Pierre Lombard

Pierre Lombard , born towards 1100 and dead the July 20th 1160 with Paris, was a Théologien Scolastique and a bishop French.

Biography

He was born in Lumellogno, close to Novare, in Italy, in a poor family. Its birth date probably ranges between 1095 and 1100. One knows nothing sure concerning his social origins, or the education which it accepted in its youth. The first thirty years of its life remain white pages for the historians.

Its education extremely probably started in Italy in the schools of the cathedrals of Novara and Lucca. The patronage of Otto, bishop of Lucca and Saint Bernard enabled him to leave Italy and to continue its studies with Rheims and Paris. It arrived at Paris in 1136. There is no well established fact referring so that it made until in 1142 there when one finds it as author and recognized teacher. To Paris, it came into contact with Pierre Abélard and Hugues of Saint-Victor, which were among the principal theologists of this time. Towards 1145, it became “magister”, i.e. professor, at the school of the Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris. How it succeeds in earning its living, before starting to perceive an income as teacher and the emolument of sound canonicat, is a mystery.

The teaching of Lombard brought the recognition quickly to him. One can suppose that its fame is what encouraged the canons of Notre-Dame to require of him to join their chapter. He was considered a theologist celebrates about 1144. The Parisian school of the canons had not counted in its ranks of eminent theologist for several years. The canons of Notre-Dame belonged to the family of Capétiens, or families which were related for them of near by blood or the marriage, with kids of the nobility of Ile-de-France or Eastern Valley of the Loire, or to parents of royal civils servant. On the contrary, Pierre could be pressed on no relative, on any bond with ecclesiastics nor on any political patronage in France. It thus seems that he was accommodated by the Chanoine S of Notre-Dame only for his merits and his knowledge.

One does not know exactly when it was ordered priest. He became Sous-diacre in 1147. He took share, as theological expert, with the Council of Rheims and perhaps with the consistory of Paris the previous year. Some time after 1150 he became deacon, then archdeacon about 1156, or perhaps since 1152. In 1159, it was called with the episcopal see of Paris and was roughly devoted to the date of the festival of saints Pierre and Paul, on July 28th, 1159.

Its reign as bishop was short. He died the 21 or on July 22nd, 1160. One can hardly know his way of managing nor his objectives because it left few episcopal acts well. Its epitaph and tomb were in the Saint-Marcel church in Paris before it was destroyed under the Revolution. The epitaph mentioned its glory as author of the Four Books of Sentences and comments on the Psalms and the epistles of Paul.

Pierre Lombard, was, believes one, the first doctor named by the Université of Paris.

Doctrines

Within the framework of its teaching, it worked out, following an original method based on the Questions/Discussions, a method Scolastique for purposes of the teaching of the Masters of the University, the Livre of the Sentences (1152), where for the first time, in the university education, one made the distinction between the Écriture and the Théologie; this book, this Somme, was used amongst other things as model with Thomas d' Aquin.

Its most known work was Libri quartet sententiarum, the Book of Sentences . It was used as basic theological handbook in the medieval universities, of the years 1220 with. There is no work in the Christian literature, with share the Bible itself, which one commented on also often. All the large medieval thinkers, of Albert the Large one and Thomas d' Aquin with Guillaume d' Ockham and Gabriel Biel, were under its influence. Even the young person Martin Luther still wrote comments on the Sentences .

The Four Books of Sentences are a compilation of biblical texts, joined to the corresponding passages of the Fathers of the Church and much of medieval thinkers, in the whole field of Christian theology. The genius of Pierre Lombard applied to the selection of the passages, which it tried to reconcile when they seemed to defend from the different points of view, and with the arrangement of the matter in a systematic order. Thus the Four Books of Sentences start with the Trinity with Book I, deal then with creation with the Book II , deal with Christ, saver of déchue creation, with the Book III , and speak about the sacraments, which communicate the grace of Christ, to the Book IV .

Its point of doctrines more considered and more discussed in the Sentences was its identification of charity with the Holy Spirit in the Book I , with distinction 17. According to these doctrines, when we love God and our next, this love is literally God; we become divine and are absorbed in the life of the Trinity. This forever declared idea hétérodoxe, but few theologists were laid out to follow Pierre Lombard in this daring teaching. Compare with the encyclical Deus caritas est of the pope Benoît XVI (2006).

In the Sentences also one finds the doctrines according to which the marriage is consensual (and need does not have to be consumed to be regarded as perfect, contrary to the analysis of Gratien). The interpretation of Lombard was later taken again by the pope Alexandre III and had a considerable importance on the comprehension of the marriage by the Church.

Sources

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