Ockham was born, probably in late 1287 or early 1288, in the village of Ockham in Surrey, a little to the southwest of London. He probably learned basic Latin at a village school in Ockham or nearby, but this is not certain. At an early age, somewhere between seven and thirteen, Ockham was “given” to the Franciscan (also called the “Grey Friars”).

Around 1310, when he was about 23, Ockham

· that no part of the Church (e.g. the pope or a Church council) is infallible;

Ockham's campaign against John XXII his general line of argument was that since John is a heretic he is not pope and should be removed from office; the main premise is that a pope who becomes a heretic automatically ceases to be pope. In later writings he began to use a second main line of argument: that since John is a tyrant who threatens the rights of others, including emperors, kings and other lay persons, he is therefore a grave sinner and should be removed from the papacy; the main premise is that grave sin justifies deposition of a pope even if he has not automatically ceased to be pope by becoming a heretic. Ockham also oppose concept of papal "fullness of power”. He contends that the papal power extends only to spiritual things. In spite of this, he does not deny that the pope has "fullness of power" in some sense of the term. The conception that he attacks is that the pope has fullness of power in the sense that he can do anything not contrary to natural law or divine positive law. He asserts that the pope must respect the rights and liberties under the human law. He distinguished the power the pope has from Christ and the power he has under the human law. He says that in spiritual matters, the pope has power over all Christian believers however in temporal matters he has no authority at all.

In May 1324, William of Ockham was charged of teaching heresy and was called from Oxford to Avignon to plead his cause. In 1327, Michael of Cesena, the Franciscan “Minister General” (the chief administrative officer of the order) came to Avignon, because of an emerging controversy between the Franciscans and the current Pope, John XXII, over the idea of “Apostolic poverty,” the view that Jesus and the Apostles owned no property at all of their own but, like the mendicant Franciscans, went around begging and living off the generosity of others. The Franciscans held this view, and maintained that their own practices were a special form of “imitation of Christ.” Pope John XXII rejected the doctrine and declared it to be heretical. When Michael and the Pope had a serious confrontation over the matter, he asked Ockham to study the question from the point of view of previous papal statements and John's own previous writings on the subject. When he did so, Ockham came to the conclusion, apparently somewhat to his own surprise, that John's view was not only wrong but outright heretical. Furthermore, the heresy was not just an honest mistake; it was stubbornly heretical, a view John maintained even after he had been shown it was wrong. As a result, Ockham argued, Pope John was not just teaching heresy, but was a heretic himself in the strongest possible sense, and had therefore effectively abdicated his papacy. In short, Pope John XXII was no pope at all!

· A denial of metaphysical universals

Essentially ordered causes depend on the first cause for their existence. Ockham clearly outlined the differences between essentially ordered causes, accidentally ordered causes and the partial causes in the order of production. The essentially ordered cause is more perfect. Hr fist distinguished the total and the partial causes the perfect and absolutely perfect nature in itself. For him, the total higher cause is more perfect than the inferior cause. The total higher cause includes God. A superior cause is more perfect in its causality as regards to independence.

Ockham’s writing was divided into two main categories: the academic writings and political writings. Then his academic writings are divided into two groups: theological writings and philosophy writings.

Some topics in this essay:
Francis Brothers, John XXII, Writings Ockham's, Dun Scotus’s, Franciscans Franciscan, Academic Writings, Locke Mill, Middle Ages, Lesser Brothers, Proof God’s, john xxii, pope john, pope john xxii, political writings, efficient cause, political philosophy, cause perfect, academic writings, william ockham, jesus apostles, essentially causes, razor allows deny, line argument john, efficient cause ockham, ockham's political writings,