Peter Lombard 569Frankish bishops. Threatened by the LOMBARDS, Pope
Stephen II (752–757) appealed to Pépin. The pope trav-
eled to Gaul to meet the new king in January of 754. He
obtained a promise from Pépin to intervene in Italy and
consecrated and anointed Pépin and his sons as the rul-
ing family, addressing them as “patricians of the
Romans.” The Franks were in theory to choose their
king solely from Pépin’s descendants from then on.
Pépin then led two successful expeditions to ITA LY,in
754 and 756. He restored to the pope the lands confis-
cated by the Lombards, or the Patrimony of Saint Peter,
the basis for the PAPALSTATES. His prestige as the first
Carolingian king grew, and he managed to subject
AQUITAINE, to defeat the Frisians and the Saxons, and to
expel the ARABSfrom western Provence. He reorganized
his court and government by entrusting administrative
posts to educated clerics and monks. He resumed a
monopoly on coining money and struck a silver penny.
He had a new basilica built at SAINT-DENIS, where he
died on September 24, 768.
Further reading:J. M. Wallace-Hadrill, The Long-
Haired Kings and Other Studies in Frankish History(Lon-
don: Methuen, 1962); Rosamund McKitterick, The
Frankish Kingdoms under the Carolingians, 751–987(Lon-
don: Longman, 1983); Ian Wood, The Merovingian King-
doms, 450–751(New York: Longman, 1994).
Perceval(Parsifal) literary character, hero of several
Arthurian romances
CHRÉTIEN DETROYESfirst wrote Perceval’s history in his
Conte du Graalfrom about 1182, but perhaps as late as
- Supposedly from a rustic background, he was
raised apart from knightly life but did have knightly
training and then went to the court of ARTHURwhere he
has several outrageous experiences. There he learned
that CHIVALRYdid not just consist in bearing arms, but
in committing one’s strength and courage to a mission
conducted under a precise code, such as the search for
the GRAIL. He learned to love from afar. He became
aware of his election for a task and need to take respon-
sibility for and purify his past. When he failed on his
first visit to the Grail castle, the cause was a SINcommit-
ted earlier. He was obliged to evaluate this act and its
consequences and free himself by a penance. His faults
or those of others and his possible redemption con-
fronted each other inside him. In WOLFRAM VON
ESCHENBACH’s Parzival(ca. 1210), the stain was a sin of
the flesh. This fault and its redemption remained
aspects of Perceval’s later existence as a hero in litera-
ture, but eventually as the genre reduced to Galahad’s,
his son, companion on the quest for the Holy Grail.
Further reading:D. H. Green, The Art of Recognition
in Wolfram’sParzival (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1982); Arthur Groos and Norris J. Lacy, eds., Perce-
val-Parzival: A Casebook(New York: Routledge, 2002);
Will Hasty, ed., A Companion to Wolfram’s Parzival
(Columbia, S.C.: Camden House, 1999).person The medieval philosophical notion of a person
had its roots in the definition of BOETHIUS, who
explained it as an individual substance with a rational
nature. In THEOLOGYit was applied to GODas a Trinity of
persons with Christ as a divine person. Medieval
thinkers insisted on individuation or singularity, a fun-
damental concept that was used in theological and philo-
sophical speculation on God, TRINITARIANdoctrine, the
SOUL, substance, NATURE, the nature of humans, ethics,
and many other topics.
See alsoAQUINAS,THOMAS,SAINT;IBNRUSHD;PHILOS-
OPHY AND THEOLOGY.
Further reading:Étienne Gilson, History of Christian
Philosophy in the Middle Ages(New York: Random House,
1955); Norman Kretzmann, Anthony Kenny, Jan Pinborg,
and Eleonore Stump, eds., The Cambridge History of Later
Medieval Philosophy: From the Rediscovery of Aristotle to
the Disintegration of Scholasticism, 1100–1600 (Cam-
bridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982); Quentin
Skinner and Eckhard Kessler, eds., The Cambridge History
of Renaissance Philosophy(Cambridge: Cambridge Uni-
versity Press, 1989).Pest SeeBUDA ANDPEST.Peter I (d. 969)king of the Bulgarians
Peter I was the son of SIMONI, whom he succeeded in- Soon after that, he led a raid near CONSTANTINOPLE
to demonstrate his power and then negotiated a favorable
treaty with the BYZANTINEEMPIREthat lasted until 965.
He married a Byzantine princess. His kingdom was pros-
perous despite Magyar raids and internal unrest, often
linked to his own family. Constantinople even recognized
his title as a czar, though inferior to the emperor. When
the Byzantine emperor refused to pay tribute in 965, war
began. The Russians of KIEVattacked BULGARIAas an ally
of the Byzantines. Peter grew sick and in 967 had to abdi-
cate and retire to a monastery, where he died in 969.
Further reading: John V. A. Fine Jr., The Early
Medieval Balkans: A Critical Survey from the Sixth to the
Late Twelfth Century(Ann Arbor: University of Michigan
Press, 1991).
Peter Damien SeeDAMIAN, PETER.Peter Lombard(ca. 1095–1160)bishop of Paris, theolo-
gian, biblical exegete
Peter Lombard was born near Novara in northern ITALY
about 1095. Trained first in the law schools of northern
Italy, he then attended the CATHEDRALschool at RHEIMS.