November
1095-1160 A.D. Peter
Lombard—Medievalist Scholar, Master of the University of Paris & Archbishop
of Paris
No
author. “Peter Lombard.” Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. N.d. http://www.iep.utm.edu/lombard/. Accessed 30 Oct 2014.
Peter Lombard (1095-1160)
Table of Contents
1. Life
1. Life
Peter
Lombard, a scholastic theologian of the twelfth century, was commonly known as
"the Lombard" after his birthplace which actually was probably
Novara. It is expected that he then moved to Lombardy approximately after his
birth in 1105-1110 CE He died in Paris, France about 1160 (1164). Although his
family was poor, he found powerful patrons such as St. Bernard, that enabled
him to gain a higher education at Bologna, then at Reims in France, and finally
in Paris. In Paris, Peter taught theology in the cathedral school of Notre
Dame, and it was there he found the time to produce the works discussed later
in this article. Their dates can be only approximately fixed. The most famous
of them, the Libri
quatuor sententiarum , was probably composed between 1147 and 1150,
although it may be placed as late as 1155. Nothing is certainly known of his
later life except that be became bishop of Paris in 1159. According to Walter
of St. Victor, a hostile witness, Peter obtained the office by simony; the more
usual story is that Philip, younger brother of Louis VII. and archdeacon of
Paris, was elected but declined in favor of Peter, his teacher. The date of his
death can not be determined with certainty. The ancient epitaph in the church
of St. Marcel at Paris assigns it to 1164, but the figures seem to be a later
addition. The demonstrable fact that Maurice of Sully was bishop before the end
of 1160 seems conclusive against it, although it is possible that in that year
he resigned his see and lived three or four years longer.
2. The Sentences
The
historic importance of Peter Lombard rests on his Sentences and the position
taken by them in medieval philosophy. The earlier dogmatic theologians, such as
Isidore of Seville, Alcuin, and Paschasius Radbert, had attempted to establish
the doctrine of the Church from Bible texts and quotations from the Fathers. In
the eleventh century this method gave place to dialectical and speculative
working over of the traditional dogmas. Peter Lombard came into the field at a
time when the now methods and their dialectical artifices were still exposed to
wide-spread objection, but when the thirst for knowledge was exceedingly keen.
One text-book after another was being published, the majority of them either
issuing from the school of Abelard, or in some degree inspired by him. Of these
works the greatest influence was attained by that of Peter, which was, for the
time, an admirable compendium of theological knowledge. It is written under the
influence preeminently of Abelard, Hugo of St. Victor, and the Decretum of Gratian. Whether
Peter had himself seen the early writers whom he cites is frequently uncertain.
As to his contemporaries, whom he knew thoroughly, he shows the influence of
Abelard in his whole method and in countless details, while preserving a
critical attitude toward his most pronounced peculiarities. On the other hand,
he follows Hugo very closely and often textually, though here also with a
tendency to avoid the purely speculative elements. For his sacramental
doctrine, Gratian is very useful, especially through the quotations adduced by
him and his legal attitude toward these questions.
3. Analysis of the Sentences
The
first book of the Sentences
deals, principally from a cosmological standpoint, with the evidences for the
existence of God. For the doctrine of
the Trinity he appeals to the analogies used since Augustine. However, he
denies that any real knowledge of the doctrine can be obtained from these
analogies without positive revelation and faith, and emphasizing the fact that
human speech cannot give a satisfactory account of the nature of God. Joachim
of Flore asserted that Peter changed the Trinity into a quaternity, and the
charge was investigated at the Lateran Council of 1215. The basis of this
charge was the manner in which he distinguished the divine substance from the
three persons. Lombard asserted, as a realist, the substantive reality of this
common substance. Joachim accused him of adding this substance to the three
persons, but Innocent III. and the council decided that he was perfectly
orthodox. The relation between the prescience of God and events is conceived in
such a way that neither that which happens is the actual ground of the
foreknowledge nor the latter of the former, but each is to the other a causa sine qua non .
Predestination is thus, as a divine election, the preparation of grace and the
foreknowledge and preparation of the blessings of God, through which man is
justified. There is no such thing as merit antecedent to grace, not even in the
sense that man can merit not to be cast away. The omnipotence of God consists
in this, that he does what he wills and suffers nothing. A distinction is made
between the absolute uncaused will of God, which is always accomplished, and
what may be called his will in a loose sense. To thesigna beneplaciti , the signs of the latter,
including commands, prohibitions, counsels, operations, permissions, results do
not always correspond-" for God commanded Abraham to sacrifice his son,
yet did not will it to be done."
The
second book of the Sentences
deals with creation and the doctrine of the angels. Peter, following Hugo,
considers the " image " and " likeness " of God as
distinct, but does not decide for any of the three explanations of this
distinction which he quotes. He rejects the traducianist theory of the origin
of the human soul. He calls the will free, inasmuch as it " has power to
desire and choose, without coercion or necessity, what it has decreed on
grounds of reason," but he denies Abelard's theory that the moral
character of an act depends on the will of the doer. Of some importance is the
strong emphasis laid upon the actually sinful character of the nature derived
from Adam, in conjunction with the condemnation of Abelard's proposition that
" we inherit from Adam not guilt but penalty." In regard to grace he
shows some independent thought, which had its influence on later teaching.
Grace (gratia operans)
is a power (virtus)
which frees and heals the will, enabling it to perform good and meritorious
works. Of grace and the will, grace is the more important. The third book deals
with Christology, reproducing the traditional orthodox conceptions, but showing
some influence from Abelard. One portion of this discussion brought him into
suspicion of Nihilianism. He was accused by John of Cornwall and Walter of St.
Victor, and more than one council took up the question without reaching a
conclusion. The charge of Nestorianisn, which Gerhoh of Reichersberg brought
against the Christology of his time, was made also against the Lombard. In
regard to the atonement, he endeavored both to follow out the accepted system
of his day and to make use of suggestions from Abelard. Christ merited
glorification by his life, and by his death man's entrance into Paradise, his
liberation from sin and its penalty and from the power of the devil. Christ as
man is a perfect and sufficient sacrifice to achieve reconciliation, through
the revelation of God's love made in his death; " the death of Christ then
justifies us, when by it love is awakened in our hearts." Further, Christ
sets man free from eternal punishment relaxando
debitum; but to set man free from the temporal punishment, which is
remitted in baptism and mitigated by penance, " the penances laid upon
those who repent by the Church would not suffice unless the penalty borne by
Christ were added to release us." There is a lack of clearness about this
whole subject; the ideas of Abelard (Anselm is not noticed) show themselves now
and again through all the effort to preserve the objective notion of the work
of redemption.
The
fourth book deals with the sacraments. Here Peter follows Hugo and the Decretum of Gratian; and his
teaching was of great significance for the later development. He was probably
the first to make a distinct classification of seven and only seven sacraments;
he laid down the dogmatic questions to be discussed under the head of each, and
he introduced matter from church law into his discussion of the sacramental
dogma. In regard to the Eucharist, he speaks of the " conversion " of
one substance into the other, without defining any further, and denies both the
symbolic view and the consubstantiation taught by some followers of Berengar.
In his doctrine of penance he follows Abelard in seeking theoretical
justification for the change which by this time had taken place in the
practice.
In
spite of the cautious objectivity of the whole treatment, some of the
propositions 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. From the middle of the thirteenth
century the University of Paris refused its assent to eight propositions, of a
highly technical character, it is true, and Bonaventure declined to press them.
Others were afterward added; but these objections did not interfere with the
general popularity of the work, which had increased to such an extent by Roger
Bacon's time (1267) that he could complain that lectures on it had forced those
on Scriptural subjects into the background. Besides the " Sentences,"
other extant works of Peter Lombard are Commentarius in psalmos Davidicos and
Collectanea in omnes D. Paitli epistolas both collections, in the manner of
medieval Catenae, of quotations from patristic and early medieval theologians,
with occasional independent remarks. A few unpublished manuscripts, some of
them of doubtful authenticity, remain in various places. Of these the most
important for a complete knowledge of the author are two manuscripts, one early
thirteenth century, the other fourteenth, in the Bibliotheque Nationale at
Paris, containing twenty-five festival sermons representing. a moderate type of
medieval mystical theology, dominated by allegorical exegesis, but making some
excellent practical points.
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