tradition in different contexts with the same word; they recognized the changes in
meaning of the same term used in a different situation. Named collections of sentences
are extant from monastic sources as diverse as that of Defensor of Ligugé in the 7th
century to Hélinant de Froidmont at the beginning of the 13th, and sentence collections
are found in large numbers in south German monastic libraries. The apogee of the
sentence collection was reached ca. 1155, when Peter Lombard, master of the schools at
Paris and later bishop of Paris, published his Quattuor libri sententiarum. This work of
largely patristic opinions, with heavy prevalence given to Augustine, is arranged under
headings and questions, with the minimum of linking commentary by Peter himself. The
four books cover God in Trinity, the Creation and Sin, the Incarnation and Virtue, and
Sacraments and the Eschaton. The extracts, chosen with skill, produce a wide range of
question and opinion in the minimum of space. When in the 1220s Peter’s sentences
became the textbook for the theology faculty of the University of Paris, each doctoral
student had to write a commentary on the work as part of his training. No additional
important sentence collections per se were then produced, merely more commentaries on
Lombard.
Lesley J.Smith
[See also: ANSELM OF LAON; PETER LOMBARD; SCHOLASTICISM;
SCHOOLS, MONASTIC; THEOLOGY]
Colish, Marcia L. “Another Look at the School of Laon.” Archives d’histoire doctrinale et littéraire
du moyen âge. 53(1983): 7–22.
Flint, Valerie I.J. “The ‘School of Laon’: A Reconsideration.” Recherches de théologie ancienne et
médiévale 43(1976): 89–110.
Ghellenck, Joseph de. Le mouvement théologique du XIIe siècle. 2nd ed. Bruges: De Tempel, 1948.
Lottin, Odin. Psychologie et morale aux XIIe et XIIIe siècles. 6 vols. Louvain: Abbaye du Mont
César, 1942–60.
SEPTIMANIA
. The Mediterranean coastal region between the Rhône and the Pyrénées, stretching from
Avignon to Perpignan and comprising the modern French departments of the Gard,
Hérault, Aude, and Pyrénées-Orientales, was known as “Septimania” in the early Middle
Ages. The name (first attested in the 5th c.) is derived from the 7th Roman legion, which
was settled in the area of Béziers (Colonia Iulia Septimanorum Baeterrae) in the 1st
century A.D. Septimania, part of the Roman province of Transalpine Gaul (later Gallia
Narbonensis), was thoroughly romanized. In the 4th century, it was separated from the
region east of the Rhône and formed into the province of Narbonensis Prima. The
Visigoths gained control of it in the late 5th century but did not colonize it intensively.
Under Visigothic rule to the mid-8th century, Septimania was not part of Merovingian
Gaul; it was, rather, a barrier to direct Merovingian access to the Mediterranean and was
the object of repeated unsuccessful Frankish efforts to conquer it in the 6th century, by
Childebert I, Theuderic I, and Guntram.
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