The Sentences

A textbook of theology in four books, completed in Paris in the late 1150s. Peter Lombard gathered the opinions, or sentences, of the Church Fathers, above all Augustine, on each question of Christian doctrine, set conflicting authorities side by side, and proposed resolutions. He organises the whole by Augustine's distinction between things and signs, and between things to be enjoyed and things to be used. Book I treats God and the Trinity. Book II treats creation, angels, the making and fall of human beings, grace, free choice and sin. Book III treats the Incarnation, redemption, the virtues and the commandments. Book IV treats signs, that is the sacraments, which Lombard lists as seven, and ends with the resurrection and the last judgement. From the thirteenth century it was the standard theology text in the universities, and anyone who hoped to become a master of theology had to lecture on it; Aquinas, Bonaventure, Scotus and Ockham all wrote commentaries.

It is the book through which most medieval philosophy and theology was taught, so knowing its order and questions makes the great scholastic commentaries far easier to follow.