 As the element of man’s original nature which was substantially undamaged after Adam’s fall, the synteresis was the anthropological point of connection between an abiding moral order, which manifested ideas in the divine intellect according to which creation was necessarily ordered, and man’s certain knowledge of universal principles of that moral order. Ockham, however, stressed the absolute contingency of creation […] For Ockham, God’s will, as manifested in the moral precepts he has ordained, constitutes the ultimate and objective norm of morality. God is under no obligation; rather, it is divine will which determines moral obligation. This awesome conception of divine liberty and omnipotence, and the contingency of the created order has led many to the conclusion that the objective basis of Ockham’s ethics is authoritarian or positivistic and inherently unstable since it appears to depend only upon an alterable divine fiat. If this were so, then it would appear odd also to posit within man an inborn and inalienable knowledge of moral principles in the form of synteresis. (Baylor 1977: 79–80)