PETER COMESTOR. — Theologian, so called perhaps from the ardour with which he read books, born probably at Troyes (Champagne) in the first half of the 12th century, died at Paris in 1179. Dean of the Chapter of Troyes from 1147, in 1164 he became chancellor of Paris and until 1169 taught theology; in his last years he became a canon regular at S. Victor, where he was buried with the well-known epitaph which he himself composed: «Petrus eram quem petra tegit dictusque Comestor — nunc comedor. Vivus docui, nec cesso docere».
His Historia scholastica (PL 198, 1053-1722) is famous; it was written between 1169 and 1173: the first attempt at a sacred history, which runs from the earthly Paradise to the prison of St Paul at Rome, compiled from the texts of Scripture and the Fathers with synchronistic references to the profane history of the greatest peoples (Persians, Greeks, Romans); despite its gaps and defects, it was for its time an original work, universally received as a classical text, and P., also known as Magister historiarum, was mentioned by Dante (Paradiso, XII, 134) beside Hugh of S. Victor and Peter of Spain. Notable are the Sententiae de Sacramentis (ed. by R. Martin, in Spicilegium Sacrum Lovaniense, fasc. XVII, Louvain 1937, in appendix, with valuable prologues) written between 1165 and 1170, in which the subject is treated along the lines of Peter Lombard but with evident advances (more ample documentation, more elaborate terminology, especially with regard to the Eucharist), although it does not treat of Order and Matrimony. He is also the author of many Sermons, some of which (published among those of Hildebert of Lavardin: PL 171, 339-364) show the didactic tone of the theologian, while others, still unpublished, composed in the quiet of S. Victor, are simpler and more suited to the needs of the audience. His commentaries