ROBERTO PULLEYN (Roberts Pullus). — Theologian and cardinal, born in England in the second half of the 11th century, died in Rome between September and December 1146. Archdeacon of Rochester, master of theology at Oxford (1133), then at Paris (c. 1140; cf. St. Bernard, Ep., 205; PL 182, 372). Around 1144 he was created cardinal and chancellor of the Roman Church.
Attributed to him are: Sermons, Commentaries on the Apocalypse and on the Psalms, On Contempt for the World, but his theological fame rests on the Sententiarum libri VIII (PL 186, 639-1010), written before 1142, in which he treats the entire dogma. Inferior in order and patristic erudition to Abelard and Peter Lombard, Pulley’s work excels in certain dialectical vigour, in its respect for the Magisterium of the Church, and in some personal stances, for example, on the proofs of the existence and essence of God, on the nature of original sin—which, contrary to common opinion at the time, he holds does not consist in concupiscence—and on the relations between religious and civil power.