Page:Thirty-five years of Luther research.djvu/71

Rh the theological and philosophical teachers of Luther, Jodocus Trutvetter and Bartholomaeus Arnoldi of Usingen,34 and through them with the theology that was taught Luther. He locates them as Occamists, whose leader at this time was Gabriel Biel in Tuebingen,35 and whose philosophy they represented. It was known as the via moderna. Thanks to Hermelink, we are also in a position better to understand these German Occamists, and through this Luther's own development, in as much as he proves that their teaching was in nowise identical with Nominalism. "It did not deny that the genera and the intelligible cosmos were realities or entities. It was much rather by nature methodical and 'erkenntnistheoretisch.' It attempted in critical spirit to distinguish between the province of faith and the province of science by means of a grammatical-terministic logic, derived from stoic influences, in order to make place for a theology that was both positivistic and Christian, respectively ecclesiastical. Thus, instead of being the opposite of realistic ontology, it was merely a theory about the way of theological thinking, which linked itself everywhere with the Platonic-realistic metaphysic." Of the textbooks that formed the basis for study in the university especial mention must be made of those named by Ficker in his edition of Luther's commentary on Romans (pp. civ), to wit, those by Trutvetter: Breviarium dialecticum, Erphordiae 1500; Summulae totius logicae, Erphordiae 1501 (Summa in totam physicen, Erph. 1514); those by Usingen: Compendium totius logicae, Lipsiae 1500; Parvulus philosophiae naturalis, figuralis interpretatio in epitomam philosophiae naturalis, editio secunda, Basiliae 1511. Scheel has even found manuscripts in the libraries of Stuttgart and Munich that contain a great share of