Academic Condemnation and the Decline of Theology at Oxford

Abstract

Abstract It has long been clear to scholars that the study of philosophy and theology at Oxford declined in the later fourteenth century. The evidence for this is varied but considerable. Fewer commentaries on the Sentences were being written and those that were written were treating fewer questions, while other types of specialist literature were also becoming less common. Works on logic tended to be more introductory and elementary. Scholars and libraries of this period seem to have shown less interest in collecting the works of contemporaries. By the late fourteenth century, the ratio of theology students to law students was dropping, particularly among students in the secular colleges. Among members of secular colleges, the percentage of students studying theology dropped from 57% in the fourteenth century to 44% in the fifteenth century, while the percentage of students studying law rose from 39% to 52% during that same period. Apart from John Wyclif, Oxford in this period produced no thinkers to rival Parisian luminaries such as Pierre d’Ailly and Jean Gerson, or to rival earlier Oxford scholars like William of Ockham, Walter Chatton, Adam Wodeham, and others. By the fifteenth century, theological innovation had given way to a more conservative approach to theology that emphasized the perpetuation of established theological ideas and gave particular weight to preaching and pastoral instruction.