June 17th, 2010 10:18 pm
As a literary order the Franciscans have chiefly been eminent in theological sciences. The great school of Scotists takes its name from John Duns Scotus, Fransiccan friars, and it has been the pride of Franciscan order to maintain his distinctive doctrines both in philosophy and in theology against the rival school of Thomists, to which the Dominican Order gave its allegiance. In the Nominialistic controversy the Thomists were for most part Conceptualists; the Franciscan adhered to rigid Realism. In the Free- will question the Francisans strenuously resisted the Thomist doctrine of 'predetermining decrees'.
Indeed all the greatest names of the early Scotist school are the Franciscans, St. Bonaventure, Alexander of Hales and William Ockham, the latter two like Scotus himself theologians. The single name Roger Bacon, the marvel of medieval letters, the divine, the philosopher, the linguist, the experimentalist, the practical mechanician, would in itself have sufficed to make the reputation of his order.