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Peter of Cluny Peter of Cluny Petrus Venerabilis, Peter the Venerable Date of Birth 1092 or 1094 Place of Birth Montboissier, Auvergne Date of Death 25 December 1156 Place of Death Cluny, Burgundy Biography Peter of Cluny, known as Peter the Venerable since the end of the 12th century, was the ninth abbot of Cluny (1122-56). Born into a Mont- boissier family of the middle aristocracy of Auvergne, Peter became an oblate at the Cluniac monastery of Sauxillanges in the Auvergne, then followed a typical cursus honorum within the Cluniac church: choir monk at Cluny, schoolmaster at Vézelay, and prior at Domènes. In 1122, he was elected abbot of Cluny after the abdication of Pons de Melgueil, which initiated a crisis. Peter strove to restore order in the mother abbey and in its network of dependencies, and to defend the Cluniac model against attacks from new monastic models (notably the Cistercians). Peter never promoted or preached crusade, as did his contem- porary Bernard of Clairvaux, though in various letters he praises the Templars for their relentless war against the Saracens and offers prayers for the success of Louis VII of France and Roger II of Sicily in their wars against Muslims. Peter is the author of numerous letters and treatises, including a triptych of texts meant to defend the church against its enemies: heretics (Peter of Bruys and his disciples), Jews and Saracens. In 1142-43, Peter travelled to Spain and decided to commission the first full Latin translation of the Qur’an, by Robert of Ketton (q.v.), along with translations of a number of other works related to Muḥammad and Islam. He hoped in this way to provide Christendom with an instrument to be used in the fight against the ‘Saracen her- esy’, in the form of an armarium, a ‘bookshelf’ or ‘arsenal’ that would permit him to wage war in the field of ideas. peter of cluny 605 With this collection, Peter hoped to furnish the intellectual arms necessary to attack Islam at its base. His correspondence with abbot Bernard of Clairvaux shows that he hoped Bernard would take up his pen against Islam. Bernard declined to do so, and it was finally Peter himself who composed a pair of polemical works against Islam, based on the contents of his armarium. MAIN SOURCES OF INFORMATION Primary G. Constable, The letters of Peter the Venerable, 2 vols, Cambridge MA, 1967 Secondary C. Auffarth, ‘Heilsame Gewalt? Darstellung, Begründung und Kritik der Gewalt in den Kreuzzügen’, in M. Braun and C. Herberichs (eds), Gewalt im Mittelalter. Realität – Imaginationen, Munich, 2005, 251-72 J.J. Sanford, ‘Peter the Venerable’, in J.B. Gracia and T.B. Noone (eds), A companion to philosophy in the Middle Ages, Oxford, 2003, 532-33 J. Martínez Gázquez and O. de la Cruz, ‘Las traducciones impulsadas por Pedro el Venerable’, in M.D. Burdeus, E. Real and J.M. Verdegal (eds), Las órdenes militares. Realidad e imaginario, Castellón de la Plana, 2000, 285-96 J.-P. Torrell and D. Bouthillier, Pierre le Vénérable, abbé de Cluny. Le cour- age et la mesure, Chambray-lès-Tours, 1988 J.-P. Torrell and D. Bouthillier, Pierre le Vénérable et sa vision du monde. Sa vie, son oeuvre: l’homme et le démon, Leuven, 1986 Pierre Abélard, Pierre le Vénérable. Les courants philosophiques, littéraires et artistiques en Occident au milieu du XIIe siècle. Actes et mémoires du colloque international, Abbaye de Cluny, 2 au 9 Juillet 1972, Paris, 1975 J. Kritzeck, Peter the Venerable and Islam, Princeton NJ, 1964 J. Kritzeck and G. Constable (eds), Petrus Venerabilis, 1156-1956. Studies and texts commemorating the eighth centenary of his death, Rome, 1956.
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