Sentences

The ''Sentences'' (. ) is a compendium of Christian theology written by Peter Lombard around 1150. It was the most important religious textbook of the Middle Ages.

Background

The sentence genre emerged from works like Prosper of Aquitaine's ''Sententia'', a collection of maxims by Augustine of Hippo. It was well-established by the time of Isidore of Seville's ''Senteniae'', one of the first systematic treatments of Christian theology. In the ''Sentences'', Peter Lombard collects glosses from the Church Fathers. Glosses were marginalia in religious and legal texts used to correct, explain, or interpret a text. Gradually, these annotations were compiled into separate works. The most notable precedent for Lombard's ''Sentences'' were the '' Glossa Ordinaria'', a 12th-century collection of glosses.

Lombard went a step further by compiling them into one coherent whole. There had been much earlier efforts in this vein, most notably in John of Damascus' ''The Source of Knowledge''. When John of Damascus' work was translated into Latin in 1150, Lombard had access to it.

Lombard was not alone in his project. Many other contemporary theologians were compiling glossaries, such as Robert of Melun's ''Sententiae'' and Hugh of Saint Victor's ''De sacramentis christianae fidei''.Ghellinck S.J., Joseph de. ''Le mouvement théologique du XIIe siècle. Sa préparation lointaine avant et autour de Pierre Lombard. Ses rapports avec les initiatives des canonistes. Études, recherches et documents'', 2d ed. Museum Lessianum, Section historique 10. Bruges: Éditions de Tempel; Brussels: L' Édition universelle; Paris: Desclée de Brouwer, 1948. In 1134, Lombard went to Paris to study with Hugh, who was finishing his work at the time. Their work was the signal development of 12th-century religious scholars: a systematic theology that treated the activity as a coherent practice.Colish, Marcia L. ''Peter Lombard'' (2 vols.). Brill's Studies in Intellectual History, Volume: 41. Leiden: Brill. 1993

Lombard's twin hurdles were devising an order for his material and reconciling differences among sources. Peter Abelard's ' employed a method for reconciling authorities that Lombard knew and used. Abelard had also conceived of his work as a textbook. Lombard's previous work, '' Magna glossatura'', was an enormous success and quickly became a standard reference work. Compiling the ''Magna glossatura'' prepared Lombard for the definitive synthesis of the ''Sentences''.

Composition

The ''Sentences'' were compiled in two phases. By 1154, he had completed an initial version of the text which he read to his students in Paris during the 1156–7 academic year. The following term, he had significantly revised the ''Sentences'', and this became the definitive version. The first major manuscript of the ''Sentences'' was copied by Michael of Ireland in 1158. There are nearly 900 extant manuscripts of Lombard's work, which indicates how widely it was used.

In addition to Lombard's ''Magna glossatura'' and the ''Glossa Ordinaria'', the ''Sentences'' relied heavily on the works of Augustine, citing him over 1,000 times. Julian of Toledo's eschatology was heavily reflected in Lombard's work. The ''Sentences'' were also a remarkable snapshot of current thought.Ghellinck S.J., Joseph de. “Pierre Lombard,”
Dictionnaire de théologie catholique
' XII/2. 1931. Editorial choices like including a table of contents made Peter's book a much more helpful reference than other glossaries.

Contents

Lombard arranged his material from the Bible and the Church Fathers in four books, then subdivided this material further into chapters. Probably between 1223 and 1227, Alexander of Hales grouped the many chapters of the four books into a smaller number of "distinctions". In this form, the book was widely adopted as a theological textbook in the high and late Middle Ages (the 13th, 14th, and 15th centuries). A commentary on the ''Sentences'' was required of every master of theology, and was part of the examination system. At the end of lectures on Lombard's work, a student could apply for bachelor status within the theology faculty.

Legacy

In 1170, Pope Alexander III instructed William of Champagne to "convoke your suffragans at Paris" and renounce the "vicious doctrine" (''pravae doctrinae'') of Peter Lombard.
Enchiridion symbolorum definitionum et declarationum de rebus fidei et morum
'. Ed. Heinrich Denzinger and Adolf Schönmetzer, S.J., 34th ed. Barcelona: Herder, 1967. no. 749–50. p. 239. The Pope was accusing Lombard of espousing Christological Nihilianism: the idea that Christ's human nature was nothing and his sole identity was divine. The concerns centered on Book III of the ''Sentences'' where Peter Lombard discusses the hypostatic union from a variety of angles. The debate lingered long enough that the Pope reiterated his concerns in a second letter to William seven years later. The Pope's position was not universally supported among the Cardinals who felt the Church faced more pressing issues.

After the Fourth Council of the Lateran in 1215, the ''Sentences'' became the standard textbook of theology at medieval universities.Rosemann, Philipp W. ''Peter Lombard''. Great Medieval Thinkers. Edited by Brian Davies. Oxford University Press, 2004. Stephen Langton's commentary on the ''Sentences'' helped establish the form. Until the 16th century, no work of Christian literature, except for the Bible itself, was commented upon more frequently. All the major medieval thinkers in western Europe relied on it, including Albert the Great, Alexander of Hales, Thomas Aquinas, Bonaventure, Marsilius of Inghen, William of Ockham, Petrus Aureolus, Robert Holcot, Duns Scotus, and Gabriel Biel.

Aquinas' '' Summa Theologiae'' would not eclipse the ''Sentences'' in importance until around the 16th century. Even the young Martin Luther still wrote glosses on the ''Sentences'', and John Calvin quoted from it over 100 times in his ''Institutes''.

David Luscombe called the ''Sentences'' "the least read of the world's great books". In 1947, Friedrich Stegmüller compiled a 2-volume bibliography of commentaries on the ''Sentences''. By 2001, the tally of Lombard commentators ran to 1,600 authors.Livesey, Steven J. "Lombardus Electronicus: A Biographical Database of Medieval Commentators on Peter Lombard’s Sentences". in ''Mediaeval Commentaries on the Sentences of Peter Lombard, Volume 1''. Editor G.R. Evans. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2002. 5.

Editions

*Lombardus, Petrus. ''Sententiae'' in ''Patrologia latina, vol. 192''. Jacques Paul Migne, ed. Paris: Ateliers Catholiques, 1855.

Modern English Translation
*Lombard, Peter. ''The Sentences,'' Books 1–4. Translator, Giulio Silano. Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 2007–2010.
::Book 1: The Mystery of the Trinity
::Book 2: On Creation
::Book 3: On the Incarnation of the Word
::Book 4: On the Doctrine of Signs

See also

* Minuscule 714: A manuscript of the New Testament which includes a fragment of .

References

Further reading

*Elizabeth Frances Rogers, ''Peter Lombard and the Sacramental System'' (Merrick, NY: Richwood Pub. Co., 1976).
*Philipp W. Rosemann, ''The Story of a Great Medieval Book: Peter Lombard's "Sentences"'' (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2007).

External links

''The Sentences'' Online:
*
Manuscript 900
Bibliothèque Municipale Troyes.
::Primary manuscript of the ''Sentences'' by Michael of Ireland in 1158.
*
Les Sentences
'. ''Magister Sententiarum'', Groupe de Recherche Pierre Lombard.
*
Sententiae
', Patrologia Latina Database.
*
''Textus Sententiarum''
'' Patrologia Latina'', 192, col. 519-964.
*
Sententiarum
'. ''Patrologia Latina'', 192.
::Complete scan of Volume 192 at Google Books.
*
''Textus Sententiarum: cum conclusionibus magistri Henrici Gorichem''
1502. Bavarian State Library.
::Digital scan of manuscript: "The Text of the Sentences: With the conclusions of the master Henry Gorich, and the concordances of the Bible and the Canons: as well as useful summaries at the beginning of the particular distinctions: carefully laid down for the first time..."
*
''Libri Quattuor Sententiarum''
Bibliotheca Augustana.
::Transcription of the complete Latin text by Professor Ulrich Harsch at Fachhochschule Augsburg.
"Peter Lombard"
The Franciscan Archive.

Commentaries on ''The Sentences'':
* St. Thomas Aquinas
''Scriptum super Sententiis''
Corpus Thomisticum, 2013.
* Bonaventure
Introduction to and text of Bonaventura's Commentaries on Peter Lombard's Sentences
Edward Buckner, The Logic Museum. 2006.
*Livesey, Steven J.
Commbase: A Database of medieval commentators on Aristotle and Peter Lombard's Sentences
.

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1150s books
12th-century books in Latin
12th-century Christian texts
Medieval literature
Scholasticism
Christian theology books