England: Boydell Press, 1987).
William of Moerbeke (ca. 1215–ca. 1286) Flemish
Dominican friar, translator
William was born in Moerbeke near GHENTin FLANDERSin
about 1215. He probably studied at PARISand COLOGNE
with ALBERTUSMAGNUSand THOMASAQUINAS, who proba-
bly asked him to produce translations into LATINof the
works of ARISTOTLE, which he began about 1260. He was a
chaplain, apostolic penitentiary, and confessor to Popes
Clement IV (1265–68) and Gregory X (1271–76). Well
known for his knowledge of Greek, he was present at the
Second Council of LYONin 1274 and was appointed the
bishop of Corinth in Greece on April 9, 1278. He died at
Corinth or at the papal court sometimes before October
26, 1286. He translated works of Aristotle, Proclus,
Alexander of Aphrodisias, Ptolemy, Galen, and
Archimedes, among other ancient Greek authors. His
translations were important in the introduction of this
body of PHILOSOPHYand science into the West.
See also NEOPLATONISM AND PLATONISM IN THE
MIDDLEAGES.
Further reading:Aristotle, De anima, in the Version of
William of Moerbeke; and The Commentary of St. Thomas
Aquinas,trans. Kenelm Foster and Silvester Humphries
(New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1951).William of Ockham (William of Occam, Doctor
Invincibiulis) (ca. 1285–1347)Franciscan, nominalist
philosopher
William of Ockham was born in Ockham in Surrey in
ENGLANDabout 1285. He became a FRANCISCANfriar and
a student of THEOLOGYat the University of OXFORD.He
was ordained subdeacon of Southwark in 1306. While at
Oxford as a young student and teacher, he lectured on
PETERLombard’s Sentencebetween 1317 and 1319. In
1320 he moved a Franciscan convent at LONDONor Read-
ing to study and write to be accepted as a master. He lost
the position as a regent master to others, probably because
the chancellor of the University of Oxford, John Lutterell
(d. 1335), strongly opposed his appointment. A little later,
in 1323, Lutterell collected 56 extracts from Ockham’s lec-
tures and sent them to the pope hoping for condemna-
tion. A papal commission in 1324 brought Ockham to
AVIGNONon charges of HERESY. He spent the next four
years there, and eventually 51 of his ideas were said to be
open to censure but never formally condemned.
William then left Avignon with Michael of Cesena
(ca. 1280–1342), the head of the FRANCISCAN ORDERwho
was linked with ideas about POVERTYof the CLERGYalso
condemned by Pope JOHNXXII. They fled to PISAand
then Munich, where the excommunicated Emperor Louis
of BAVARIA(r. 1314–47) gave them protection. Ockham
then took part in the controversy about poverty and wrote
polemics against the pretensions to temporal power of
JOHNXXII and later popes. After the death of Louis of
Bavaria in 1347, Ockham, perhaps on his deathbed, tried
to achieve reconciliation with the pope by renouncing all
but his early work. However, he died soon afterward in a
Franciscan convent in Munich on April 10, 1347/48.WORK AND IDEAS
From his large and varied body of work, William of
Ockham was important for his ideas on metaphysical, the-
ological, and political questions. The first of these was
the principle of Ockham’s razor, which stressed that the