ASSIGNMENT
• Read “St. Anselm Reading” in class files, folder
for test #2. Quiz tomorrow.
Didjaredit?
1. What was the name of Peter Lombard’s great 4
volume work?
2. This work was used for centuries for “didactic
purposes.” What does this mean?
3. Is this work still used by theologians today?
4. In the fourth volume of his work, Lombard
enumerated the number of ___________ and
explained how they transmitted Divine Grace.
5. How long was Lombard the Bishop of Paris?
After we grade this quiz, turn it over and
write…(next slide)
Reflection?
1. In a 4-5 sentence paragraph answer the
following: In what way(s) was the love
relationship between Peter and Heloise NOT
healthy or life-giving?
Bio
• Peter Lombard or Peter the
Lombard was born 1096, in
Lombardy, Italy and died
August 1164, in Paris,
France.
• Born to a poor family.
• was a 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 “Master of the
Sentences.”
Education
• His education most likely began in Italy at the cathedral schools of
Novara and Lucca.
• The patronage of Odo, bishop of Lucca, who recommended him to
St. Bernard of Clairvaux, allowed him to leave Italy and further his
studies at Reims and Paris.
• Petrus 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 St. Bernard recommended him to the
canons of the church of St. Victor.
• In Paris, where he spent the next decade teaching at the cathedral
school of Notre Dame, 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 writer and teacher.
• Around 1145, Peter became a "magister", or professor, at the
cathedral school of Notre Dame in Paris.
Career
• 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.
• He attended the Council of Reims in 1148, where Pope Eugenius III was
present at the synod, which examined Gilbert de la Porrée and Eon de
l'Estoile. Peter was among the signers of the act condemning Gilbert's
teachings.
• He was ordained priest some time before 1156.
• In 1159, he was named bishop of Paris.
• A hostile witness, Walter of St Victor, accused Peter of obtaining the office
by simony, though he had no source of income. The more probably story is
that Philip, younger brother of Louis VII. and archdeacon of Paris, was
elected but declined in favor of Peter, his teacher
• His reign as bishop was brief. He died a year later.
• His tomb in the church of Saint-Marcel in Paris was destroyed during the
French Revolution.
Writings
• Peter Lombard wrote commentaries on the Psalms and the Pauline
epistles; however, his most famous work by far was 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. All the major medieval thinkers,
from Albert the Great and Thomas Aquinas to William of Ockham
and Gabriel Biel, were influenced by it.
• Though the Four Books of Sentences formed the framework upon
which four centuries of scholastic interpretation of Christian dogma
was based, rather than 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, on
virtually the entire field of Christian theology as it was understood at
the time.
• In the Sentences, Lombard shows the influence of Abelard in his
whole method and in countless details, while preserving a critical
attitude toward some of Abelard’s peculiar teachings.
• The Sentences is divided as follows:
1.
2.
3.
4.
The Trinity in Book I
Creation in Book II,
Christ, the Savior of the fallen creation in Book III,
the sacraments, which mediate Christ's grace, in
Book IV.
• In spite of the cautious objectivity of the whole
treatment, some of the Theological propositions
Lombard laid down in the Sentences were
considered erroneous in after years.
• Walter of St. Victor asserts that at the Lateran
council of 1179 it was proposed to condemn the
Sentences but other matters prevented a
discussion of the proposal.
• However the Sentences continue to hold a prominent place
until the sixteenth century. It was more popular than Thomas
Aquinas' writings.
• This popularity brought Peter's work under attack. But the
fourth Lateran council (1215) upheld his orthodoxy. One
complaint against him was that he stressed the divinity of Christ
over his humanity.
• Because of his influence as the author of the Sentences, Peter
Lombard also influenced church doctrine. He wrote that a
sacrament is both a symbol of grace and a means to grace. He
decided that seven church functions fulfilled his conditions-baptism, confirmation, Eucharist (Protestants call it
communion, or the Lord's Supper) Penance (confessing a sin
and receiving a discipline for it), Extreme Unction (anointing
with oil as a symbol of repentance and healing, usually when a
person is at death's door), Holy Orders and Matrimony. The
Council of Trent adopted Peter's position as the official doctrine
of the Roman Catholic Church.
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. According to this doctrine, when the Christian loves God
and his neighbor, this love literally is God; he becomes divine and is
taken up into the life of the Trinity. This idea, in its original form, can
be extrapolated from certain remarks of St. Augustine of Hippo (cf.
De Trinitate xiii.7.11). Although this was never declared
unorthodox, few theologians have been prepared to follow Peter
Lombard in this aspect of his teaching.
• Also in the Sentences was the doctrine that marriage was
consensual and need not be consummated to be considered
perfect. Lombard's interpretation was later endorsed by Pope
Alexander III, and had a significant impact on Church interpretation
of marriage.
• What other aspects of Peter’s Doctrine did you learn in the homily
from Pope Benedict XVI?