The early career of Nicole Oresme.

It has long been known that Nicole Oresme was a master of arts and a student in theology at Paris by 1348. A recently discovered papal letter of provision granting Oresme an expectation of a benefice establishes that he was already a regent master in arts by 1342. The text of the letter as copied in the papal registers also mentions those persons mandated to help implement the provision, thus revealing part of Oresme's early patronage network, which included an important regent master of theology from Normandy and a bachelor of theology who had been summoned to Avignon in 1340 along with Nicolas of Autrecourt. This earlier dating of Oresme's arts degree places him at Paris during the crisis over William of Ockham's natural philosophy.