American Society of Church History

Review
Reviewed Work(s): The Political Thought of William of Ockham: Personal and Institutional
Principles by Arthur Stephen McGrade
Review by: John J. Ryan
Source: Church History, Vol. 44, No. 1 (Mar., 1975), p. 108
Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of the American Society of Church
History
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3165113
Accessed: 17-09-2016 23:17 UTC

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108 CHURCH HISTORY

and
and the
themost
mostimportant
importantbiographies
biographies
of Richard's
of Richard's
contempraries.
contempraries.
Richard reve
R
himself
himselfinin
only
only
a few
a few
letters,
letters,
so weso
have
welittle
haveindication
little indication
of his intentions,
of his inh
and
and fears.
fears.We
Weseesee
himhim
fighting,
fighting,
building
building
fortifications
fortifications
and moving
andinm
a
panoply
panoplyofof
strength
strength
across
across
the plains
the plains
of France,
of France,
over theover
Mediterranean
the Mediterr
and
the Middle East.
There are good maps of England and Wales, France and the Crusader
States, designed to illustrate Brundage's central point that military affairs are, in
Richard's case, the heart of the matter.
University of Denver ALLEN D. BRECK

The Political Thought of William of Ockham: Perso

ciples. By ARTHUR STEPHEN McGRADE. New York
Press, 1974. xiii + 269 pp. $18.50.
The seventh in the current series of Cambridge
and Thought, this is an excellent and important synt
ciples underlying Ockham's theory of structure and fu
and the inter-relationships of the two orders. McGra
Ockham's position in the vexed controversies of his tim
dualism of secular and spiritual government, suppl
'casual' power in which lay and ecclesiastical autho
cases act outside their ordinary jurisdiction" (p. 78). I
with 'regular' function the author has put his finger o
of Ockham's political theory. His sub-title points to a
dynamic, also basic, also dualistic: the tension between
and personal prerogatives and liberties.
It would be hard to think of a single significant asp
thought which is not here included, and very accurate
be to think of any other modern writer who has given
tive an account of him. However, one defect of the b
minor consequence. In his adherence to the revisionis
the establishment in Ockham scholarship) as after all m
McGrade appears not to take seriously some importan
that the individual stands unambiguously under the pol
seems oblivious of the medieval Catholic mind) the chu
tures are also divinely guaranteed against just that cor
it his mission to fight. Ockham's awareness of stan
intimation of just how radical was his view of individ
fails to face up to the fact that Ockham's theories re
destitute of ultimate validating principles. And while t
his critique of Church structures proved a welcome a
the absolutism of the medieval curialist papacy, his so
be meaningfully characterized as "an attempt to promo
stitutional structures" (p. 229). Surely Lagarde, unfair
is right here. However necessary and ultimately ther
tions of medieval absolutes, demolitions they were, as
It is scant tribute to Ockham to minimize his real acc
rather serious qualification McGrade's book should be
single most valuable treatment of Ockham's political th
Loyola University of Chicago JOHN J. RYAN
The Malatesta of Rimini and the Papal State. By P. J. JONES
Cambridge University Press, 1974. xi + 372. $23.50.
Throughout northern and central Italy in the thirteenth and f
turies, one commune after another succumbed to the rule of a lead
political transformation was brilliantly analyzed and documented

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