Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 41.djvu/363

 twenty thousand men. Bhartpur was stormed and taken on 3 Jan. 1826.

A column was erected in Calcutta to Ochterlony's memory.

 OCKHAM,. [See, first , 1669–1734; , seventh , 1776–1833.]

OCKHAM, NICHOLAS (fl. 1280), Franciscan. [See .]

OCKHAM or OCCAM, WILLIAM (d. 1349?), ‘Doctor invincibilis,’ was possibly a native of the village in Surrey from which he bore his name. He studied at Oxford in all probability as a member of the Franciscan house there, and not (as has commonly been asserted) as a fellow of Merton College. His name does not appear in the ‘Old Catalogue’ of fellows of the college drawn up in the fifteenth century, and his connection with it ‘seems to rest almost entirely on the authority of Sir Henry Savile, who cites an entry in a college manuscript which Kilner,’ the Merton antiquary of the eighteenth century, ‘failed to find’ (, Memorials of Merton College, 1885, p. 194). Even Anthony Wood was disposed to doubt the fact (manuscript cited ib. p. ix n. 1). Ockham is said to have been a pupil of Duns Scotus, who is likewise claimed on equally slender grounds as a fellow of Merton, but who was certainly a member of the Oxford Franciscan house in 1300 (, Survey of the Antiq. of the City of Oxford, ed. Clark, ii. 386, 1890) and probably remained there until 1304 (, Grey Friars in Oxford, 1892, p. 220). The date of Ockham's admission to the order of friars minor is unknown. He received the degree of B.D. at Oxford (ib. p. 224, n. 5), and afterwards passed on to the university of Paris, where he incepted as D.D. At Paris he became closely associated with the famous Marsiglio of Padua, who held the office of rector of the university in March 1312–13 (, Chartul. Univ. Paris. vol. ii. pt. i. p. 158, 1891). Ockham exercised a strong influence upon Marsiglio's political speculations, and it has consequently been supposed that Ockham was the elder of the two, but for this inference the data are insufficient.

Down to this point no certain date in Ockham's life has been established. It may, however, be accepted that at least the first book of his commentary on the ‘Sentences’ was composed during his residence at Oxford (, pp. 227, 228), and there is no reason for contesting the common tradition which makes Paris the scene of that course of study and teaching which formed an epoch in the history of logical theory. How far by this time Ockham had advanced in his political speculations need not be defined, though his influence on Marsiglio's ‘Defensor Pacis,’ which was written while he was still at Paris in 1324, can hardly be doubted (cf., ap. , Aus Avignon, p. 20). Ockham, as a Franciscan, entered loyally into the controversy which arose in his order in 1321 concerning ‘evangelical poverty.’ Previously to that year the dispute among the Franciscans had turned on the question of their obligation to observe strictly their vow of absolute poverty; the new controversy related to a matter of historical fact, whether Christ and his disciples ever possessed any property (see F. Ehrle, in Archiv für Litt. und Kirchengesch. des Mittelalters, i. [1885], pp. 509 ff.) In 1322 a general chapter of the order assembled at Perugia formally accepted the doctrine of evangelical poverty. Ockham was, until lately, believed to have occupied a prominent place at this chapter, and to have acted as provincial minister of England (, Ann. Min. vii. 7); but it is certain that the ‘William’ who subscribes the declaration was not Ockham, but William of Nottingham (Little, in Engl. Hist. Rev. vi. 747, [1891];, Chartul. Univ. Paris. vol. ii. pt. i. p. 277), though very probably Ockham was also present (, Grey Friars, p. 224). In any case, next year he is found taking an active part in defence of the doctrine against Pope John XXII, who had authoritatively condemned it. On 1 Dec. 1323 the pope sent a mandate to the bishops of Ferrara and Bologna, calling upon them to make inquiry touching a report that Ockham had in a public sermon at Bologna maintained the pope's definition to be heretical, and ordering him, if guilty, to be sent to Avignon (, Ann. Min. vii. 7). What actually took place we do not know; but his capture seems not to have been effected until more than four years had passed, and then in connection not with the old sermon at Bologna, but with a renewed defence of his opinions at Paris. John of Winterthur says that ‘quidam valens lector de ordine fratrum minorum, dictus Wilnheim,’ was, on this ground, accused by the Dominicans before the pope, subjected to repeated examination, and imprisoned for seventeen weeks (. Chron. pp. 88 f.). This precise statement conflicts with the account of his detention for four years which Dr. Carl