[See also: BIBLE, CHRISTIAN INTERPRETATION OF; HUGH OF SAINT-
VICTOR; PETER COMESTOR; PETER LOMBARD; PETER THE CHANTER;
SCHOLASTICISM; THEOLOGY; WALTER OF SAINT-VICTOR]
Moore, Philip S. The Works of Peter of Poitiers, Master in Theology and Chancellor of Paris
(1193–1205). Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press. 1936.
——, and James Corbett, eds. Petri Pictaviensis Allegoriae super tabernaculum Moysis. Notre
Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1938.
——, and Mathe Dulong, eds. Petri Pictaviensis Sententiarum libri quinque. Notre Dame:
University of Notre Dame Press, 1943, Vol. 1.
——, Joseph N. Garvin, and Marthe Dulong, eds. Petri Pictaviensis Sententiarum libri quinque. 2
vols. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1950.
PETER OF POITIERS
(of Saint-Victor; d. after 1216). Not to be confused with Peter of Poitiers, chancellor of
the cathedral of Notre-Dame in Paris, or Peter of Poitiers, secretary to Peter the
Venerable, this Peter was a regular canon of the abbey of Saint-Victor at Paris charged
with the responsibility of hearing confessions, especially of students in the schools.
Essentially nothing is known of his life. About 1215, he wrote a summa confessorum, or
handbook for confessors, entitled Compilatio praesens, to guide priests in administering
the sacrament of penance. Peter of Poitiers frequently used the works of Peter the Chanter
and cited his Summa de sacramentis, thus making Peter of Poitiers one of the masters and
ecclesiastics who may be counted in the “circle of Peter the Chanter.” Peter’s Compilatio
praesens was part of the literature of handbooks for confessors that became necessary
after the Fourth Lateran Council decreed, in canon 21, that every person should commune
once per year and should confess to a priest before communing. An introduction,
conclusion, and other additions to the text were provided by James of Saint-Victor
several years after Peter completed his work.
Grover A.Zinn
Peter of Poitiers. Summa de confessione: “Compilatio praesens,” ed. Jean Longère. CCCM, 51.
Turnhout: Brepols, 1980.
Baldwin, John W. Masters, Princes, and Merchants: The Social Views of Peter the Chanter and
His Circle. 2 vols. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1970, esp. pp. 33–34.
Longère, Jean. “La fonction pastorale de Saint-Victor à la fin du XIIe et au début du XIIIe siècle.”
In L’abbaye parisienne de Saint-Victor au moyen âge, ed. Jean Longère. Turnhout: Brepols,
1991, pp. 291–313.
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