SOURCE: Colish, Marcia L. “Peter Lombard.” In The Medieval Theologians, edited by G. R. Evans, pp. 168-83. Oxford, Eng.: Blackwell Publishers, 2001.

In the following excerpt, Colish provides an overview of Lombard's life and works.

Born ca. 1095/1100 in the Novara region, Peter Lombard entered the historical record in the early 1130s when Bernard of Clairvaux met him in Italy and urged him to study theology in France. Peter did so, first at Rheims and, then in 1136, at Paris. Probably an extern student of Hugh of St. Victor, he was in any case thoroughly versed in Victorine theology and in the teachings of other recent and current schools and masters. Peter began his own teaching career in ca. 1142. He became a canon of Notre Dame by 1145, subdeacon in 1148, deacon after 1150, and archdeacon by 1156. He taught until 1159, when he became bishop of Paris, dying in that office July 21/22, 1161.

The Lombard was...