or Nominalists, a sect of school philosophers, the disciples and followers of Occam, or Ocham, an English cordelier, in the 14th century. They were great dealers in words, whence they were vulgarly denominated Word-sellers; but had the denomination of Nominalists, because, in opposition to the Realists, they maintained, that words, and not things, were the object of dialectics.

This sect had its first rise towards the end of the 11th century, and pretended to follow Porphyry and Aristotle; but it was not till Ocham's time that they bore the name. The chief of this sect, in the 11th century, was a person called John, who, on account of his logical subtlety, was called the sophist; and his principal disciples were Robert of Paris, Roscelin of Compiègne, and Arnoul of Laon. At the beginning, the nominalists had the upper hand; but the realists, though greatly divided among themselves, were sup- Nominals ported by men of great abilities; such as Albertus Magnus, T. Aquinas, and Duns Scotus. The nominalists became hereby into disrepute; till William Occam, in the 14th century, again revived it, and filled France and Germany with the flame of disputation. Having joined the party of the Franciscan monks, who strenuously opposed John XXII. that pope himself, and his successors after him, left no means untried to extirpate the philosophy of the nominalists, which was deemed highly prejudicial to the interests of the church; and hence it was, that, in the year 1339, the university of Paris, by a public edict, solemnly condemned and prohibited the philosophy of Occam, which was that of the nominalists. The consequence was, that the nominalists flourished more than ever. In the 15th century, the controversy was continued with more vigour and animosity than before; and the disputants were not content with using merely the force of eloquence, but had frequently recourse to more hostile and dangerous weapons; and battles were the consequence of a philosophical question, which neither side understood. In most places, however, the realists maintained a manifest superiority over the nominalists. While the famous Germon, and the most eminent of his disciples were living, the nominalists were in high esteem and credit in the university of Paris. But upon the death of these patrons, the face of things was much changed to their disadvantage. In the year 1473, Louis XI. by the instigation of his confessor, the bishop of Avranches, issued out a severe edict against the doctrines of the nominalists, and ordered all their writings to be seized and secured, that they might not be read by the people: but the same monarch mitigated this edict the year following, and permitted some of the books of that sect to be delivered from their confinement. In the year 1481, he not only granted a full liberty to the nominalists and their writings, but also restored that philosophical sect to its former authority and lustre in the university.

The nominalists were the founders of the university of Leipzig; and there are many yet abroad who pique themselves on being nominalists.

The nominalists, with the Stoics, admit the formal conceptions or ideas of things, as the subject and foundation of universality; but to this they add names, which represent and signify, after the same univocal manner, and without any distinction, a great variety of single things alike in genus and species.

Whence it is that they are called nominalists; as pretending, that to become learned, it is not enough to have just ideas of things, but it is likewise required to know the proper names of the genera and species of things, and to be able to express them clearly and precisely, without confusion or ambiguity.