Peter Cellensis

Peter Cellensis (Eng. Peter of Celle, for Pierre de la Celle, . * 1115, † February 20, 1183 in Chartres ) was a French abbot and bishop and spiritual writer.

Vita

Peter of Celle was born around the year 1115 around in Champagne - as a scion of the house Aulnoy les Minimes in Provins. There was a distant relationship to the French royal house. Even as a young man, he trod a monastic career. One 's own remark after he first sought following the Cluniac of St- Martin-des -Champs in Paris. There he met John of Salisbury, who later became Bishop of Chartres, to know with which it on the Montagne Sainte -Geneviève established a lifelong friendship after a joint study visit.

After several years of study, Peter was persuaded by representatives of the Gregorian reform; he renounced the worldly school operating in Paris and became a Benedictine monk, " Oh Paris, how much you are calculated to grab the souls and to disappoint. In you there are networks of vice and pitfalls of evil; in thee by the arrow pierced the hell the heart of the fool ... " he wrote in one of his letters horrified. During this time, Peter of Celle befriended probably also with a student and later opponent of Abelard, Goswin of Anchin.

After studying in Paris Peter entered the Benedictine monastery of Montier -la- Celle, which was a few kilometers southwest of Troyes in Champagne. Him he owed ​​his future nickname Cellensis or de Cella. In this Convention, he may have had already spent his childhood. 1145 was Peter abbot of this monastery. During this Abbaziats he associated with numerous figures of his time. Among other things, he became friends with Bernard of Clairvaux, the Cistercian Order wrested him much admiration. Both conventions had repeated business and leisure guests also each other in the sequence. For Bishop Theobald of Paris, which he had probably met in person in whose time as Prior of St- Martin-des -Champs, he wrote some sermons order.

In 1148 John of Salisbury visited his friend in Montier -la- Celle and remained there for quite a while after he had abandoned his liberal role as a teacher of Arts in Paris and was ordained a priest in 1147. Peter sat down with the mediation of Bernard of Clairvaux for Johann at Theobald, Archbishop of Canterbury, one, who immediately took into his service this. Peters letters from this period convey a vivid picture of his diverse activities and contacts: With John of Salisbury, Thomas Becket, Archbishop Eskil of Lund, and the popes Eugene III. and Alexander III. he was in constant correspondence.

At Peter's close associates was one of Bishop Henry of Beauvais. Also this acquaintance went back to Peters studying in Paris. Henry was the natural son of King Louis VI. and Queen Adelaide of Savoy; he had already been prepared from childhood to a high church career. His rise in the church hierarchy began Heinrich as a canon of the cathedral chapter of Notre -Dame, where he served until 1136 as a sub-deacon. To 1145 he was archdeacon at the cathedral Sainte -Croix d'Orléans, then Titularabt all royal own monasteries, of which seven in number. There was a brief interlude as a Cistercian monk under Bernard of Clairvaux, where he first made ​​the acquaintance of Pope Eugene III. made. In 1147 - according to some sources until 1149 - elected him to the clergy of Beauvais to the local bishop. This episcopate was overshadowed by serious quarrels with the people and Chapter of Beauvais, which now rival brother on the throne. Peter of Celle was at this time his friend Heinrich advice.

In 1162 Henry was elected surprisingly the new archbishop of Reims. In the same year he took Peter of Celle to his side and gave him the most prestigious Abbaziat the city. Peter became abbot of the venerable monastery of Saint- Remi in Reims, was once christened in which the first Merovingian king Clovis I and anointed with the oil of the legendary Sainte- Ampoule. Peter of Celle as abbot led the Convention on nineteen years - until the year 1181 in his capacity as vicar, he was the Metropolitan of Reims during his absence..

Even in this time sought his friend, John of Salisbury Abt yet. Here in Reims, he is said to have written his Historia Pontificalis, before he was elected at the instigation Archbishop William of Sens and King Louis VII in 1176 to the bishopric of Chartres.

Under the aegis of Peter of Celle falls the architectural redesign and enlargement of Remigius of Reims Monastery. To make room for the many pilgrims, the old Romanesque portal structure was demolished and replaced by a new Gothic style. Here we extended the ship by two Gewölbejoche. The stylistic specificity of a windowless triforium featuring this exemplary construction. Also, a new, deeper choir with ambulatory and five Rayonnant Chapels now replaced the old Chorbau - built in the style of Champagne. If one disregards the serious damage that brought the Second World War with itself, Saint- Remi presents itself today in the same architectural form as it has once configured Peter of Celle.

In 1182 the life of the aged abbot took again a surprising turn: Already marked by severe and years of illness - he was suffering from kidney stones and gout - followed Peter of Celle his deceased in October 1180 Friend John of Salisbury in the episcopate of Chartres after. Pope Lucius III. expressed the appropriate appointment. This choice surprised; because Peter of Celle in 1178 was still left empty-handed at the Cardinal choice: He had to illness can not participate in the Third Lateran Council.

After his election as Bishop of Chartres Peter is supposed to be gone even with Elan to work: He let Chartres provided its own box with a city wall, which earned him the gratitude of the local citizens. But a long tenure as Primate of the Cathedral of Chartres was not granted him. On 19 or 20 February 1183 ( 1182 after the Easter rhythm ) of the former abbot died as a result of a short occurring disease. The citizens of Chartres said to have kissed the out body at the funeral - so popular, the bishop was. In the Abbey of Jehoshaphat Peter of Celle was buried at the side of John of Salisbury.

Works and editions

In addition to numerous letters, whose German new edition is in preparation, Peter of Celle has also left a number of sermons, as well as some minor and four major treatises.

• The literary oeuvre of the abbot was first issued in 1671 Janvier Cathedral in Paris.

• A collection of 169 letters had already been previously published in 1613 by J. Sirmond. In 1728 then there was a new edition of this edition.

• Mignes Patrologia Latina, Volume 202, columns 405-1146, issue Janvier are again supplemented by further, Peter of Celle letter in question. This collection includes 177 letters, 95 sermons, as well as some minor and four major treatises: De panibus ad Joannem Sarisberiensem, Mosaici tabernaculi mysticae et moralis expositionis libri duo, De conscientia and the late work De disciplina claustrali ad Henricum I Campaniae comitem.

• In 1850 Messiter issued a large collection of letters from the manuscripts of St. John 's College, Oxford.

• In 1948, finally, added J. Leclercq seven other newly discovered letters of the abbot added - including a correspondence with Abbot Goswin of Anchin, a declared opponent Abelard.

• In 2001, J. Haseldine all letters published Peter of Celle in a critical Latin- English edition.