¹ Unlike books, journal articles rarely require a preface; this may be an exception. This paper began after I re-read sections of Russell Friedman's magisterial Intellectual Traditions (see fn. 7 below), having recently completed a study on Ockham's theological method in the Summa logicae (see below). What struck me in returning to Friedman's account of Holcot (and to Holcot himself), was just how closely Holcot followed the thought of Ockham in the Summa, particularly with respect to questions of theological method and the use of language. While I had studied Holcot previously (see fn. 8 below), it was the particular quotations that Friedman selected that stood out — as such, this paper engages with many of the passages from Holcot that Friedman discussed in detail. Finally, this essay uses, with permission, some material previously published in: Slotemaker, John T., ‘William of Ockham and Theological Method’, in Zahnd, Ueli, ed., Language and Method. Historical and Historiographical Reflections on Medieval Thought (Freiburg im Breisgau: Rombach, 2017), pp. 121–42Google Scholar.

² See, e.g., the conclusion of Mauer, Armand, Medieval Philosophy (Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1982), pp. 373–374Google Scholar, where he summarizes the entire tradition as a complex interplay of Platonic, Aristotelian, and Neo-Platonic reception. The current paper will consider the reception of this type of narrative in Régnon, Théodore de, Études de théologie positive sur la sainté Trinité, 4 vols. (Paris: Victor Retaux et Fils, 1892–1898)Google Scholar.

³ Schmaus, Michael, ‘Das Fortwirken der Augustinischen Trinitätspsychologie bis zur karoligischen Zeit’, in Vitae et veritati: Festgabe für Karl Adam (Düsseldorf: Patmos-Verlag, 1956), 44–56Google Scholar, here 44–45, traces the origins of this narrative back to the Tübingen theologian Johannes von Kuhn and Théodore de Régnon.

⁴ de Régnon, Études, II, pp. 450–57.

⁵ de Régnon, Études, II, pp. 449–50.

⁶ de Régnon, Études, II, p. 449.

⁷ See, e.g., the two model theories of Schmaus, Michael, Der ‘Liber propugnatorius’ des Thomas Anglicus und die Lehrunterschiede zwischen Thomas von Aquin und Duns Scotus, II Teil: Die trinitarischen Lehrdifferenzen (Münster: Aschendorff, 1930)Google Scholar, id. ‘Das Fortwirken’, and Friedman, Russell L., ‘Divergent Traditions in Later-Medieval Trinitarian Theology: Relations, Emanations, and the Use of Philosophical Psychology, 1250–1325’, Studia Theologica 53 (1999), pp. 13–25CrossRefGoogle Scholar; id., Medieval Trinitarian Thought from Aquinas to Ockham (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009)Google Scholar, and id., Intellectual Traditions at the Medieval University: The Use of Philosophical Psychology in Trinitarian Theology among the Franciscans and Dominicans, 1250–1350, 2 vols. (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 2013)Google Scholar. It is important to note that in his later works (most significantly, Intellectual Traditions), Friedman begins problematizing the two-model narrative.

⁸ There is no doubt that Holcot was familiar with the Summa logicae. See, e.g., his use of the Summa in quodlibetal questions edited in Exploring the Boundaries of Reason: Three Questions on the Nature of God by Robert Holcot, OP, ed. Gelber, Hester Goodenough (Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1983), pp. 70, 79, 83, 85, and 86Google Scholar, and those edited in Seeing the Future Clearly: Questions on Future Contingents by Robert Holcot, ed. Streveler, Paul A., Tachau, Katherine H., Gelber, Hester Goodenough, and Courtenay, William J. (Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1995), pp. 84 and 158Google Scholar. Of course, as more of Holcot's quodlibetal collection (and other questions) are edited, one would expect further engagement with the Summa. See also Slotemaker, John T. and Witt, Jeffrey C., Robert Holcot (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016), pp. 261–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Further, Hester Gelber and Fritz Hoffmann have noted the relationship between Ockham's Summa logicae and aspects of Holcot's Trinitarian theology (particularly regarding the definition of the syllogism and the definition of terms). See Gelber, Hester Goodenough, ‘Logic and the Trinity: A Clash of Values in Scholastic Thought, 1300–1335’, Ph.D Dissertation: University of Wisconsin, 1974, pp. 302–03Google Scholar; and Hoffmann, Fritz, Die theologische Methode des Oxforder Dominikanerlehrers Robert Holcot (Münster: Aschendorff, 1972), pp. 180–81Google Scholar: In Ockhams Tninitätsspekulation kündigt sich eine solche ausdrückliche Abhebung der Glaubenswirklichkeit vom menschlichen Denken an. Der Glaube lasse bestimmte Sätze über Gott zu, denen die natürliche Vernunft nicht zu folgen vermag. Noch auffallender wird die Ähnlichkeit zwischen Holcot und Ockham in einer Bemerkung in der Summa logicae, in der die theologische Bezeichnungsweise bestimmter Begriffe von der aristotelischen Bezeichnungsweise abgehoben wird.

⁹ For a critique of the two-model approach, see Slotemaker, John T., Trinitarian Theology in Medieval and Reformation Thought (Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020), pp. 100–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

¹⁰ On Ockham's Trinitarian theology, see: Adams, Marilyn McCord, William Ockham, 2 vols. (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1987), pp. 999–1007Google Scholar; ead., ‘The Metaphysics of the Trinity in some Fourteenth Century Franciscans’, Franciscan Studies 66 (2008), pp. 101–68CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Friedman, Medieval Trinitarian Thought, pp. 124–32; id., Intellectual Traditions, II, pp. 601–62Google Scholar; Paasch, JT, Divine Production in Late Medieval Trinitarian Theology: Henry of Ghent, Duns Scotus, and William of Ockham (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Schank, Michae, ‘Unless You Believe, You Shall Not Understand’. Logic, University, and Society in Late Medieval Vienna (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1988)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Slotemaker, ‘William of Ockham and Theological Method’; id., Trinitarian Theology, pp. 100–8.

¹¹ Ockham, Ordinatio I, d.26, q.1, in Opera Theologica, vol. IV, ed. Girardus I. Etzkorn and Fraciscus E. Kelley (St. Bonaventure: New York, 2000), pp. 143, ll. 12–17: Circa istam quaestionem sunt multae opiniones. Una est quod personae se ipsis distinguuntur. Secunda quod praecise per relationes reales distinguuntur. Tertia quod primo distinguuntur per proprietates absolutas et quasi secundario per relationes. Quarta posset esse opinio quod praecise distinguuntur per proprietates absolutas. This typology, with variations, was common and is found in thinkers thinkers such as John Duns Scotus, Pierre d'Ailly, and Gabriel Biel. For a discussion of this typology and the relevant references to primary and secondary literature, see Slotemaker, Trinitarian Theology, pp. 100–7.

¹² On Praepositinus of Cremona see Lacombe, Georges, Prepositini Cancellarii Parisiensis (1206–1210), Opera Omnia. I. —La vie et les oeuvres de Prévostin (Kain, 1927)Google Scholar; Guiseppe, Angelini, L'ortodossia e la grammatica. Analisi di struttura e deduzione storica della Teologia Trinitaria di Prepositino (Rome, 1972)Google Scholar; and Valentel, Luisa Logique et théologie. Les écoles parisiennes entre 1150 et 1220 (Paris, 2008)Google Scholar. On the reception of Praepositinus's Trinitarian theology, see Friedman, Intellectual Traditions, II, pp. 678–83,Google Scholar as well as his discussions of Holcot and Chatton. Friedman uses the term ‘Praepositinianism’ to refer to those who hold a position in line with Praepositinus; I have used the term ‘Trinitarian minimalism’ to indicate this view (indicating, of course, that such theologians give a ‘minimalist’ account of the distinction of persons).

¹³ For a defense of the claim that these two sub-species of the ‘reation account’ map onto the Franciscan and Dominican orders respectively, see Friedman, ‘Divergent Traditions’.

¹⁴ William of Auvergne, De Trinitate 28, ed. Switalski, Bruno (Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval studies, 1976), p. 160.Google Scholar See Slotemaker, Trinitarian Theology, p. 105.

¹⁵ See Friedman, Intellectual Traditions, I, pp. 341–76.Google Scholar Scotus famously defended an alternative to the ‘relational view’ that argued for the distinction of persons according to non-relational, absolute, properties. This position is defended at length in both the Lectura I and Ordinatio I. According to this view the divine persons are distinct by means of non-relational, absolute, properites—a view that he defends by arguing that relational properties (e.g., fatherhood and sonship) are always posterior or secondary to the things (e.g., the Father, the Son) they relate, and as such are not strictly sufficient to distinguish the things they related (in that they are somehow posterior, but also in the sense that they are presumably repeatable).

¹⁶ The late Marilyn McCord Adams did an excellent job of expressing just how much of an intellectual ‘concession’ [her term] the relations account proved to be for Ockham. E.g., ead., ‘The Metaphysics of the Trinity’, pp. 151–66. Cf. ead., William Ockham, II, pp. 996–1010.

¹⁷ For an excellent summary of this material, see Friedman, Intellectual Traditions, II, pp. 608–28, esp. c. 615. The heart of the discussion, in Ockham, can be found in Ordinatio I, d. 26 (OT IV, pp. 142–90).

¹⁸ Ockham, Ordinatio I, d.26, q.1 (OT IV, pp. 156, ll. 21– pp. 157, ll. 1): Quamvis ista quarta opinio posset alicui videri probabilis verumtamen quia auctoritates Sanctorum videntur expresse ponere relationes in divinis…

¹⁹ Adams, ‘The Metaphysics of the Trinity’, pp. 151–52. The brackets are mine.

²⁰ As research expands, particularly into the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries, the list of ‘Trinitarian minimalists’ has expanded to include numerous members of the Augustinian order, such as John of Rome, Thomas of Fabriano, Facino of Asti, Hugolino of Orvieto, John Klenkok, John Hiltalingen of Basel, Angel of Döbeln, Peter Gracilis, and Berthold of Ratisbon (it goes without saying that further research is needed on almost all of these thinkers). See, Slotemaker, Trinitarian Theology, pp. 101–2.

²¹ On Ockham's life, etc., see Courtenay, William J., Ockham and Ockhamism: Studies in the Dissemination and Impact of his Thought (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 2008), pp. 91–105.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

²² Ockham, Summa logicae, epistola prooemialis, in Opera Philosophica, vol. 1, ed. Boehner, Philotheus, Gedeon Gál, , and Brown, Stephanus (St. Bonaventure: New York, 1974), p. 6, ll. 21–28Google Scholar: Et quia plerumque contingit ante magnam experientiam logicae subtilitatibus theologiae aliarumque Facultatum iuniores impendere studium, ac per hoc in difficultates eis inexplicabiles incidunt, quae tamen aliis paruae sunt aut nullae, et in multiplices prolabuntur errores, ueras demonstrationes tamquam sophismata respuentes et sophisticationes pro demonstrationibus recipientes, tractatum hunc duxi scribendum, nonnumquam in processu regulas per exempla tam philosophica quam theologica declarando.

²³ The second mode is defined in the following footnote. For the first and third modes, see Ockham, Summa, III-4, cap.5 & 7 (OP 1, pp. 764, ll. 8–10, and p. 783, ll. 2–4): Secundo sciendum est quod sicut aequivocationis sunt tres modi, ita amphiboliae sunt tres modi. Primus modus est quando aliqua oratio aeque primo et aeque proprie per se posita potest habere multos sensus. … Tertius modus amphiboliae est quando oratio per se prolata tantum habet unum sensum et ex hoc quod coniungitur alteri orationi potest habere plures sensus.

²⁴ Ockham, Summa, III-4, cap.6 (OP 1, p. 771, ll. 2–6): Circa secundum modum amphiboliae est sciendum quod tunc est aliqua oratio multiplex penes secundum modum amphiboliae quando aliqua oratio proprie et ex sua primaria significatione seu impositione tantum uno modo accipitur, sed improprie et secundario potest aliter accipi et alium sensum habere.

²⁵ Ockham, Summa, III-4, cap.6 (OP 1, p. 771, ll. 8–10): Similiter ista oratio 'iste vendit oleum' primo et proprie significat quod iste vendit talem liquorem, sed improprie et secundario significat quod iste adulatur. This colloquial use in Latin is not unlike the English to be a seller of snake oil—i.e., one who sells products of questionable value, often claimed to have magical powers, and in the process swindels the buyer.

²⁶ Ockham, Summa, III-4, cap.6 (OP 1, p. 771, ll. 13–14): Et talis sensus non contingit nisi ex usu loquentium, ponentium unam orationem pro alia.

²⁷ Ockham, Summa, III-4, cap.6 (OP 1, p. 777, ll. 168–70): Unde dico quod omnes tales: Deus habet iustitiam; Deus habet sapientiam; Deus habet intellectum et voluntatem; Deus habet essentiam; et omnes consimiles…

²⁸ Ockham, Summa, III-4, cap.6 (OP 1, p. 777, ll. 170–72): …in quibus ponitur aliqua dictio notans distinctionem inter illud pro quo supponit subiectum et pro quo supponit praedicatum…

²⁹ Ockham, Summa, III-4, cap.6 (OP 1, p. 777, ll. 172–74): …distinguendae sunt, eo quod possunt accipi proprie, et tunc sunt falsae; vel possunt accipi improprie, ut ponantur loco talium 'Deus est iustitia', 'Deus est sapientia' et huiusmodi, et tunc sunt verae.

³⁰ Ockham, Summa, III-4, cap.6 (OP 1, p. 777, ll. 174–78): Et distinctionem talium innuit Anselmus, Monologio, cap. 16, ubi vult quod non proprie dicitur quod 'summa natura habet iustitiam', sed 'exsistit iustitia'. Et ita cum tales propositiones frequenter inveniantur in libris authenticis, oportet quod accipiantur improprie. Cf. Anselm, Monologion, cap.16, in S. Anselmi Cantuariensis archiepiscopi opera Omnia, 6 volumes, edited by F.S. Schmitt (Rome, 1938–1961), I, p. 30.

³¹ Ockham, Summa, III-4, cap.6 (OP I, p. 779, ll. 188–206): Et similiter, secundum unam opinionem quae ponit quod personae divinae sunt penitus indistinctae ab essentia et a relationibus, istae sunt distinguendae 'Pater habet paternitatem', 'paternitas est constitutiva Patris', 'filiatio est proprietas Filii', 'essentia et spiratio passiva constituunt Spiritum Sanctum', et innumerabiles tales, eo quod possunt accipi proprie, et tunc sunt falsae secundum illam opinionem, eo quod denotatur ex prima significatione earum Patrem distingui a paternitate et ab essentia et Filium distinui a filiatione. Quia si hoc non denotaretur, ita proprie posset dici quod Pater habet paternitatem et quod Pater est constitutivus Patris sicut quod paternitas est constitutiva Patris. De virtute igitur sermonis tales propositiones videntur falsae multis sic opinantibus. Aliter possunt tales accipi improprie, puta pro talibus 'Pater est paternitas', 'Pater est essentia', 'Filius est filiatio', et sic de aliis, et sic sunt verae. Unde breviter, secundum opinionem illam, omnis propositio per quam secundum proprietatem sermonis denotatur Patrem distingui ab essentia et intellectione et volitione vel sapientia vel paternitate, vel Filium distingui a deitate vel filiatione, vel Spiritum Sanctum distingui ab essentia vel spiratione, falsa est de virtute sermonis, quamvis possit esse vera si accipiatur improprie.

³² See the previous fn.

³³ See Gelber, ‘Logic and the Trinity’, pp. 271–91; Friedman, Medieval Trinitarian Thought, pp. 155–58; id., Intellectual Traditions, II, 733–42; and Slotemaker-Witt, Robert Holcot, pp. 73–84.

³⁴ The Trinitarian theology of Holcot is found his commentary on the Sentences and select quodlibetal questions. See, in particular, the edited questions in Exploring the Boundaries of Reason, and, Holcot, Robert, In quatuor libros Sententiarum quaestiones (Lyons, 1518; reprint: Frankfurt: Minerva, 1967), q. 5Google Scholar (unfoliated). That said, much remains only in manuscripts or early printed editions.

³⁵ Boehner, Philotheus, ‘The Medieval Crisis of Logic and the Author of the Centiloquium attributed to Ockhkam’, Franciscan Studies 4 (1944), pp. 151–70Google Scholar [reprinted and cited here from: Collected Articles on Ockham, ed. Buytaert, Eligius M. (St. Bonaventure: New York, 1992), pp. 351–72.Google Scholar Further, Philotheus Boehner edited and published a partial edition of Ockham's Summa logicae, as Summa logicae, Pars Prima (St. Bonaventure: New York, 1951) and Summa logicae, Pars Secunda et Tertiae Prima (St. Bonaventure: New York, 1962). Boehner provided an edition of part I, II, and III.1, thus conluding with a discussion of syllogisms simplicter. In short, Boehner never published an edition of Ockham's discussion of fallacies in Part III-4.

³⁶ See Gilson, Etienne, History of Christian Philosophy in the Middle Ages (New York: Random House, 1955),Google Scholar and the chapter entitled ‘Disintegration of Scholastic Theology’ (pp. 471–85), and ‘The Spirit of Ockhamism’ (pp. 498–99).

³⁷ Boehner, ‘The Medieval Crisis’, p. 368. On the formal distinction, see Cross, Richard, Duns Scotus on God (Aldershot: Routledge, 2005), pp. 107–11Google Scholar; id., ‘Scotus's Parisian Teaching on Divine Simplicity’, in Boulnois, Olivier et al., ed., Duns Scot à Paris: Actes de colloque de Paris, 2-4 septembre 2002, Textes et Études du Moyen Âge, 26 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2004), pp. 519–62CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Dumont, Stephen D., ‘Duns Scotus's Parisian Question on the Formal Distinction’, Vivarium 43 (2005), pp. 7–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

³⁸ Boehner, ‘the medieval crisis’, p. 372. For a similar reading of this tradition, see Gilson, History of Christian Philosophy, pp. 500–3.

³⁹ See fn. 15 above.

⁴⁰ Decretalium D. Gregorii Papae IX, lib. I, tit. I, c. 2, in Richter, Emil L. and Friedberg, Emil, ed., Corpus Iuris Canonici, vol. 2 (Leipzig, 1881), col. 7Google Scholar: Et ideo in Deo solummodo trinitas est, non quaternitas, quia quaelibet trium personarum est illa res, videlicet substantia, essentia seu natura divina, quae sola est universorum principium, praeter quod aliud inveniri non potest. Et illa res non est generans, neque genita, nec procedens; sed est Pater, qui generat, et Filius, qui gignitur, et Spiritus sanctus, qui procedit, ut distinctiones sint personis, et unitas in natura. This passage from the second chapter is directed against Joachim of Fiore. See earlier in the same paragraph: Damnamus ergo et reprobamus libellum seu tractatum, quem Abbas Ioachim edidit contra magistrum Petrum Lombardum de unitate seu essentia trinititatis, appellans ipsum haereticum et insanum pro eo, quod in suis dixit sententiis: ‘Quoniam quaedam summa res est Pater, et Filius et Spiritus sanctus, et illa non est generans, neque genita, neque procedens’.

⁴¹ Holcot, Utrum cum unitate essentiae divinae, in Exploring the Boundaries of Reason, pp. 102–3, ll. 1001–1003: … primo quod essentia et relatio in divinis non distinguuntur realiter nec modalite nec formaliter nec ratione nec convertibiliter nec aliquo alio modo.

⁴² Holcot, Utrum cum unitate essentiae divinae, p. 103, ll. 1007–1015: Secundo dico quod haec non est concedenda: essentia et relatio sunt idem, proprie loquendo de virtute sermonis, quia sequitur: sunt idem, ergo sunt una res, et ultra: sunt una res, ergo sunt, et ultra: sunt, ergo sunt aliqua, et ita non sunt una res. Consequentia patet quia illud verbum ‘sunt’ est pluralis numeri, et ideo consignificat multas res.

Tertia dico quod nec haec et concedenda: essentia et relation sunt non idem, propter eandem causam de verbo pluralis numeri, quia haec est falsa: essentia et relatio non sunt, sicut haec est falsa: Marcus et Tullius sunt.

⁴³ Holcot, Utrum cum unitate essentiae divinae, p. 103, ll. 1016–1018: Quarto dico quod haec non est concedenda: inter essentiam et relationem est aliqua identitas, nec aliqua propositio habens tale subiectum, quia nihil est inter aliquid et seipsum.

⁴⁴ For a brief overview of the broader developments, see Slotemaker, Trinitarian Theology, pp. 94–100. For an overview of Scotus, see Cross, Duns Scotus, pp. 65–7; for a discussion of Henry, see Williams, Scott M., ‘Henry of Ghent on Real Relations and the Trinity: The Case for Numerical Sameness Without Identity’, Recherches de Théologie et Philosophie Médiévales 79 (2012), pp. 109–48.Google Scholar

⁴⁵ Holcot, Utrum cum unitate essentiae divinae, p. 106, ll. 1089–1096: Ad secundum, quando arguitur aliquid constituit Patrem in esse Patris, sed non essentia, ergo aliud ab essentia, dicendum quod si maior accipiatur proprie, falsa est, quia Pater non constituitur in esse Patris. Nec est iste modus loquendi extendendus, sed potius exponendus quia est improprius, licet doctores aliqui sic locuti sint, sicut Henricus, Thomas, Scotus, et alii, sed ideo sic dicunt quia si per impossibile paternitas differret ab essentia in Deo, tunc in persona Patris forent duo quorum uno, puta essentia, conveniret cum aliis personis, et alio differret. Cf. Friedman, Intellecutal Traditions, II, p. 736.

⁴⁶ Ibid.

⁴⁷ Holcot, Utrum cum unitate essentiae divinae, p. 106, ll. 1096–1100: Ideo secundum modum loquendi quem hic habemus, dicunt quod paternitas constituit Patrem in esse Patris, hoc est, ideo est Pater quia genuit Filium, non ideo est Pater quia Deus, quia sic quilibet eorum qui est Deus foret Pater.

⁴⁸ Slotemaker, ‘William of Ockham and Theological Method’, pp. 137–38.

⁴⁹ Ibid., pp. 140–42.

⁵⁰ See fn. 43 above.

⁵¹ Holcot, Utrum cum unitate essentiae divinae, p. 102, ll. 1001–1003: …primo quod essentia et relation in divinis non distinguuntur realiter nec modaliter nec formaliter nec ratione nec convertibiliter nec aliquo alio modo.

⁵² See, e.g., Boehner, Philotheus, Collected Articles on Ockham, ed. Buytaet, Eligius. (St. Bonaventure: The Franciscan Institute, 1992).Google Scholar

⁵³ See the work by Friedman cited in fn. 7 above. It should be noted that Friedman's account of medieval Trinitarian theology is not synonymous with the two-model narrative of de Régnon—i.e., the two should not be collapsed. The reference here to Friedman's work is simply because he provides the best textual evidence that indeed the two mendicant orders were sharply divided on Trinitarian theology beween c. 1270 and c. 1320.

⁵⁴ Slotemaker, Trinitarian Theology, pp. 100–9.

⁵⁵ The problem, however, is not just Holcot. William of Ockham, of course, sits uncomfortably within the ‘Franciscan’ model of medieval Trinitarian theology, even in the Ordinatio. If one turns to his position in the Summa logicae, we see that Ockham seemed to have abandon the ‘Franciscan’ view tout court in favor of a version of Trinitarian minimalism. On the former point, see, e.g., Ockham's minimizing of the imago Trinitatis, and Friedman's attempt to shoehorn Ockham into this broader Franciscan tradition. Id., Intellectual Traditions, II, pp. 628–52. Of course, Friedman (e.g., p. 645) is aware of the tension and notes places where Ockham's position in the Ordinatio ‘run counter to the Franciscan tradition’.

⁵⁶ See Slotemaker-Witt, Robert Holcot, where we emphasize the pastoral nature of Ockham's theology, as well as explore his preacing aids, sermons, and biblical commentaries.