Peter Lombard was natural around Lumellogno, touching Novara, Italy, to a unfortunate personal. He must own begun his education inside Italy, virtually all in all likelihood at a cathedral schools of Novara & Lucca. A patronage of Otto, bishop of Lucca, & of St. Bernard allowed him to leave Italy and further his studies at Reims and Paris. Inside Paris, he inherit call for by having Peter Abelard and Hugh of St. Victor, who were among the leading theologians of the time. In the arethe of 1145, Peter became a "magister," or even prof, at a cathedral school of Notre Dame in Paris.

Inside 1159, he was named bishop of Paris.

Peter Lombard's best known act was "Libri quatuor sententiarum, the "Book of Sentences." This served as the standard textbook of theology at the medieval universities, from the 1220s until the 16th century. There is no work of Christian literature, except for the Bible itself, that has been commented upon more frequently. All the major medieval thinkers, from Albert the Great and Thomas Aquinas to William of Ockham and Gabriel Biel, were influenced by it. Even the young Martin Luther still wrote glosses on the "Sentences."

The "Book of Sentences" is a compilation of biblical texts, together with relevant passages from the Church Fathers and many medieval thinkers, on the entire field of Christian theology. Peter Lombard's genius consisted in the selection of passages, his attempt to reconcile them where they appeared to defend different viewpoints, and his arrangement of the material in a systematic order. Thus, the "Book of Sentences" starts with the Trinity in Book I, then moves on to creation in Book II, treats Christ, the savior of the fallen creation, in Book III, and deals with the sacraments, which mediate Christ's grace, in Book IV.

Peter Lombard's most famous and most controversial doctrine in the "Sentences" was his identification of charity with the Holy Spirit in Book I, distinction 17. According to this doctrine, when we love God and neighbor, this love literally is God; we become divine and are taken up into the life of the Trinity. This idea was never declared unorthodox, but few theologians have been prepared to follow Peter Lombard in his audacious teaching.

Literature: Philipp W. Rosemann, "Peter Lombard" (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004).

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