Gabriel Biel c. 1420 – 1495

Gabriel Biel was a German scholastic philosopher and theologian, sometimes called the last of the great medieval nominalists. After studies at Heidelberg, Erfurt, and Cologne and many years as a cathedral preacher at Mainz, he was called in his later years to the new University of Tubingen, where he taught nominalist theology in the tradition of William of Ockham. His Collectorium circa Quattuor Libros Sententiarum, the most influential late medieval commentary on the Sentences, set out a systematic Ockhamist theology of grace, will, and divine command that shaped early sixteenth-century universities and left a deep impression on the young Martin Luther.