Ordinatio (Revised Oxford Lectures on the Sentences)

1. Introduction

The Ordinatio (Opus Oxoniense) is John Duns Scotus’s revised and systematized commentary on Peter Lombard’s Four Books of the Sentences, produced primarily in the context of his teaching at Oxford around 1300 and reworked in the following years. Within the medieval scholastic curriculum, a Sentences‑commentary was the standard vehicle for advanced theological instruction; the Ordinatio stands out for the density and originality of its metaphysical, logical, and theological argumentation.

Unlike a simple record of classroom lectures, the Ordinatio is a carefully re‑edited work. Scotus and, in some parts, his followers refashioned the original lectures into a more coherent and architectonic treatise. The four books follow Lombard’s sequence—God and the Trinity (Book I), creation and the soul (Book II), Christ and grace (Book III), sacraments and last things (Book IV)—but Scotus frequently reshapes Lombard’s topics to serve his own philosophical and theological aims.

The work is a central source for several doctrines closely associated with Scotus: the univocity of being, the formal distinction, haecceity and individuation, a strong voluntarist account of the will and moral law, and the doctrine of the absolute predestination of Christ. Because these positions intersect with almost every major scholastic controversy of the late 13th and early 14th centuries, the Ordinatio became a focal point for debates between emerging “Scotist,” “Thomist,” and later “Ockhamist” schools.

Modern scholarship generally treats the Ordinatio as Scotus’s most mature and influential theological work, even while noting its complex and partly unfinished state. It is now studied not only as a major text in medieval theology but also as a resource for contemporary metaphysics and philosophy of religion, especially on questions about being, modality, freedom, and the nature of God.

2. Historical and Intellectual Context

The Ordinatio emerged in the intellectually saturated environment of late 13th‑century universities, especially Oxford and Paris. These studia were shaped by the Sentences‑commentary tradition, the reception of Aristotle’s corpus (often through Arabic and Latin commentators), and ongoing debates between major religious orders, above all the Franciscans and Dominicans.

Scholastic and Institutional Setting

Scotus’s commentary belongs to the third generation after the full Latin reception of Aristotle. By Scotus’s time, metaphysics, logic, and natural philosophy were integrated into the theological curriculum. The Ordinatio presupposes this background, drawing on:

• Aristotelian logic and metaphysics (especially Categories, Metaphysics, Posterior Analytics)
• Augustinian and pseudo‑Dionysian traditions on illumination, divine ideas, and hierarchy
• Earlier Franciscan thought (Alexander of Hales, Bonaventure) and Dominican theology (Albert the Great, Thomas Aquinas)

The Franciscan Order, to which Scotus belonged, had its own intellectual style, often emphasizing divine freedom, exemplarism, and the affective dimension of theology. Many scholars see Scotus as both heir to and critical reformer of this tradition.

Doctrinal and Philosophical Debates

Several controversies form the immediate backdrop to the Ordinatio:

In theology proper, Scotus inherits debates about the Incarnation’s motive, merit and grace, and the Immaculate Conception. Within that context, the Ordinatio articulates positions that were soon contested and imitated across Europe, making it a key document for understanding the transition from “high” to “late” scholasticism.

3. Author and Composition of the Ordinatio

Scotus as Author

John Duns Scotus (c. 1265–1308), a Franciscan friar, taught at Oxford, Cambridge (probably), and Paris. The Ordinatio reflects especially his Oxford teaching but also subsequent development. Scholars generally regard it as the best single witness to his mature positions on metaphysics and theology, though its exact relationship to his Parisian work remains debated.

Composition Process

The Ordinatio is not a verbatim lecture report but a revised Oxford commentary. Its composition involved several stages:

1. Original Oxford Lectures on Lombard’s Sentences (c. 1298–1301).
2. Redaction and Organization by Scotus himself (and perhaps secretaries), transforming the lectures into an ordered treatise (ordinatio in the technical scholastic sense).
3. Partial Completion and Ongoing Revision; some distinctions appear more polished than others, and cross‑references sometimes presuppose further planned work.

Most historians agree that Scotus did not complete the entire project before his death. Gaps and unevenness suggest a text still under construction.

Authorship Issues and Later Hands

Because of the incomplete state of Scotus’s own redaction, later followers—often called Scotists—appear to have:

• Supplied missing parts drawing on reportationes (student notes) of Scotus’s lectures
• Harmonized passages with other works by Scotus
• Occasionally inserted clarifications or extensions, which modern editors try to identify and bracket

Debate continues over the extent of these later interventions. Some scholars argue for a relatively conservative editorial transmission; others claim that certain questions or parts of questions in the Ordinatio may reflect post‑Scotist elaboration.

Relation to Other Scotist Works

The Ordinatio should be distinguished from:

• Reportatio Parisiensis (Paris lecture reports), sometimes used to fill lacunae
• Lectura, an earlier commentary probably closer to raw lecture notes
• Various Quodlibetal and disputed questions

Comparative study of parallel questions across these corpora informs modern judgments about the authenticity and developmental sequence of Scotus’s doctrines as they appear in the Ordinatio.

4. Textual History and Manuscript Tradition

The Ordinatio circulated exclusively in manuscript for centuries, and its textual history is unusually complex because of its partially unfinished state and subsequent editorial interventions.

Medieval Manuscript Tradition

The earliest manuscripts date from the early to mid‑14th century and originate chiefly from Franciscan centers. They show:

• Multiple recensions, reflecting different stages of redaction and varying degrees of completion
• Regional variants (English, French, Italian) that sometimes preserve divergent readings or arrangements of questions
• Evidence of conflation, where scribes or editors combine material from the Lectura or Reportatio with the Ordinatio to produce a more continuous text

Scholars often distinguish between:

Because no autograph survives, critical reconstruction depends on comparing these strands and assessing internal coherence and doctrinal consistency.

Early Modern Editions

The first printed edition, produced at Lyon in 1639, offered the Ordinatio as part of a larger Opera Omnia. While significant for dissemination, it relied on a limited manuscript base and frequently harmonized divergent readings without clear critical apparatus. Subsequent reprints reproduced many of these decisions.

Early modern Scotists often treated the text as a relatively fixed authority, with less concern for philological nuance. This shaped the standard “Scotist” version of the Ordinatio that influenced Baroque scholasticism.

Modern Critical Edition

The 20th‑century Commissio Scotistica launched a comprehensive critical edition of Scotus’s works. The Ordinatio appears in Opera Omnia, vols. 1–8 (Vatican City, 1950–).

Features of this edition include:

• Systematic collation of major manuscripts
• Identification of dubious or later material through brackets or notes
• Cross‑references to parallel texts in the Lectura and Reportatio
• Detailed prolegomena discussing manuscript families and editorial principles

Some scholars nonetheless question particular editorial choices or the classification of passages as inauthentic, so debates about the “true” text of the Ordinatio remain active.

Status of the Text

Most contemporary research uses the Vatican critical edition as the standard reference, while staying alert to unresolved textual problems, such as:

• The exact limits of Scotus’s own redaction in Book IV
• The status of duplicated or alternative versions of certain questions
• Potential influence of late medieval theological controversies on interpolated passages

5. Structure and Organization of the Four Books

The Ordinatio follows Peter Lombard’s fourfold division but reshapes it through a dense question‑and‑distinction structure that serves Scotus’s systematic aims.

Overall Layout

Each book is divided into distinctions, following Lombard’s segmentation, and each distinction into questions (quaestiones). Scotus uses this format to pose specific theoretical problems and to conduct elaborate objections, responses, and replies.

Internal Organization

Within a typical distinction, Scotus:

1. States the question(s), often refining Lombard’s formulation.
2. Presents arguments for and against various positions, citing Scripture, Fathers, and contemporary authorities.
3. Offers a determinatio (his main answer), frequently divided into articles that address sub‑issues.
4. Provides replies to objections, clarifying or qualifying earlier claims.

Scotus sometimes groups distinctions into larger thematic blocks—for example, clusters on divine simplicity and attributes in Book I, or on the nature of the human will in Book II.

Systematic Reordering

Compared to Lombard, Scotus often:

• Front‑loads metaphysical prolegomena, especially in Book I, where questions about the concept of being, infinity, and divine attributes precede more strictly trinitarian issues.
• Expands philosophical side‑questions (e.g., on individuation, cognition) beyond Lombard’s brief remarks.
• Introduces cross‑book connections, so that, for instance, metaphysical claims about will and contingency in Book II underpin soteriological discussions in Book III and sacramental efficacy in Book IV.

Because of the unfinished state of the work, some books (notably III–IV) show uneven density and occasional lacunae, but the overall structure presents a coherent theological system organized around God as first principle, the order of creation, and the economy of salvation.

6. Metaphysics of God and Being in Book I

Book I of the Ordinatio develops Scotus’s metaphysics of being (ens) and God within the framework of Lombard’s first book on the Trinity. It is here that several of his most influential doctrines receive their earliest and most extensive formulation.

Being, Transcendentals, and Univocity

Scotus begins by analyzing the concept of being and the transcendentals (one, true, good). He argues that the concept of being is simple and most common, applying to every reality without restriction. In distinction I, d. 3, he maintains that this concept is univocal across God and creatures in the sense that it is the same formal notion used in metaphysical demonstrations that proceed from created effects to God.

Proponents of this reading emphasize that, for Scotus, univocity is required to allow demonstrative science of God: the middle term in a syllogism about God must retain the same meaning in both premises and conclusion. Critics, especially within Thomist traditions, have contended that this threatens divine transcendence, a tension already visible in medieval responses to Book I.

Divine Infinity and Attributes

Scotus develops a rich account of the intensive infinity of God (infinitas entitatis). God’s being is not merely non‑finite but possesses the greatest intensive degree of perfection. On this basis, Scotus explains how divine attributes such as omnipotence, omniscience, and goodness follow from infinite being considered under different formal aspects.

Book I also contains his attempt to reconcile divine simplicity with a plurality of really grounded attributes. Here he introduces the formal distinction a parte rei (elaborated further in I, d. 2, pars 2), a nuanced way of saying that multiple formalities (e.g., justice and mercy) are distinct “in reality” yet inseparable and not separate things.

Trinity, Persons, and Divine Ideas

Within the trinitarian sections, Scotus applies this metaphysics to clarify:

• How three persons can be really distinct without compromising divine simplicity
• How personal properties (paternity, filiation, spiration) are formally distinct from the common divine essence
• How divine ideas in God’s intellect ground God’s knowledge of all possible creatures and orders of creation

Book I thus constructs a metaphysical framework in which God is the first, infinite being, knowable through a univocal concept of being, internally simple yet formally rich enough to admit real attributes and trinitarian plurality.

7. Creation, Angels, and Individuation in Book II

Book II of the Ordinatio turns from God to creatures, systematically exploring created being, spiritual substances, and human nature. It is the primary locus for Scotus’s influential doctrines of common natures, haecceity, and individuation.

Created Being and Dependence on God

Scotus begins with the metaphysical status of created being. Building on Book I, he applies the univocal concept of being to both God and creatures while stressing their radical ontological dependence on God as first efficient cause. He discusses the distinction between essence and existence, generally rejecting a real composition of the two in creatures in favor of a more nuanced account rooted in the formalities of finite being.

Angels and Spiritual Substances

In treating angels, Scotus investigates:

• Whether multiple angels can share the same specific nature
• How angelic knowledge operates without bodily organs
• The mode of angelic location and action

Against some earlier views that made each angel its own species, Scotus holds that several angels of the same species are possible. This pushes him to refine his theory of individuation beyond the human realm and to articulate the role of common nature in immaterial beings.

Human Soul and Psychology

Scotus’s analysis of the human soul covers its:

• Substantial form of the body
• Powers, especially intellect and will
• Immortality and relationship to the body

Here he develops the metaphysical underpinnings of his voluntarist psychology, in which the will is a rational power not necessitated by the intellect’s last judgment.

Common Natures, Haecceity, and Individuation

The most philosophically famous part of Book II is d. 3, where Scotus explicates:

• Common nature (natura communis): the essence (e.g., humanity) that is indifferent in itself to being in one or many.
• Haecceity (haecceitas): the positive intrinsic principle that contracts a common nature to this individual (e.g., Socrates).

Scotus argues that individuation cannot be explained by matter alone (as some Aristotelians held), nor by mere negations or external relations. Instead, each individual has a unique thisness that is not itself a universal property. Supporters of this view see it as solving problems about numerical distinction within the same species; critics claim it introduces obscure entities and an arguably excessive multiplication of formal principles.

Book II thus provides a detailed ontology of creatures, unifying accounts of angels, humans, and material substances under a common metaphysical framework centered on nature, dependence, and individuation.

8. Christology and Grace in Book III

Book III of the Ordinatio focuses on Christology, grace, and merit, reworking Lombard’s treatment of the Incarnation and the virtues. It is the main textual source for Scotus’s celebrated thesis of the absolute predestination of Christ.

Hypostatic Union and Two Natures

Scotus analyzes the hypostatic union: the union of a complete divine nature and a complete human nature in the one person (hypostasis) of the Word. He examines:

• How the human nature of Christ is complete and individual without constituting a separate person
• The metaphysical status of the union as neither a substance nor a mere relation, but a unique kind of dependence
• The compatibility of this union with traditional doctrines of impassibility and immutability in the divine nature

Scotus employs the tools of formal distinction and haecceity to articulate how Christ’s human nature can have its own proper operations and perfections while subsisting only in the person of the Word.

Grace of Christ and Merit

A substantial portion of Book III discusses the grace of Christ’s soul, its fullness, and the supereminent merit of Christ’s actions. Scotus asks:

• Whether Christ possessed the beatific vision throughout his earthly life
• How Christ’s merits, as the actions of a divine person in human nature, relate to the salvation of others
• In what way Christ’s satisfaction is superabundant relative to human sin

Scotus’s treatment is closely tied to his broader account of freedom and moral worth; Christ’s will is perfectly ordered to God yet genuinely free, allowing his acts to be supremely meritorious.

Absolute Predestination and Primacy of Christ

In III, d. 7, Scotus argues that Christ was absolutely predestined to be incarnate as the highest good among creatures, independently of any foresight of sin. On this view:

• The Incarnation is not primarily a remedy for sin, but the central goal of creation.
• Human salvation through Christ’s redemptive work is integrated into, but does not condition, God’s fundamental decree to glorify himself in Christ.

Proponents of this interpretation see Book III as a decisive early formulation of the “primacy of Christ” tradition. Opponents in Scotus’s own time generally held that the Incarnation would not have occurred without the Fall, and later theologians debated the exegetical and systematic merits of Scotus’s position.

Grace, Predestination, and the Order of Decrees

Book III further investigates predestination, reprobation, and the order of divine decrees. Scotus explores how God’s willing of Christ, the Church, and individual elect fits within an overarching decree that respects created freedom while preserving divine sovereignty. These discussions are interwoven with his views on the nature of created grace, its infusion, and its relation to merit and reward.

9. Sacraments and Eschatology in Book IV

Book IV of the Ordinatio treats the sacraments and the last things, following Lombard’s fourth book but often expanding the underlying metaphysical and causal analysis.

Nature and Number of the Sacraments

Scotus begins by examining what constitutes a sacrament and why there are seven. He defines sacraments as efficacious signs instituted by Christ that confer grace by divine promise. He discusses the interplay of:

• Matter and form (e.g., bread and wine with the words of consecration)
• The role of minister and recipient
• The distinction between sacramentum tantum (outward sign), res et sacramentum, and res tantum (grace received)

Scotus’s discussions often critically engage with earlier views on sacramental causality and character.

Sacramental Causality and Efficacy

A central theme is how sacraments cause grace. Scotus argues that they serve as instrumental causes whose efficacy depends entirely on God’s free institution and promise. He emphasizes:

• The non‑physical, moral or legal character of some sacramental effects (e.g., the remission of guilt)
• The compatibility of sacramental certainty with the contingency of human acts and divine liberty
• Conditions under which sacraments are valid but fruitless, or invalid altogether

The Eucharist, penance, and orders receive especially detailed treatment, including questions about transubstantiation, the presence of Christ’s body, and the priestly character.

Marriage and the Sacramental Economy

Scotus also treats marriage as a sacrament, analyzing:

• The nature of consent as its form
• The relation between natural and sacramental aspects of marital union
• Issues of indissolubility, impediments, and the Church’s role in regulating marriage

These discussions situate marriage within a broader sacramental economy, in which God orders diverse signs and institutions to the sanctification of believers over time.

Eschatology and Last Things

The concluding sections address death, particular and final judgment, heaven, hell, and the consummation of creation. Scotus inquires into:

• The state of separated souls
• The nature of beatitude and the vision of God
• The justice of eternal punishment
• The final restoration of the created order under Christ’s headship

He connects eschatological themes to earlier theses about freedom, merit, and divine justice, exploring how the final distribution of rewards and punishments reflects God’s rational yet supremely free will.

10. Central Arguments: Univocity, Formal Distinction, Haecceity

Three of Scotus’s most distinctive and historically influential arguments—on univocity of being, formal distinction, and haecceity—are developed across Books I–II of the Ordinatio.

Univocity of Being

Scotus’s argument for the univocity of being (univocitas entis) appears primarily in I, d. 3. It proceeds roughly as follows:

• Metaphysics is a demonstrative science that reasons from effects (creatures) to their cause (God).
• For a demonstrative syllogism to be valid, the middle term must retain the same formal meaning in both premises and conclusion.
• The term “being” used of God and creatures must therefore be conceptually the same in the relevant respect.

Proponents interpret this as a logical requirement for rational theology: without some univocal concept, metaphysics could not know God as first principle. Critics, particularly Thomists, argue that this misreads the status of analogical terms and risks “flattening” the Creator–creature difference. Scotus’s defenders typically emphasize that univocity at the level of concept does not imply parity of modes of being.

Formal Distinction

To reconcile divine simplicity with a real plurality of attributes, Scotus introduces the formal distinction a parte rei in I, d. 2, pars 2. It is:

• More than a purely conceptual distinction (it is grounded in the thing itself)
• Less than a full real distinction between separable entities

For instance, God’s justice and mercy are distinct formalities in God, although they are not distinct substances or parts. Similarly, in creatures, the common nature and the individuating principle can be formally distinct.

Supporters view this as a sophisticated tool that preserves both simplicity and meaningful multiplicity. Detractors often see it as an unnecessary third kind of distinction that complicates ontology.

Haecceity and Individuation

In II, d. 3, Scotus defends the existence of haecceity (haecceitas, “thisness”) as the intrinsic principle by which an individual is this being. He argues against rival accounts:

On Scotus’s alternative, a common nature (e.g., humanity) is in itself neither universal nor singular; it becomes this particular human through a positive, non‑repeatable haecceity.

Proponents see this as clarifying how numerically distinct individuals of the same species are possible without altering the shared nature. Critics contend that haecceity is obscure and ontologically extravagant, adding entities whose explanatory value is debatable.

Together, these three arguments form a distinctive Scotist metaphysical package that structures much of the Ordinatio’s treatment of God and creatures.

11. Key Concepts: Freedom, Will, and Moral Law

The Ordinatio articulates a sophisticated account of freedom, will, and moral law, especially in Book II (d. 25) and Book III (late distinctions). These discussions underpin Scotus’s reputation as a leading medieval voluntarist, though the exact sense of that label remains debated.

Nature of the Will and Freedom

Scotus characterizes the will as a rational appetite endowed with libertas indifferentiae—the power to choose between alternatives, including opposites, under the same conditions. His notion of synchronic contingency holds that at the very instant of choice, the will could have willed otherwise.

He contrasts this with views according to which:

• The intellect’s last judgment of the good necessitates the will (a position often associated with Thomas Aquinas).
• Freedom is compatible with a kind of psychological necessity once the intellect has fully apprehended the good.

Scotus instead argues that the will has two affectiones or fundamental orientations (toward happiness and toward justice), allowing it to resist even strong intellectual presentations of the good.

Supporters see in this an early formulation of libertarian freedom; critics question whether such a will is adequately integrated with rational evaluation or risks arbitrariness.

Moral Law and Divine Command

In questions on moral law, Scotus distinguishes between:

• Necessary moral truths (e.g., love of God above all) grounded in God’s nature and thus unchangeable.
• Positive divine laws (e.g., specific ceremonial prescriptions) that depend on God’s free will and could have been otherwise.

He argues that many concrete moral norms are contingent upon God’s decision, yet still rational and ordered to human flourishing. This has led some interpreters to see Scotus as a precursor to divine command theories of ethics, while others emphasize his insistence on God’s wisdom and goodness as constraints on divine legislation.

Merit, Sin, and Responsibility

Scotus’s understanding of merit and sin presupposes this account of freedom:

• A human act is meritorious when freely ordered to God under grace and in accord with divine law.
• Sin arises from a free deviation of the will from right order, not from mere ignorance or passion alone.

Debates continue over how to classify Scotus’s position in later philosophical terms (libertarian, compatibilist, or otherwise). Nevertheless, the Ordinatio offers one of the most detailed medieval analyses of free will and moral normativity, integrating metaphysics of powers with theological doctrines of grace and law.

12. Famous Passages and Doctrines (e.g., Christ’s Primacy)

Several passages in the Ordinatio have become landmarks in the history of philosophy and theology, both for their intrinsic arguments and for their later influence.

Univocity of Being (I, d. 3)

Book I, distinction 3, pars 1, qq. 1–2, contains Scotus’s classic defense of univocity. The passage is frequently quoted for its insistence that being is the “first object of the intellect” and that a univocal concept is required for metaphysics to reason demonstratively about God. Later thinkers, from Suárez to contemporary analytic philosophers, have treated this text as a central resource in debates on religious language and natural theology.

Formal Distinction (I, d. 2, pars 2)

In I, d. 2, pars 2, qq. 6–8, Scotus explains the formal distinction, especially in relation to divine attributes and trinitarian relations. This passage is often cited in discussions of how to reconcile simplicity with real plurality in God and, by analogy, in creatures. It has been read as a pivotal contribution to the metaphysics of properties and modes.

Haecceity and Individuation (II, d. 3)

II, d. 3, qq. 1–6, offers the fullest exposition of haecceity and common nature. These questions are standard reading in accounts of medieval theories of individuation and have been compared with later ideas about individual essences and primitive thisness (haecceity) in analytic metaphysics. Supporters highlight the precision of Scotus’s distinctions; critics point to the metaphysical opacity of haecceities.

Freedom and Moral Law (II, d. 25; III, d. 37–40)

The questions on will and freedom (II, d. 25, qq. 1–5) and on moral law and divine command (III, d. 37–40) are widely anthologized. They contain Scotus’s analysis of synchronic contingency, the structure of the will’s affections, and the scope of divine legislative freedom. These passages have been central to modern reconstructions of medieval ethics and theories of agency.

Absolute Primacy and Predestination of Christ (III, d. 7)

Perhaps the most famous doctrinal section is III, d. 7, qq. 1–4, where Scotus defends the absolute predestination of Christ. An often‑quoted theme is that Christ is willed “first” among creatures and would have become incarnate even without the Fall. This passage has shaped the “Christocentric” strand of later theology, especially within Franciscan and some modern Catholic traditions, and serves as a focal point for ongoing debate about the motive of the Incarnation.

These and other loci have become standard reference points in both historical and systematic discussions, often serving as touchstones for assessing “Scotist” positions on being, individuality, freedom, and the centrality of Christ.

13. Philosophical and Theological Method in the Ordinatio

The Ordinatio is a paradigmatic example of scholastic method, integrating philosophical reasoning with theological authority in a highly structured format.

Quaestio‑Format and Dialectic

Each major issue is treated in the quaestio style:

1. Question posed with precise formulation.
2. Objections drawn from Scripture, Fathers, earlier scholastics, and philosophical arguments.
3. Often a sed contra citing an authoritative text.
4. Scotus’s determinatio, where he articulates his own position.
5. Replies to objections, reconciling or rejecting earlier claims.

This method allows Scotus to stage a dialectical confrontation among competing views (e.g., Thomist, Augustinian, Henry of Ghent) and to justify his own theses by careful distinctions.

Use of Philosophical Tools

Scotus makes extensive use of:

• Aristotelian logic and epistemology, especially syllogistic structure and the theory of demonstration
• Refined conceptual analysis, including distinctions between intuitive and abstractive cognition, formal and real distinctions, and modes of possibility
• Modal reasoning, developed in discussions of contingency, divine knowledge of future contingents, and predestination

Philosophical inquiry is not treated as independent of theology but as an ancilla (handmaid) that clarifies revealed truths and explores their implications.

Scripture, Fathers, and Authorities

While the Ordinatio is philosophically sophisticated, it remains fundamentally a theological commentary. Scotus:

• Engages systematically with Scripture and its glosses
• Cites Augustine, Anselm, Bonaventure, Thomas Aquinas, and Henry of Ghent, among others
• Sometimes explicitly weighs the authority of different Fathers when they appear to conflict

He often distinguishes between what can be proved by reason and what is held by faith alone, while still exploring the rational plausibility of mysteries such as the Trinity and Incarnation.

Balancing Reason and Revelation

Scotus’s method aims to:

• Preserve the primacy of revelation for certain truths
• Allow natural reason to establish a robust metaphysical framework (e.g., existence and attributes of God, structure of being)
• Use that framework to show the non‑contradictory and sometimes fitting character of revealed doctrines

Interpretations differ on how “rationalistic” this method is. Some see the Ordinatio as pushing reason to its limits in theology; others stress Scotus’s repeated acknowledgment of the boundaries of philosophical proof and the necessity of faith for central doctrines.

14. Contemporary Reception and Medieval Debates

The Ordinatio quickly became a central reference in early 14th‑century theological and philosophical debates, provoking both enthusiastic adoption and sharp criticism.

Immediate Franciscan Reception

Within the Franciscan Order, Scotus’s commentary exerted strong influence. Figures such as William of Alnwick, Francis of Meyronnes, and Antoine André engaged deeply with its arguments, often adopting and systematizing Scotist theses on:

• Univocity and transcendental metaphysics
• Haecceity and individuation
• Voluntarist accounts of will and moral law

Some Franciscans, however, modified or qualified Scotus’s positions, leading to internal debates about the correct interpretation of his views.

Thomist and Dominican Critiques

Dominican theologians, heirs to Thomas Aquinas, frequently criticized aspects of the Ordinatio:

Authors such as Hervaeus Natalis and later John Capreolus targeted Scotist doctrines, contributing to a developing Thomist–Scotist controversy.

University Statutes and Debates

In some universities, statutes explicitly referenced Scotist positions, occasionally restricting them in teaching or disputation. This indicates both the prominence and the contentiousness of the Ordinatio’s theses. Public disputations often revolved around issues first sharpened in the Ordinatio, such as:

• The nature of divine ideas
• The structure of contingency and divine foreknowledge
• The motive of the Incarnation

Interaction with Ockham and Later Medieval Thinkers

William of Ockham and other “nominalist” or via moderna thinkers knew Scotus’s work and often defined their own positions in relation to it:

• Ockham accepted some Scotist themes (e.g., critiques of certain Thomist arguments) but rejected formal distinctions and haecceities in favor of a more austere ontology.
• Later authors like Gregory of Rimini and Pierre d’Auriole continued to debate Scotist accounts of will, grace, and divine knowledge.

Thus, during the later Middle Ages, the Ordinatio functioned simultaneously as a school text within Franciscan circles and as a foil for alternative traditions, structuring many of the period’s key philosophical and theological controversies.

15. Later Influence, Scotist School, and Early Modern Reception

Over the centuries following Scotus’s death, the Ordinatio became the foundational text of a distinct Scotist school, whose interpretations shaped much of late medieval and early modern scholasticism.

Formation of the Scotist School

From the 14th to the 16th century, theologians identified as Scotists elaborated and systematized positions drawn from the Ordinatio. Key themes included:

• Univocity and transcendental metaphysics
• Haecceity and individuation
• Voluntarist ethics and the primacy of Christ

Prominent Scotists such as Francis of Mayronis, John of Bassolis, and later Francisco de Toledo (in a broader sense) commented directly on the Ordinatio or used it as a primary authority. In many Franciscan studia, it functioned as the standard theological textbook alongside or even in place of Lombard’s Sentences.

Confessional and Institutional Contexts

During the Reformation and Counter‑Reformation, Scotist thought—mediated largely through the Ordinatio and its commentaries—played varied roles:

• In Catholic contexts, Scotism became one of several recognized scholastic traditions alongside Thomism and (later) Suárezianism.
• Some Protestant theologians, especially in the Reformed and Lutheran traditions, engaged Scotist doctrines on divine will, grace, and predestination, sometimes adopting elements of his voluntarism or metaphysics while rejecting others.

Early Modern Scholasticism

In the 16th and 17th centuries, Baroque scholastics such as Francisco Suárez and Pedro da Fonseca interacted with Scotist themes, even when not strictly Scotist themselves. They:

• Adopted and adapted Scotus’s modal reasoning and analyses of contingency.
• Addressed and sometimes softened his positions on univocity and formal distinction.

Printed editions of the Ordinatio (beginning with Lyon 1639) facilitated broader access, though often in a textually harmonized form reflecting later Scotist consensus.

Early Modern Philosophy

Indirectly, the Ordinatio influenced early modern philosophers through scholastic intermediaries:

• Debates on freedom and determinism drew on Scotist and anti‑Scotist accounts of the will.
• Discussions of individuality and essence in thinkers like Leibniz show echoes of haecceity‑like ideas, though direct dependence on Scotus remains debated.
• The structure of natural theology in several confessional traditions continued to reflect Scotist considerations about univocal concepts of being and demonstrative proofs of God.

By the end of the early modern period, Scotism’s institutional presence waned in many universities, but the Ordinatio remained a reference point for specialists and for those interested in alternative scholastic frameworks beyond Thomism.

16. Legacy and Historical Significance

The Ordinatio has had a long and multifaceted legacy, shaping both the internal history of scholasticism and broader philosophical and theological debates.

Within Medieval and Post‑Medieval Theology

Historically, the Ordinatio:

• Founded a major scholastic tradition (Scotism) alongside Thomism and later Ockhamism.
• Provided a comprehensive alternative model of Christian theology, marked by univocal metaphysics, nuanced distinctions in divine simplicity, and a strong emphasis on divine and human freedom.
• Influenced doctrinal developments, notably in debates over the Immaculate Conception, Christ’s primacy, and the nature of grace and merit.

Its arguments became standard points of reference, either to be adopted, modified, or refuted, in the work of later medieval and early modern theologians.

Impact on Philosophy of Being, Individuation, and Modality

Philosophically, the Ordinatio is significant for:

• Systematizing a robust ontology of being and transcendentals, which has informed later explorations of metaphysics and religious language.
• Introducing influential analyses of individuation and haecceity, which continue to be cited in contemporary metaphysical debates about individual essences and primitive thisness.
• Advancing a sophisticated account of modal notions (possibility, necessity, contingency), including synchronic contingency, that anticipates some later treatments of possible worlds and counterfactuals.

Modern philosophers of religion and analytic metaphysicians have returned to these elements as historical resources and as live options.

Freedom, Ethics, and Divine Command

Scotus’s treatment of freedom and moral law in the Ordinatio has been important for the history of ethics:

• It has informed subsequent voluntarist and divine command theories, influencing both Catholic and Protestant traditions.
• It contributes to ongoing debates about libertarian freedom, moral responsibility, and the relation between rationality and choice.

Scholars disagree about how coherent or attractive Scotus’s synthesis is, but they widely regard it as one of the most ambitious medieval attempts to integrate robust free will with divine sovereignty.

Modern Rediscovery and Scholarship

From the 19th century onward, renewed interest in medieval philosophy led to:

• Critical editions of the Ordinatio by the Commissio Scotistica
• Extensive historical and systematic studies analyzing its doctrines in detail
• Engagement with Scotus’s ideas in ecumenical and inter‑disciplinary contexts

Today, the Ordinatio is recognized as a major monument of medieval thought, central to understanding the transition from high scholasticism to later medieval and early modern philosophy, and an enduring resource for systematic reflection on God, being, freedom, and Christ.