Peter de Rivo

Abstract

Peter de Rivo (c. 1420–1500) was a controversial Flemish scholar active at the University of Louvain from 1437 until late in life. He lectured on the Sentences in 1448–1449, but was not made master until 1477. As arts master he composed many Aristotelian commentaries, some of which survive, and later he wrote treatises on the calendar stemming from a quarrel over Easter dating. He is best known as the leading protagonist in the quarrel over future contingents at Louvain against Henry of Zomeren, a master of theology. The dispute between the two goes back before 1450, but really erupted in 1465. Until Henry’s death in 1472, Peter defended the position of Peter Auriol on the subject of divine foreknowledge of future contingents, maintaining that propositions about the contingent future are neither true nor false, but neutral. Henry countered by accusing Peter of heresy. The long dispute, which came to physical violence, involved the faculties of arts and theology at Louvain, the faculties of theology at Paris and Cologne, the bishop of Tournai, the duke of Burgundy, the Greek Cardinal Bessarion, and Pope Paul II. A number of interesting treatises were composed in the quarrel by Peter, Henry, and several members of Bessarion’s circle. One of the latter group, the Franciscan Francesco della Rovere, was elected Pope Sixtus IV in 1471 and in 1474 officially condemned Peter de Rivo’s doctrine, and by extension Peter Auriol’s.