Misplaced Pages

Peter Lombard
Peter Lombard writing "Omnes sitientes venite ad me (all you that thirst, come to me)"
Born	c. 1096 Novara, Lombardy
Died	21/22 August 1160 Paris, France
Occupation	Bishop of Paris
Title	Master of the Sentences
Academic background
Alma mater	School of Reims University of Bologna
Influences	Paul of Tarsus Augustine of Hippo Avicenna Pseudo-Dionysius Peter Abelard Hugh of Saint Victor
Academic work
School or tradition	Scholasticism
Notable works	Libri Quattuor Sententiarum Magna glossatura
Influenced	Albert the Great Thomas Aquinas Bonaventure Duns Scotus William of Ockham Gabriel Biel

Part of a series on
Catholic philosophy
Aquinas, Scotus, and Ockham
Ethics Cardinal virtues Just price Just war Principle of Double Effect Casuistry Probabilism Natural law Personalism Social teaching Liberation Theology Christian Humanism Virtue ethics Works of mercy
Metaphysics Conceptualism Realism Moderate realism Nominalism Quiddity (essence / nature) Haecceity Quinque Viae Predestination Theological determinism Compatibilism Divine Attributes
Schools Augustinianism Victorines Llullism Cartesianism Christian Neoplatonism Friends of God Molinism Ressourcement Occamism Scholasticism Second scholasticism Neo Scotism Thomism Analytic Salamanca
Philosophers Ancient Ambrose Athenagoras Athanasius Augustine Benedict Boethius Clement Cyprian Cyril Gregory (of Nazianzus) Gregory (of Nyssa) Irenaeus Jerome Cassian Chrysostom Climacus John of Damascus Justin Maximus Dionysius Origen Paul Tertullian Medieval Abelard Albert Alcuin Alexander Anselm Autrecourt Aquinas Bacon Bede Berengar Bernard Bonaventure Buridan Catherine Cusa Eckhart Eriugena Giles Gregory I Grosseteste Gundissalinus Hildegard Hugh Isidore Llull Lombard Martin Ockham Oresme Paschasius Roscellinus Scotus Siger Symeon Thierry Modern Arnauld Ávila Azpilcueta Bellarmine Bonald Bossuet Brentano Botero Cajetan Chateaubriand Cortés Descartes Erasmus Fénelon Gracián Kołłątaj Krasicki La Mennais Liguori Maistre Malebranche Mariana Meinong Mercado Molina More Newman Pascal Rosmini Sales Soto Suárez Vico Vitoria Caramuel Contemporary Adler Anscombe Balthasar Barron Benedict XVI Blondel Chesterton Congar Copleston Finnis Garrigou-Lagrange Geach Gilson Girard Gutiérrez Dávila Guardini Haldane Hildebrand John Paul II Lonergan Lubac MacIntyre Marcel Marion Maritain McLuhan Mounier Pieper Rahner Stein Taylor
Catholicism portal Philosophy portal
v t e

Peter Lombard (also Peter the Lombard, Pierre Lombard or Petrus Lombardus; c. 1096 – 21/22 August 1160) was an Italian scholastic theologian, Bishop of Paris, and author of Four Books of Sentences which became the standard textbook of theology, for which he earned the accolade Magister Sententiarum.

Biography

Early years

Peter Lombard was born in Lumellogno (then a rural commune, now a quartiere of Novara, Piedmont), in northwestern Italy, to a poor family. His date of birth was likely between 1095 and 1100.

His education most likely began in Italy at the cathedral schools of Novara and Lucca and at the University of Bologna. The patronage of Odo, bishop of Lucca, who recommended him to Bernard of Clairvaux, allowed him to leave Italy and further his studies at Reims and Paris. Lombard studied first in the cathedral school at Reims, where Magister Alberich and Lutolph of Novara were teaching, and arrived in Paris about 1134, where Bernard recommended him to the canons of the church of St. Victor.

Professor

In Paris, where he spent the next decade teaching at the cathedral school of Notre-Dame de Paris, he came into contact with Peter Abelard and Hugh of St. Victor, who were among the leading theologians of the time. There are no proven facts relating to his whereabouts in Paris until 1142, when he became recognized as a teacher and writer. Around 1145, Peter became a "magister", or professor, at the cathedral school of Notre Dame in Paris. Peter's means of earning a living before he began to derive income as a teacher and from his canon's prebend is shrouded in uncertainty.

Lombard's style of teaching gained quick acknowledgment. It can be surmised that this attention is what prompted the canons of Notre Dame to ask him to join their ranks. He was considered a celebrated theologian by 1144. The Parisian school of canons had not included among their number a theologian of high regard for some years. The canons of Notre Dame, to a man, were members of the Capetian dynasty, relatives of families closely aligned to the Capetians by blood or marriage, scions of the Île-de-France or eastern Loire Valley nobility, or relatives of royal officials. In contrast, Peter had no relatives, ecclesiastical connections, and no political patrons in France. It seems that he must have been invited by the canons of Notre Dame solely for his academic merit.

Priesthood and Bishop of Paris

He became a subdeacon in 1147. Possibly he was present at the consistory of Paris in 1147, and certainly he attended the Council of Rheims in 1148, held in the presence of Pope Eugenius III to examine Gilbert de la Porrée and Éon de l'Étoile. Peter was among the signatories of the act condemning Gilbert's teachings. At some time after 1150 Peter became a deacon, then archdeacon, maybe as early as 1152. He was ordained priest some time before 1156. On 28 July 1159, on the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul, he was consecrated bishop of Paris. Walter of St Victor accused Peter of obtaining the office by simony. The more usual story is that Philip, younger brother of Louis VII and archdeacon of Notre-Dame, was elected by the canons but declined in favor of Peter Lombard, his teacher.

Lombard's time as bishop was brief. Lombard died on either 21 or 22 August 1160 in Paris. As to his administrative style or objectives little can be ascertained, since he left behind so few episcopal acta. He was succeeded by Maurice de Sully, the builder of the Cathedral of Notre Dame. Lombard's tomb in the church of Saint-Marcel in Paris was destroyed during the French Revolution, but a transcription of his epitaph survives.

Writings

Peter Lombard wrote commentaries on the Psalms and the Pauline epistles; however, his most famous work by far was Libri Quatuor Sententiarum, or the Four Books of Sentences, which became the standard textbook of theology at the medieval universities. From the 1220s until the 16th century, no work of Christian literature, except for the Bible itself, was commented upon more frequently. Even Thomas Aquinas' Summa Theologiae, written around 1270, would not eclipse the Sentences in importance until around the 16th century. All the major medieval thinkers in western Europe, from Albert the Great and Thomas Aquinas to William of Ockham and Gabriel Biel, were influenced by it. Even the young Martin Luther still wrote glosses on the Sentences, and John Calvin quoted from it over 100 times in his Institutes.

The Four Books of Sentences formed the framework upon which four centuries of scholastic interpretation of Western Christian dogma was based; however, rather than being a dialectical work itself, the Four Books of Sentences is a compilation of biblical texts, together with relevant passages from the Church Fathers and many medieval thinkers. It covered virtually the entire field of Christian theology as it was understood at the time. Peter Lombard's magnum opus stands squarely within the pre-scholastic exegesis of biblical passages, in the tradition of Anselm of Laon who taught through quotations from authorities. It stands out as the first major effort to bring together commentaries on the full range of theological issues, arrange the material in a systematic order, and attempt to reconcile them where they appeared to defend different viewpoints. The Sentences starts with the Trinity in Book I, moves on to creation in Book II, treats Christ, the saviour of the fallen creation, in Book III, and deals with the sacraments, which mediate Christ's grace, in Book IV.

Doctrine

Peter Lombard's most famous and most controversial doctrine in the Sentences was his identification of charity with the Holy Spirit in Book I, distinction 17. According to this doctrine, when the Christian loves God and his neighbour, this love literally is God; he becomes divine and is taken up into the life of the Trinity. This idea, in its inchoate form, can be extrapolated from certain remarks of Augustine of Hippo (cf. De Trinitate 13.7.11). Although this was never explicitly declared unorthodox, few theologians have been prepared to follow Peter Lombard in this aspect of his teaching. The Council of Trent however, may have condemned this view in an implicit manner, with The Catholic Encyclopedia noting that:

According to the Council of Trent sanctifying grace is not merely a formal cause, but "the only formal cause" (unica causa formalis) of our justification. By this important decision the Council excluded the error of Butzer and some Catholic theologians (Gropper, Seripando, and Albert Pighius) who maintained that an additional "external favour of God" (favor Dei externus) belonged to the essence of justification. The same decree also effectually set aside the opinion of Peter Lombard, that the formal cause of justification (i.e. sanctifying grace) is nothing less than the Person of the Holy Ghost, Who is the hypostatic holiness and charity, or the uncreated grace (gratia increata). Since justification consists in an interior sanctity and renovation of spirit, its formal cause evidently must be a created grace (gratia creata), a permanent quality, a supernatural modification or accident (accidens) of the soul.

Also in the Sentences was the doctrine that marriage was consensual and need not be consummated to be considered perfect, unlike Gratian's analysis (see sponsalia de futuro). Lombard's interpretation was later endorsed by Pope Alexander III, and had a significant impact on Church interpretation of marriage. He emphasized that reciprocal consent of the parties is sufficiently constitutive of an absolutely indissoluble marriage, and is its only cause independent of sexual intercourse.

Works

• Magna glossatura
• Sentences. Book 1: The Mystery of the Trinity. Translated by Giulio Silano. Toronto, Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies (PIMS), 2007. LVIIII, 278 pp. ISBN 978-0-88844-292-5
• Sentences. Book 2: On Creation. Translated by Giulio Silano. Toronto, PIMS, 2008. XLVI, 236 pp. ISBN 978-0-88844-293-2
• Sentences. Book 3: On the Incarnation of the Word. Translated by Giulio Silano. Toronto, PIMS, 2008. XLVIII, 190 pp. ISBN 978-0-88844-295-6
• Sentences. Book 4: The Doctrine of Signs. Translated by Giulio Silano. Toronto, PIMS, 2010. 336 pp. ISBN 978-0-88844-296-3
• The Latin critical edition published by the College of St. Bonaventure (Ad Claras Aquas, 1916) is in two volumes. Volume one contains Books 1 and 2, volume two contains Books 3 and 4.

Notes

1. Peter Lombard (1095-1160)
2. The Sheed & Ward Anthology of Catholic Philosophy. Rowman & Littlefield. 2005. ISBN 9780742531987.
3. Jean LeClercq, 'Influence and noninfluence of Dionysius in the Western Middle Ages', in Pseudo-Dionysius: The Complete Works, trans. Colm Luibheid (New York: Paulist Press, 1987), pp25-33
4. Prof. Harold Tarrant & Prof. Godfrey Tanner (2001). The Cultural Collections Unit: 2nd Edition. University of Newcastle, Australia.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
5. ^ W. and R. Chambers (1864). Chambers's encyclopædia: Vol.VI. London.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
6. ^ Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich (1836). Werke: Vol.XV. Berlin.
7. ^ Ginsburg, Christian David (1861). Coheleth; commonly called The Book of Ecclesiastes. London.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
8. ^ The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica (2 April 2024). "Peter Lombard". Encyclopedia Britannica. {{cite journal}}: |last= has generic name (help)
9. Milman, Henry Hart (1857). History of Latin Christianity: Vol.VI. London.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
10. Baur, Ferdinand Christian (1858). Lehrbuch der christlichen Dogmengeschichte. Tübingen.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
11. E.g., vide Alphonsus à Castro, O.F.M., De justa haereticorum punitione, libri III (Lugduni : apud Sebastianum Barptolomai Honorati, 1555), lib. 2, c. 21.
12. Hödl, in Biografisch-Bibliografisches Kirchenlexikon.
13. The few known facts of Peter's life are presented in Philippe Delhaye, Pierre Lombard: sa vie, ses œuvres, sa morale (Paris/Montreal) 1961.
14. Hödl
15. In a surviving letter, Ep. 410, Opera omnia viii.391, noted by Hödl
16. Hödl.
17. In his polemic Contra quatuor labyrinthos Franciae II.4.
18. His successor, Maurice de Sully, was bishop by the end of 1160.
19. "Peter Lombard". NNDB. 2019. Retrieved 17 May 2024.
20. Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Peter Lombard" . Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
21. Joseph Rickaby (1908). Scholasticism. A. Constable. p. 23.
22. This is a central point of Delhaye 1961, who sees Abelard, rather than Peter, as the founder of scholasticism.
23. "CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Justification". www.newadvent.org. Retrieved 2024-10-06.
24. Colish, Marcia L. (2010). "The Pseudo-Peter of Poitiers Gloss". In Rosemann, Philipp (ed.). Mediaeval Commentaries on the Sentences of Peter Lombard. pp. 1–33. doi:10.1163/ej.9789004118614.i-551.6. ISBN 978-90-04-11861-4.
25. Donahue, Charles (June 1983). "The Canon Law On the Formation of Marriage and Social Practice in the Later Middle Ages". Journal of Family History. 8 (2): 144–158. doi:10.1177/036319908300800204. S2CID 144042143. ProQuest 1300086562.
26. Kamas, Juraj (1997). The Separation of the Spouses with the Bond Remaining: Historical and Canonical Study with Pastoral Applications. Gregorian Biblical BookShop. ISBN 978-88-7652-757-9.

Further reading

• Doyle, Matthew. Peter Lombard and His Students (Studies and Texts, 201; Mediaeval Law and Theology, 8), Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 2016, ISBN 978-0-88844-201-7
• Colish, Marcia L. Peter Lombard. 2 Vols. New York: E.J. Brill, 1994.
• Delhaye, Philippe. Pierre Lombard: sa vie, ses œuvres, sa morale. Paris/Montreal: 1961.
• Herlihy, David. Medieval Households. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1985.
• Rosemann, Philipp W. Peter Lombard. New York: Oxford UP, 2004.
• Rosemann, Philipp W. The Story of a Great Medieval Book: Peter Lombard's "Sentences". Peterborough, Ontario: Broadview, 2007.

External links

• "Peter Lombard (1095–1160)" article in the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
• Ludwig Hödl (1993). "Lombardus, Petrus". In Bautz, Traugott (ed.). Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL) (in German). Vol. 5. Herzberg: Bautz. cols. 197–202. ISBN 3-88309-043-3.
• "Peter Lombard Magister Sententiarum" Texts and further links.
• Peter Lombard's Book of Sentences in parallel Latin English (Book I)
• Online Galleries, History of Science Collections, University of Oklahoma Libraries High resolution images of works by Peter Lombard in .jpg and .tiff format.
• Guide to Peter Lombard, Bishop of Paris, Collectanea in epistolas Pauli. Manuscript, 12-- at the University of Chicago Special Collections Research Center
• Works by Peter Lombard at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)

v t e Catholic philosophy
Ethics	Cardinal virtues Divine command Just price Just war Probabilism Natural law Personalism Seven virtues Social teaching Theological virtues Virtue ethics
Schools	Medieval Augustinianism Scholasticism Thomism Scotism Occamism Modern Salamanca Christian humanism Cartesianism Molinism Neo-scholasticism Analytical Thomism Universals Augustinian realism Nominalism Conceptualism Moderate realism Scotistic realism Other Theological intellectualism Theological voluntarism Foundationalism
Philosophers	Abelard Adler Albertus Alcuin Anscombe Anselm Aquinas Augustine Bacon Boethius Bonaventure Chateaubriand Chesterton Clement Cusa Descartes Dionysius Erasmus Eriugena Ficino Gassendi Isidore Krasicki Llull Lombard MacIntyre Maistre Malebranche Maritain Montaigne More Newman Occam Pascal Pico Rahner Ratzinger Scheler Scotus Stein Suárez Wojtyła
Concepts	Actus Essendi Actus primus Actus purus Aevum Augustinian values Cardinal virtues Cartesian dualism Cogito, ergo sum Dehellenization Differentia Disputation Divine illumination Double truth Evil demon Formal distinction Guardian angel Haecceity Head of a pin Homo unius libri Infused righteousness Memento mori Occam's razor Ontological argument Pascal's wager Peripatetic axiom Principle of double effect Quiddity Quinque viae Ressentiment Rota Fortunae Seven deadly sins Stratification of emotional life Theodicy Augustinian Irenaean Trademark argument Univocity Utopia
Related	Catholic theology Platonism Aristotelianism Neoplatonism Islamic philosophy Doctor of the Church Renaissance Rationalism Empiricism Phenomenology
Catholicism portal Philosophy portal

• 1090s births
• 1160 deaths
• People from the Province of Novara
• 12th-century Italian Roman Catholic theologians
• Scholastic philosophers
• 12th-century writers in Latin
• Bishops of Paris
• 12th-century French Roman Catholic bishops
• 12th-century Christian mystics
• Roman Catholic mystics
• 12th-century Italian philosophers