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== Life ==
== Life ==
William was born in 1287 in the village of Ockham (probably the village of that name near London in Surrey). He probably entered the Franciscans at London as ''puer oblatus'', when he was seven or eight, where he would have received instruction in grammar and elementary logic, as well as an introduction to Franciscan life. After his novitiate, he embarked on more advanced studies of logic and philosophy in London, and he was ordained subdeacon at the age of eighteen in 1306. He continued to study philosophy and theology until he was admitted to the lectorate program at the Oxford studium in 1310.
After possible position as lector on the Sentences ''pro exercitio'' (the result of which may have been the first version of his commentary on the Sentences , the ''reportatio''), he was enlisted into the Oxford degree program (c. 1317/1319). On 18 June 1318 he was ordained priest in Oxford and received a licence to hear confessions. In 1319, he embarked on his biblical lectures (from that period stems his introductory lecture on the Bible, ''De Connexione Virtutum'', and his ''De Compossibilitate Actus Virtuosi'' et ''Intellectus Erronei'').
After undertaking the compulsory two-year residency at Oxford, and awaiting his inception in theology at Oxford he taught philosophy at the Franciscan Studium Generale in London, where he worked alongside [[Walter Chatton]] and [[Adam de Wodeham]] (his foremost disciple). From this London period (1321-1324) date most of Ockham’s important philosophical works, his eucharistic treatises (''De quantitate'' and ''De Corpore Christi''), and the influential ''Summa Logicae''. In this period, Ockham also embarked on his Quodlibets (a work that he finished in Avignon c. 1325) and revised his Sentences commentary (resulted in the Ordinatio/Scriptum, the version of the Sentences commentary that Ockham defended before the examination committee in Avignon). Both as Sententiarius in Oxford, and as philosophy professor in London, Oxford encountered much opposition, even from fellow friars, such as Walter Chatton, whose students even accused Ockham of heresy. This Franciscan opposition probably also lead to Ockham’s appearance before the provincial chapter of 1323, where he had to justify his philosophical positions. At the same time, John Lutterell, a former chancellor of Oxford university, travelled to Avignon, to complain about Ockham’s heterodoxy. Hence, before Ockham as able to take the chair of theology at Oxford as regent master, he was asked to travel to Avignon to present his views [in Ockham’s place, Richard Drayton possibly took the Franciscan chair as regent master]. Arriving in Avignon between January and May 1324, he stayed several years in the vicinity of the curia, while his theological and philosophical works were being examined (first examining committee headed by Durand of St. Pourçain OP, who apparently was responsible for the relative mildness of the initial verdicts). In 1237, the Franciscan minister general Michael of Cesena arrived in Avignon, in the context of the poverty controversy. On request of Michael of Cesena, Ockham began to study Pope John XXII’s views on Franciscan poverty in 1328, which led to his conclusion that the pope’s views were heretical. On May 26, 1328, Ockham left Avignon for Pisa in the compagny of Michael of Cesena. In Pisa, they were joined by the Emperor Louis of Bavaria. In 1330, Ockham travelled to the imperial court in Munich, where he spent most of his remaining life with the writing of political and ecclesiological treatises (such as the Breviloquium and the Dialogus); working in a circle of opponents of John XXII that also included the Franciscan friars Franciscus de Marchia, Bonagratia of Bergamo, and Henry of Thalheim, as well as the political theorist Marsilius of Padua. The Pope excommunicated Ockham for his political views. In the late 1330s and 1340s, when his fellow opponents of the Pope John XXII either died or reconciled themselves with the church, Ockham became increasingly isolated, to die in April 1347, when he was c. 60 years old.
== Philosophy ==
== Philosophy ==
