Having imagined the simultaneous
ringing of different sacring bells as a figure for the
transcendent Body of Christ that is simultaneously present in
different eucharistic Hosts, Stephen thinks of the medieval
theologian who argued logically for the same insight that he
has just conceived metaphorically: "Dan Occam thought of that,
invincible doctor. A misty English morning the imp hypostasis
tickled his brain."
William of Occam (or Ockham) was an English-born Franciscan
friar and scholastic philosopher who figured prominently in
the theological disputes of the 14th century. Among other
honorific titles, he was called Doctor Invincibilis,
the Invincible Teacher. "Dan," Thornton
notes, is an old title meaning simply "Mr." or "Sir." Occam is
best known for advocating nominalism (the view that universal
essences like Platonic Forms have no real existence but are
mere abstractions from particular things) and for "Occam's
razor" (his principle that the satisfactory explanation of a
phenomenon which relies on the fewest postulates should be
preferred over more complicated explanations that postulate
unnecessary causes or conditions). In both these positions,
and more generally in his hostility to the unnecessary
"multiplication" of rational categories (he relied on faith to
explain what reason could not), he has been a kind of patron
saint for the skeptical empiricism that characterizes much
later English philosophy.
Gifford notes that in the Tractatus de Sacramento
Altaris Occam argues that "after the host is
consecrated, its quantity and quality are unchanged;
therefore, the body of Christ is not in the host in quantity
or quality (i.e., the host is not the body of Christ by
"reason," but by "faith"), so there is only one body
of Christ and not several." This relates closely to the
insight that Stephen has fancied in terms of two bells that
"twang in dipthong."
In theology, the term "hypostasis"
(literally a standing under) can refer to Christ's
simultaneous possession of two natures, divine and human.
Thornton observes that it is "misleading" to apply this term
to the problem of "multilocation" that Occam addressed (how
the Eucharist could be present in more than one Host at once).
