Peter of Vaux-de-Cernay
PETER OF VAUX-DE-CERNAY
French chronicler; b. c. 1194; d. after 1218. He became a cistercian monk at vaux-de-cernay near Paris, where his uncle Guy was abbot. He accompanied Guy on the Fourth Crusade. From 1212 on he was with the royal army in the war against the albigenses, and he became the historian of that war. His account, titled Hystoria Albigensis, begins in 1203 and ends in 1218, shortly before its author's death, undoubtedly. In it Peter was especially interested in extolling the exploits of Simon de Montfort l'Amaury, chief of the expedition, whom he admired. Peter's Hystoria is the work of a fierce adversary of heresy; it is a passionate but well-composed work, full of details that are precise and objective when relating the excesses and weaknesses of the Crusaders.
Bibliography: Hystoria Albigensis, ed. p. guÉbin and e. lyon, 3 v. (Paris 1926–39). Histoire littéraire de la France 17:246–254. u. chevalier, Répertoire des sources historiques du moyen-âge. Biobibliographie (Paris 1905–07) 2:3753. a. borst, Die Katharer (Stuttgart 1953). a. mercati and a. pelzer, Dizionario ecclesiastico (Turin 1954–58) 3:215.
[É. brouette]