ABSTRACT
In November 1446 the Faculty of Arts of the University of Louvain passed a statute declaring that eleven propositions must not be taught, the fifth of which was “that determinately one part of a contradiction in future contingents is true and the other false, just as in present and past contingents, and furthermore [that] the opposite of this conclusion is inconsistent with the faith.” Peter de Rivo lectured on the Sentences at Louvain in 1448–49, but he was still bachelor formatus in theology, not yet master, when the quarrel began in 1465. Rivo had brought the quarrel outside the University, virtually charging Zomeren with heresy before the Bishop of Tournai. Immediately after Rivo’s public accusation, Zomeren appealed to the powerful Cardinal Bessarion, describing Rivo’s stance and asking Bessarion’s judgment. If Zomeren had been a nominalist, he certainly would have opposed Rivo’s notion of truth inhering in propositions, but so might a moderate realist.
