Quodlibets, of which he participated in fifteen during his tenure at the University of Paris. These were week-long sessions held before Christmas and Easter in which participating Masters were required to answer questions chosen by their students. This was taxing to the Master, who would have to argue a thoughtful and researched answer on an incredibly diverse range of subjects. Many Masters chose not to engage in the Quodlibets. Godfrey of Fontaines completed at least fifteen Quodlibetal sessions. Hence, Godfrey discussed a very wide range of issues. These and other writings show him to have been not merely a distinguished theologian and philosopher, but also a canonist, jurist, moralist, and conversationalist, who took an active part in the various ecclesiastical, doctrinal, and disciplinary disputes that stirred Paris at that period. Godfrey was reportedly influenced by Thomas Aquinas, and was a defender of Thomism against his contemporaries. Thomism was a novel theory at the time, and was condemned by Étienne Tempier, Bishop of Paris (Condemnation of 1277), and opposed by John Peckham and many others. This is despite Godfrey attacking the mendicant orders throughout his career, whereas Aquinas was a member of the Dominican mendicant order. Wippel says Godfrey opposed the mendicant orders due to the belief that "those who had confessed to mendicants by reason of the privileges granted to the latter by Pope Martin's bull were still bound to confess the same sins once again to their own priests." One of Godfrey's largest contributions was to the field of metaphysics. He was opposed to platonic arguments advanced from his contemporaries, such as Henry of Ghent. For example, he argued against the concept of platonic ideal forms, and that something's essential substance and existence were one and the same. His philosophy was strongly influenced by Aristotle. In the Quodlibetal VIII, Godfrey argues against the Franciscan Christian order and lays an early groundwork of political philosophy where he discusses the ideas of natural rights. Godfrey believed that natural law was dependent on individual self-preservation rather than a religious obligation; he says “because by natural law each person is obliged to maintain his life…each person has dominion and a certain right in the common exterior goods of this world, a right that he cannot licitly renounce”, says author Jussi Varkemma as noted in Conrad Summenhart’s Theory of Individual Rights. He objects that the fundamental Franciscan approach to rights is illicit to human