William of Ockham. The thinker and his time

If the thirteenth century was the period of the creative and original thinkers, the fourteenth century is the period of the schools. The Dominicans adhered to the doctrines of St. Thomas Aquinas, so Joannes Dominici composed an "Abbreviato" or compendium of the "Summa Theologica" and Benedict of Assignano wrote a "Concordantia" in which he tried to show that the "Summa Theologica" harmonized with the same commentary of St. Thomas Aquinas to the Sentences. The nominalist movement possessed a significance which cannot be expressed with reference to any one particular controversy. The nominalist spirit was inclined to analysis rather than synthesis, and to criticism rather than speculation.