o c c 
fupport or defence of virtue, or of princes and good ru¬ 
lers, whom God commands us to regard in his place.” 
Florian fpeaks of a work that he defigned to write upon 
mechanical inventions which he had feen in his travels, 
and on l'ome of which lie had improved, with the view of 
fetting forth the manner to be ufed in making them, and 
afterwards the reafon and caufes of all their effects and 
circumftances, conformable to the principles of natural 
philofophy. 
This writer is faid to have rendered more fervice to 
Spanifti literature as an editor than as an author. During 
his relidence at Zamora, the printers of that city applied 
to him for fomething which they might publifli for theufe 
and glory of the kingdom. He fortunately had inhispof- 
feflion the General Chronicle of Spain, which had been 
compiled by Alfonfo the Wife, which he gave them for 
the prefs ; and he correfted the proofs with great care. 
This edition was completed in December 1541, and is a 
very-fine black-letter book. There is a Valladolid edition 
of it of 1604; but the work is very rare. This author, 
fays Mr. Southey, was born in 1499, and died in 1555. 
Gen. Diog. 
OCAN'NA, a large and.antique city of Spain, and 
chief town of Lower Mancha, fituated on an eminence 
on the fide of New Caftile and La Mancha, at the entrance 
of the plain of La Meffade Ocanna. This place was for¬ 
merly very ftrong, and the remains of the old walls are 
Hill vifible. It belonged for fome time to the order of 
Calatrava; and was afterwards transferred to the knights 
of St. James, to whom it now belongs. In later times it 
has loll much of its fplendour, and is now partly in ruins. 
Ocanna contains four parilhes, fix monafteries, five con¬ 
vents, a governor of the order of St. James, and an al- 
cade mayor. The inhabitants formerly carried on a con- 
liderable trade in gloves : it had feventy-two manufacto¬ 
ries, and 103,480 dozen pair were faid to be made every 
- year ; but the importation of this article has put a flop 
to that branch of induftry and commerce. It has now 
only one manufactory of leather for fhoe-foles, and four 
of hard foap. The church of the Carmelites is the oniy 
edifice worthy of notice. One of its two fountains is 
grand and noble ; and, as fome fuppofe, was built in the 
reign of Philip II. but others think it more probable, that 
it was conltruCted at the time when the grand matters of 
St. James, then fo rich and powerful, lived at Ocanna; 
and, therefore, at a much earlier period than the reign 
of Philip II. The number of inhabitants is about 2000 : 
' twenty-five miles eafl-north-ealt of Toledo. Lat. 40.1. N. 
Ion. 3. 47. W. 
OCAN'NA, or St. Anna, a town of South America, 
in the province of St. Martha, on the Rio de Oro : 220 
miles fouth of St. Martha, and 225 north ofSta. Fe de Bo¬ 
gota. Lat. 7. 50.N. Ion. 73.26. W. 
OC'CA, a range of mountains of Spain, which extend 
from the neighbourhood of Tortofa in Catalonia to Bur¬ 
gos in Old Caftile. 
OC'CA, or Oca, a river of Spain, which rifes near 
Burgos, and runs into the Ebro near Frias. 
OCCACHAP'PO, a river of the Hate of Georgia, 
which runs into the Tenneffee in lat. 34. 45. N. Ion. 88. 
5. W. 
OCCACO'KE, an ifland near the coaft of North Caro¬ 
lina, ten miles long, and from one and a half to three wide. 
Lat. 36. N. Ion. 76. 12. W. 
OCCAKOKE IN'LET, a channel between Core 
Bank and Occakoke ifland. Lat. 34. 55. N. Ion. 76. 18. W. 
OC'CAM (William), a celebrated fcholaftic divine in 
the fourteenth century, who obtained the title of the 
Invincible Dodor, was a native of England, and born in 
the county of Surry. He entered, when young, into the 
order of Francifcans; and, going to Paris, became a dif- 
ciple of the famous Duns Scotus, to whom he was little 
if at all inferior in fubtlety. The fchool of the Scotifis 
had, till his time, followed the popular opinion of the 
Vol. XVII. No. 1184. 
O C C SSI 
Realijls ; but Occam, probably from an ambition of be¬ 
coming the head of a feparate body, revived the opinion 
of the NominaHjls, and formed a left under the name of 
Gccamifis, which vehemently oppofed the Scotifis. The 
Greeks and the Perfians, lays Molheim, never fought 
againft each other with more hatred and fury than thefe 
two difeordant fefts. The Realijls defpifed their antago- 
nifts as philofophers of a recent date, branding them with 
the name of moderns ; while, through a great tniftake, 
they aferibed a very high antiquity to the tenets of their 
own party. The NominaHjls, on the other hand, in¬ 
veighed againft them as a let of floating vifionaries, 
who, defpiiing fubftantial matters,.were purfuing mere 
fhadows. With the Francifcans it was a favourite fenti- 
ment, “that Chrift and his apoftles had no common or 
perfonal property in what they poiTeffed, nor a power of 
felling or alienating any part of it.” This fentiment 
had given rife to thepleafant queltion, “Whether the 
property of, things, confumed in the uiing, fuel) as bread 
and wine, belonged to them, or only the Ample uj'e of 
them without the property ?” As their rule did not per¬ 
mit them to have any thing as property, pope-Nicholas 
III. contrived a bull, by which the order might be en¬ 
riched, without adireft breach of their rule. This bull, 
by enafting that the property which the Francifcans 
fnould acquire was to refide in the church of Rome, con¬ 
firmed the appointment of pope Innocent IV. by which 
the monks were fuppofed to be deprived of what we call 
right, and were only allowed the Ample ufe of what was 
neceflary for their immediate fupport. Under this fubter- 
fuge the Francifcans obtained aftual polfellion of a vail 
number of eftates, in the name of the church of Rome. 
In the year 1322, pope John XXII. revoked the bull 
of Nicholas, and, during the following year, by a new 
edidt, he enacted, that all who maintained that Chrift and 
his apoftles had no common nor fpecial property in any of 
their pofieflions, fliould be deemed heretics, andcorrupters 
of the true religion. This meafure, however, had only 
the effeft of inflaming the Francifcans more than ever, 
and of confirming them in their attachment to their fa¬ 
vourite doftrine. And no fooner did the bitter conteft 
between thepontiffand the emperor Louis of Bavariabreak 
out, than fome of the principal champions of the Francif- 
can caufe embraced the opportunity which it aftorded them 
of being revenged on their oppreffor. In thefe circum¬ 
ftances Occam had the courage to write a book “ De Po- 
teftate Ecclefiaftica et Seculare,” in which he oppofed the 
tyranny of the papal over the civil power. The boldnels 
with which he withftood the encroachments of the Roman 
fee, and expofecl the corruption of the monks, brought 
upon him the cenfure of the pontiff, and obliged him to 
think of fecuring his perfonal fitfety by flight. Accor¬ 
dingly, having made his efcape from Avignon, in the 
year 1327, he firft went by fea to the-emperor, who was'at 
that time in Italy, and from thence proceeded to Munich. 
Under the proteftion of the emperor, heagain maintained 
the independency of the civil with refpeft to the ecclefi- 
aftical power; and, being joined by others of the lame 
community, who were efteemed on account of tbeirparts 
and learning, they defended the inftitute of their founder 
in long and laboured treatifes, in which they reduced the 
papal dignity and authority within a very narrow com- 
pafs, and loaded the pontiff with reproaches and inveftives. 
Occam furpafled them all in the keennefs and fpirit of his 
fatjre; and hence his “Dialogues between a Mafter and 
Scholar,” and other pieces intended to expofe papal ty¬ 
ranny, which were perilled with avidity,- and tranfmitted 
down to fucceeding generations, had no little effeft in 
preparing the way for the downfall of the ambition and 
greatnefs of the Roman pontiffs. This oppolition to the fee 
of Rome drew down on Occam a fentence of papal excom¬ 
munication; but he continued tolivein fecurity in theem- 
peror’s court, where he died in the yearn 347. Befides the 
articles already mentioned, he wrote “ Commentaries upon 
5 E the 
