William Ockham intended the Dialogus to be a thorough examination (a "summa") of the doctrinal and political issues at stake during what in fact became the last major confrontation between Church and State in the waning period of the Western Middle Ages. Part I of the project, entitled “Concerning Heretics”, dealt with the problem of a Pope betraying the main values of his community, and the lengthy Book 6 described the consequent inquisition and punishment. The Dialogus is to Ockham what The Republic is to Plato or the Leviathan to Hobbes. It is one of the great treatises in the history of political thought. Cast in the form of a discussion between a master and a student, while primarily focusing on the concrete events of its time, it enunciates general principles which are easily adaptable to any socio-political situation involving human political interaction.
The defining critical text, Dialogus Part I, Book 6, of Ockham's masterpiece deals with the inquisition and punishment of a Pope betraying the fundamental principles of the Christian Commonwealth he rules. Ockham's comprehensive analysis relies on theology, canon law, and logic as the final arbiter.
