Stephen Lahey: The Divine Ideas in Prague: Philosophical Realism at Charles University at the Beginning of the Fifteenth Century

At the center of arguments between Wyclif supporters and their opponents was the doctrine of the divine ideas. Upon these arguments depended the realist ontology of universals ante rem that defined the Bohemian philosophical theology that would lead to Hussitism. The most important figure in these debates was Stanislaus of Znojmo, the master of Jerome, Jakoubek, and Hus. In this paper, I will describe the place of the doctrine of divine ideas in the philosophical theology Stanislaus outlines in his two major works, De Vero et Falso and De Universalibus Maior. I will devote a short portion to describing the historical background, and to the eventual retraction Stanislaus made, but the largest section of the paper will be a description of the relation of Wyclif’s thought to Stanislaus.