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 PETER

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PETER

the age and of the old "Catenae"; (2) "Sermons",


 * which are also found in quite a number of manuscripts;

' they are rather dry, often allegorical, and always very

! methodical in their divisions; several of them are

■ printed among the works of Hildebert du Mans and

others; extracts of others have been published by

' Protois (cf. infra); (3) The "Sentences" ("Quatuor

I libri Sententiarium"). It is this theological work

above all that made the name of Peter Lombard

famous, and gives him a special place in the history

of theology in the Middle Ages. Henceforth he is

called the "Magister Sententiarum", or simply the

"Magister". The work is divided into four books.

In a long series of questions it covers the whole body

of theological doctrine and unites it in a systematized

whole. Towards the thirteenth century, the various

bnuks were divided into distinctiones (an old Latin

weird that first meant a pause in reading, then a divi-

Finn into chapters), though the author had done noth-

iiif; more than to have the questions follow one

another; in the manuscripts, these questions do not

ahvuys bear the same title.

The first book treats of God and the Blessed Trinity, of (iod's attributes, of Providence, of predestination, ami of evil; the second, of the creation, the work of thr .six days, the angels, the demons, the fall, grace, and sin; the third, of the Incarnation, the Redemption, the virtues, and the Ten Commandments; the fourth, of tlie sacraments in general, the seven sacraments in particular, and the four last things, death, judgment, hrll, and heaven. The "Book of Sentences" was written about 1150. In any case it was subsequent til the composition of the "Decretum" of Gratian of I'li'logna, which dates from about 1140 and con- tains pages that bear a striking likeness to the ■ -Sentences". A careful examination of the texts c itid in each author, in the same order, with the same inaccuracies or the same changes, Peter Lom- liard's citation of some "Dicta Gratiani", and his opposition to some of Gratian's opinions (e. g. on tliM question of the essence of marriage) — all these fa'ts prove the priority of the "Decretum" to the "Sentences"; the old view of the canonist Schulte has been abandoned for that of P. Fournier, who has demonstrated Peter's dependence on Gratian. A manuscript of the "Sentences" written in 1158 stiU exists, but there is every reason to believe that the wiirk was finished some eight years earlier.

n the other hand, Gandulph of Bologna, who has 111 I'll credited with having inspired Peter, is later than tlie Lombard; he utilized, transcribed, or sjTiopsized jiaits of the work of the "Magister Sententiarum". 'ihr method and purpose of the book found their ex- ]il ination in the intellectual movement of the times: ai'_!:iiraents from authority laying down the doc- tiine, and dialectics which reasons about dogma orronciliatesthe " Auctoritates " (as Abelard advised), ail' the most striking features in its composition. ^riiis work may be looked upon as the result of the two tinilencies of the period: the one indulging, sometimes till I much, in speculation, the other recurring to au- thority. It must be confessed that Peter Lombard t rii'il to steer a middle course between these opposing tiu.lencies. From Abelard, whose work had hardly lo-t its. fascination in spite of the condemnations of Siiissons and Sens, he borrows freely; but he is on K'lard against Abelard's errors. He has no desire to ' make Christian doctrine a matter for controversy after the manner of the "garruli ratiocinatores" atiainst whom he has to defend himself. But he has no III -itation in exposing in a reasoned way the dif- fi lent points of doctrine: it is but the method fiillowed with still greater success and depth by St. Thomas. He makes full use of the Bible and . the Fathers, but he never goes to the point of refusing reason its due role. It is here that the works of the Srhool of St. Victor are especially serviceable to him: XI.— 49

he borrows considerably from Hugo's "De Sacra- mentis", as well as from the "Summa Sententiarum", which, though not written by Hugo, is very much in- debted to him. In addition to the foregoing, men- tion must be made of Abelard, Gratian, Ivo of Char- tres, and Alger of Liege as the chief sources of the "Liber Sententiarum".

Among the Fathers of the Church Augustine is quoted about ten or fifteen times as often as Ambrose, Jerome, or Hilary ; the Greek Fathers, with the excep- tion of John Damascene, who is quoted about twenty- five times, are scarcely represented; the ante-Nicene writers, except Origen, are mentioned on no more than five or six occasions; nevertheless, one may say that the "Sentences", with Gratian's work, are the chief sources whence many theologians of the Middle Agea drew their knowledge of the Fathers. Peter's work is mainly a compilation. Whole "distinctions" have been traced in detail to their sources; scarcely more than ten lines have been found to be original. He makes no secret of this; his plan was to write a kind of Corpus which would save the trouble of looking up many different volumes. But this fact cannot blind us to the merits of his work; he opposed the excesses of the dialecticians and at the same time found a via media to calm the fears of those who advocated a complete separation of reason and dogma. He ar- ranged traditional doctrines and theories in a system and summarized the controversies of the time and the opinions involved in the different questions. Besides, his attempted solutions of many questions roused the students' curiosity and led the professors to comment on him. On the whole and in spite of his connexion with Abelard, he is orthodox; a proposition of his on " Christological nihilism" was condemned by Alexander III; other theses were abandoned in the century that followed ; St. Bonaventure mentions eight of them and the University of Paris later added others. But the success of the book was incontestable; down to the sixteenth century it was the textbook in the university courses, upon which each future doctor had to lecture during two years.

The want of originahty and the refusal of the "Ma- gister" to decide upon many points between two solu- tions were very favourable to the work of the masters who commented upon him. But the success of Peter Lombard was not immediate. Attacked sometimes during his lifetime, as Maurice of Sully among others relates, after his death he was bitterlj- inveighed against, especially by Gautier of St. Victor and by Joachim of Flora. This opposition even went so far as to try to get his writings condemned. In 1215 at the Lateran Council these attempts were baffled, and the second canon began a profession of faith in these words: "Credimus cum Petro [Lombardo]". The exegetical work and the "Sentences" of Peter Lombard have oftenbeen printed: the commentaries upon theEpistles of St. Paul in 1474, etc.; the " Sentences " were printed in 1472 and for the last time in 1892 (Paris). Migne contains these three works (P. L., CXCI, CXCII). The best edition of the "Sentences" is that which is found in the commentary of St. Bonaventure (Opera S. Bonaventure, Quaracchi, 1885, I-IV).

Hist. litt. de la France, XII; Protoi-s, Pierre Lombard (Paris, 1S80): B.\LTZER, Die Sentenzen des Petrus Lomhardus (Leipzig, 1902) ; EspENBEBoER, Die Philosophie des Peirus Lombardua (Munstcr. 1901); de Ghellinck, The Book of Sentences in Dublin Review (1910) ; Media:val Theology in American Catholic Quarterly Review (190S) ; Revue des Questions historigues (July. 1910) : Revue Nlo-acolastique (1909). J. de GheLLINCK.

Peter-Louis-Marie Chanel, Blessed, b. at Cuet, Diocese of Belley, France, 1802; d. at Futuna, 28 April, 1841. He was ordained priest in 1827, and en- gaged in the parochial ministry for a few years; but the reading of letters of missionaries in far-away lands inflamed his heart with zeal, and he resolved to devote his life to the Apostolate. In 1831 he joined the Soci- ety of Mary, and in 1836 he embarked for Oceania.