462. Leading Ockamists. -- During the fifteenth century the Ockamists took the lead of all other scholastics in most of the ancient universities. They were called the moderni, and their teaching was known as the via modernorum, in opposition to the earlier scholastic systems, more especially to Thomism, the via antiqua.

PETRUS MANTUANUS (professor from 1393 to 1400), PAUL PERGULENSIS (fl. 1451), both of whom wrote treatises on logic, J. WESSEL (fl. 1489) and GABRIEL BIEL (about 1425-1495), were militant Ockamists. Biel's Collectorium, so well known and so often edited, contains nothing original, but is rightly regarded as one of the most methodic and accurate expositions of Ockam's terminism. Biel has been called the last of the scholastics; the title, however, is unmeaning unless it be taken as referring to the rapid decadence of philosophy after his time. As a matter of fact, multitudes of "scholastics" came after Biel, but how few of them are of any importance! Here are some of the principal names: OLIVIER OF SIENA (doctor artium et medicinae, wrote a Tractatus Rationalis Scientiae, about 1491) and his disciples ALEXANDER SERMONETA, BENEDICTUS VICTORIUS FAVENTINUS, etc.; ANTONIUS SYLVESTER (fl. 1515); STEPHANUS DE MONTE, professor at Padua in 1490; JUDOCUS ISENACENSIS (fl. 1519), BARTHOLOMAEUS ARNOLDI (fl. 1532).

The University of Paris remained one of the strongholds of terminism until a decree of Louis XI. (March the 1st, 1473) proscribed Ockam's doctrines, banished the works of his disciples from the schools and imposed the "realist" philosophy of St. Thomas or Duns Scotus. The last teacher of note, who drew disciples around him, was JOHANNES MAJOR SCOTUS (1478-1540), author of numerous treatises on logic and of commentaries on the Physics and Ethics of Aristotle and on the Sentences of the Lombard, editor of Dorp's commentaries on Buridan. Among his disciples were DAVID CRANSTON of Glasgow; the Spaniards, ANTONIUS CORONEL and GASPAR LAX; the Belgian, JOHN DULLAERT of Ghent (born about 1471-1523), who wrote a commentary on Aristotle and left such unfortunate memories in his pupil, Vivès. HENRY GREVE at Leipzig, MICHAEL OF BRESLAU at Cracow, JOHN ALTENSTAIG OF MINDELHEIM and CONRAD OF BUCHEN may be added to the long list of decadent terminists -- which a detailed examination of the university documents of the epoch would enable us to prolong almost indefinitely.