PETER LOMBARD

Theologian; b. Lumellogno (Novara), c. 1095; d. Paris, Aug. 21 (22), 1160. After studies at Bologna, or possibly Vercelli, he went to France, according to St. Bernard [Epist. 410; Patrologia Latina, ed. J. P. Migne (Paris 1878–90), 182:618], about 1134 to visit the schools of Reims and Paris. He then decided, or was persuaded, to remain at Paris, where he finished a commentary on the Psalms before 1138 and a gloss on St. Paul from 1139 to 1141, and began his teaching career in the school of Notre Dame. By 1143 he was known as a "celebrated theologian" (Metamorph. Goliae Episc. 197), and while in minor orders, he became a canon of Notre Dame in 1144 to 1145. Meanwhile, he had begun the composition of his Book of Sentences, which attained final form c. 1157 to 1158. He took part in the Paris consistory of Eugene III, April 21, 1147, and again in the Council of Reims, March 21, 1148, both of which concerned errors attributed to gilbert de la porrÉe. By 1156 he was one of the archdeacons of Paris, and perhaps as such made a journey to Rome, likely with Bishop Theobald in late 1154. He was elected bishop of Paris in 1159 and consecrated about June 29; he died the following year.

Sermons and Exegetical Works. Some 30 sermons at least are acknowledged as Lombard's, many of them published among those of Hildebert of Lavardin [Patrologia Latina 171:339–964]. Most likely, however, the list is far from complete. An English disciple, Heribert of Bosham, later secretary of St. Thomas Becket, related that Peter himself told him he had begun his scriptural commentaries as private works designed to clarify the brevity and obscurity of the glosses of anselm of laon, and only later were they used in the schools. The text of Lombard reveals that he also used the glosses of Gilbert de la Porrée. Recognizing this mutual dependence, the scholastics named Anselm's work the Glossa ordinaria; Gilbert's, the Glossatura media; and Lombard's, the Major (or Magna ) Glossatura [B. Smalley, The Study of the Bible in the Middle Ages (New York 1952) 64].

The commentary or gloss on the Psalter (ibid. ) must have been written immediately after Lombard's arrival at Paris, for there is no influence evident of the anonymous Summa Sententiarum (c. 1137–38). Doctrinal development proves that it antedates the gloss on St. Paul, while extant manuscripts show the author did not apparently subject it to a later revision. In content, like all 12th-century glosses on the Psalms, it offers primarily a moral and spiritual exegesis, to render the Divine Office more intelligible and fruitful. Only occasionally does it touch on theological doctrine.

By contrast, the Collectanea (a title used only since the edition of 1535) on the Epistles of St. Paul (ibid. ) presents many literary and doctrinal problems. Since the Summa Sententiarum is an important source, and since the commentary on Philippians is cited by Gerhoch of Reichersburg in 1142, the Collectanea was very likely composed between 1139 and 1141. Yet this must have been only a primitive redaction, as Heribert of Bosham indicates Lombard constantly revised it while using it in teaching. It is rather evident that Lombard began his course in theology with a commentary on the Apostle, then transferred much material from this and the gloss on the Psalter to a more systematic summa, the Book of Sentences, and continued to rework both the latter and the Pauline gloss. An early redaction of this gloss is found in the MS Vat. Lat. 695, which contains many questions that reappear in the Sentences but are not to be found in the printed text of the gloss. The latter represents rather the final redaction, but fails to distinguish between the body of the text and Lombard's later marginal additions. The gloss was later used as a standard text in the schools. It seems doubtful that Lombard wrote any of the other scriptural works attributed to him [F. Stegmüller, Repertorium biblicum medii aevi, 7 v. (Madrid 1949–61), 6625–36, 6639–53].

Book of Sentences. Partly in reaction to the extreme use of dialectic in theology, partly in keeping with the trend of medieval teaching after Peter abelard, the Sentences presents the whole of Christian doctrine in one brief volume on the basis of Scripture, the Fathers, and the Doctors, with speculation held in firm control. This work is divided into four books and chapters (the grouping of chapters into distinctions was introduced most likely by alexander of hales).

The work is largely a compilation from older and contemporary sources: Augustine, whose thought and spirit is evident throughout; Ambrose (and Ambrosiaster); Hilary; Julian of Toledo (on the Last Things); the older Glossa ordinaria (especially for the first part of book 2); Lombard's own glosses; Hugh of St. Victor; the Summa Sententiarium; and the Decretum of Gratian; as well as the canons of Ivo of Chartres. Yet such was Lombard's genius in organizing this material, in relating it to all the questions and controversies of the day without digressing into the merely curious or engaging in useless polemics, and in presenting a sound, brief, objective summary of doctrine, that the Book of Sentences was quickly recognized both for its contents and for its didactic qualities as the best of its kind. It influenced medieval thought also by its defects and omissions: little or nothing is said of the Church or the role of the Roman pontiff; while certain aspects of the Redemption and of the doctrine of grace in it leave much to be desired.

Long before Alexander of Hales introduced it in Paris (c. 1222) as the manual of his theological course, whence it passed into the curriculum of the university and eventually to other schools, the Liber Sententiarum had gained renown throughout Europe (as the number of early manuscripts attests) and had become the subject of numerous glosses and abbreviations (details in Landgraf, Einführung 96–102; Introducción 167–176). On the other hand, the work did not meet complete acceptance. Within Lombard's lifetime certain doctrines were attacked by Maurice de Sully and robert of melun. In particular, his apparent acceptance of so-called Christological nihilism (Quod Christus secundum quod est homo non sit aliquid ) implicated him in the censures of Alexander III (1170, 1177). At the same time he was unmercifully and stupidly attacked for this and other teachings by Walter

of St. Victor in his violent diatribe Against the Four Labyrinths of France (1177–78). At the end of the century, Lombard's Trinitarian doctrines were opposed by followers of Gilbert de la Porrée as well as by joachim offiore. This last polemic carried over to the Fourth Council of the Lateran (1215), which, instead of condemning the Book of Sentences, anathematized Joachim and in an extraordinary move acknowledged Lombard's orthodoxy (H. Denzinger, Enchiridion symbolorum, ed. A. Schönmetzer [32 ed. Freiburg 1963] 804).

Nonetheless, not every position of Lombard found adherents among the scholastics. The 13th and 14th centuries produced lists of "articles in which the Master of the Sentences is not commonly held by all." The number grew with the years. Despite such mild disagreement, however, the Sentences continued to be used and commented on in all the schools of Western Christendom until well into the 17th century, though it was often replaced by St. Thomas after the work of cajetan (tommaso de vio).

Bibliography: j. de ghellinck, Dictionnaire de théologie catholique, ed. a. vacant et al., 15 v. (Paris 1903–50; Tables générales 1951–) 12.2:1941–2019; Le Mouvement théologique du XII^esiècle (2d ed. Bruges 1948); "La Carrière de Pierre Lombard: Nouvelle précision chronologique," Revue d'historie ecclésiastique 30 (1934) 95–100. d. van den eynde, "Essai chronologique sur l'oeuvre de Pierre Lombard," Miscellanea Lombardiana (Novara 1957) 45–63. a. m. landgraf, Einführung in die Geschichte der theologischen Literatur der Frühscholastik (Regensburg 1948), revised as Introducción a la historia de la literatura teológica de la escolástica incipiente (Barcelona 1956). p. delhaye, Pierre Lombard: Sa vie, ses oeuvres, sa morale (Paris 1961). n. espenberger, Die Philosophie des Petrus Lombardus (Beiträge zur Geschichte der Philosophie und Theologie des Mittelalters 3.5; Münster 1901). j. schneider, Die Lehre vom dreieinigen Gott in der Schule des Petrus Lombardus (Munich 1961). j. schupp, Die Gnadenlehre des Petrus Lombardus (Freiburg 1932). e. f. rogers, Peter Lombard and the Sacramental System (New York 1917). v. doucet, Commentaires sur les Sentences (Quaracchi-Florence 1954).

[i. c. brady]