Gabriel Biel
He succeeded academically and became an instructor in the faculty of the arts for three years, until he pursued a higher degree at the University of Erfurt.
The curriculum at these two universities varied greatly, with Cologne stressing St. Thomas Aquinas and overall scholastic curricula heavily, and Erfurt emphasizing William of Ockham.
Because of his reliance on the scholastic tradition, as well as William of Ockham's nominalist views, he is often credited as being an "articulate spokesman of the via moderna and … a discerning user of the thought of via antiqua" (Oberman, 11).
Though he was almost sixty years of age when he began to teach, Biel's work, both as professor and as writer, reflected the highest honour on the young university.
A Scholastic, he was, to quote Janssen, "free from empty speculations and ingenious intellectual juggling, being concerned with questions and needs of actual life" (ibid.
When Diether began appealing to antipapal sentiments present throughout the Holy Roman Empire, escalating the conflict, Biel became involved.
As a matter of fact, he acknowledged the primacy and supreme power of the Roman Pontiff, but, in common with many other theologians of his time, maintained the superiority of general Councils, at least to the extent that they could compel the pope's resignation.
Because of Biel's insistence on maintaining the precarious balancing act between his scholastic and modern views of theology, it is often the case that "His philosophical thought is not straightforwardly innovative, but has more of a synthetic nature; his generally recognized clarity of expression if often achieved by contrasting diverse positions with each other (Gracia, A Companion to Philosophy in the Middle Ages).
Among the opinions defended by Biel concerning matters controversial in his day, the following are worthy of mention: (a) That all ecclesiastical jurisdiction, even that of bishops, is derived either immediately or mediately from the pope.
Biel's enumeration includes all the factors that govern market price, and is more complete and reasonable than any made by his predecessors.
He wrote a special work on currency, Ein wahrhaft goldenes Buch, in which he stigmatizes the debasing of coinage by princes as dishonest exploitation of the people.
In the same work he severely condemns those rulers who curtailed the popular rights of forest, meadow, and water, and who imposed arbitrary burdens of taxation, as well as the rich sportsmen who encroached upon the lands of the peasantry.
In Biel's Expositio Canonis Missae, he expressed a version of the phrase "You get what you pay for": Pro tali numismate tales merces.
