Introduction

(For information on Ockham's life and writings, see the introduction to Translation 13.)

Ockham's Dialogue between Master and Student, from which this selection is taken, grew out of disagreements between Pope John XXII and a small group of dissident Franciscans led by Michael of Cesena, of which Ockham was a member. In his constitution Cum inter nonnullos the pope had condemned as heresy a doctrine these friars believed had been endorsed by previous popes and accepted by the whole church. This, in their view, made John himself a heretic, and the majority of Franciscans who had accepted John's constitution were thus in their view either heretics or supporters of heresy. Part I of the Dialogue is accordingly a discussion of heresy, heretics, and supporters of heresy. The Master makes no assertions of his own but reports and discusses ‘the views of the learned.’

A heresy, in the definition apparently endorsed by the Master, is an assertion that contradicts catholic truth, which is found in the Bible and the teaching of the whole church. A heretic is not simply someone who believes a heresy but a baptized Christian (or one who presents himself as such) who believes some heresy pertinaciously. Pertinacity is unwillingness to accept the rule of faith, namely, the Bible and the teaching of the church. Book 4 discusses how it is proved that someone holds a heresy pertinaciously.