Changes in Theology
During the 1300's the Church was hurt in many ways, the popes looked down upon, the institution was unstable and lacked a strong sense of authority that it had before, but it wasn't the Church itself that was damaged and challenged, but also its theology, its beliefs. A man named Thomas Aquinas had had and presented his own thoughts concerning faith and reason and though some thought that Aquinas was correct, his ideas were commonly ignored. In the 14th century a man named William Occam (1285-1329) challenged all that the Church or anyone for that matter believed about faith and reason. Occam believed that nothing could be proven through or with reason. He believed that the brain could think about things analytically using reason, but not proven. This didn't, however, contradict his belief in God as he said that truths and reality could only be accepted through faith. Quickly his beliefs were accepted by the University of Paris. The acceptance of Occam's hypothesis on the University's part caused confusion as to what the truth about faith and reason really was among the Middle Age populace.