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. Peter was a man of wide
reading, but the works of the Fathers had been used again and again in
long catent of "sentences " which rendered it unnecessary to go to the
original treatises. 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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