PIETRO di BLOIS (Petrus Blesensis). — Theologian and humanist, born at Blois ca. 1135, died after 1204. He studied letters at Chartres and Tours, philosophy at Paris, and law at Bologna.
Returning to Paris, he attended theological lectures. In 1167 he succeeded his friend Gualtiero, appointed archbishop of Palermo, as tutor to Guglielmo II of Sicily; but two years later, after refusing the archbishoprics of Naples and Rossano, he left the Sicilian court to become secretary to Enrico II, king of England, and subsequently to his widow Eleonora of Guyenne (1191-95). Ordained a priest ca. 1190, he was appointed archdeacon of Bath, then of London, and chancellor to Riccardo, archbishop of Cantorbery, who sent him three times to Rome (1175, 1178, 1187) to conduct important affairs. Finally, he obtained the deanery of Chester, but he relinquished it because of the canons’ less-than-exemplary conduct and ended his troubled life in poverty.
His writings (PL 207) include: Epistolae (cols. 1-560); there are 183, addressed to the great personages of the age and rich in historical information and moral counsels; Sermones (cols. 559-776); there are 65 on the proprium de tempore and on the feasts of the Madonna and the saints; Tractatus of various kinds, of which the principal are: De transfiguratione Domini (cols. 777-92); noteworthy remarks on the qualities of glorified bodies; De conversione s. Pauli (cols. 791-96); Compendium in Job (cols. 795-826); exhortations to patience and an in-
vective against wealthy prelates; Contra perfidiam Judaeorum (cols. 825-70): the argument from prophecy is skillfully employed, and it is among the finest apologetic essays of the twelfth century; De amicitia christiana (cols. 875-95), together with De caritate (cols. 895-958), forms a diptych on Christian love, inspired by the analogous work of Aelredo di Riessaux; De confessione sacramentale (cols. 1077-92), completed by De paenitentia a sacerdote iniungenda (cols. 1091-98); Invectiva in depravationem operum Petri Blessensis (cols. 1113-26): in responding to various attacks, he lists his works and addresses the question of Grace and free will.
Inferior to his teacher Giovanni di Salisbury, P. di B. is nevertheless one of the most distinguished names in twelfth-century Latin literature, and the brilliance of his style stands in marked contrast to the negligence of form common to nearly all scholasticism.