PETER DAMIAN
(1007–1072)

Peter Damian, one of the greatest churchmen of the eleventh century, was born in Ravenna. After studying and teaching the liberal arts in several Italian cities, he joined a community of hermits at Fonte Avellana, near Gubbio, in Umbria (c. 1035), and became prior about 1040. He was soon called from the monastic life, however, to become an active leader in the growing movement of ecclesiastical reform. He became cardinal bishop of Ostia in 1057 and was sent on papal missions to Milan (1059), France and Florence (1063), Germany (1069), and Ravenna (1072). He died at Faenza.

Damian's attitude toward the humanistic culture of his time was ambiguous. Although he was a fine Latin stylist in both prose and verse, and a master of argument, he nevertheless belittled both grammar and dialectic. He argued, for example, that the study of grammar had begun badly when the devil taught Adam and Eve to decline deus in the plural (Genesis 3:5, "Ye shall be as gods"). As for dialectic, it could be nothing more than the "handmaid" (ancilla ) of theology, and its usefulness even in that office was strictly limited.

The ascetic tradition of disdain for the world (contemptus saeculi ), stemming from early Christian opposition to the naturalism and hedonism of pagan culture, dominated Damian's life and his pastoral care of others. His hostility to literary and logical studies was rooted in the conviction that the true purpose of human existence is to be found in the contemplation of God. Because he believed that religious communities should be nurseries of contemplatives, he was especially critical of the pursuit of secular studies by monks.

The intellectual conflicts of the age confirmed Damian in his opposition to dialectic. Theologians skilled in elementary Aristotelian logic were applying their analytical methods to major Christian doctrines, with more or less destructive results. While some defenders of orthodoxy responded to this challenge by attempting to formulate a rational apologetic for Catholic dogma, others (including Damian) were convinced that the pretensions of the dialecticians must be countered by unequivocal condemnation.

Peter Damian's most radical critique of human reason appeared in his major theological work, De Divina Omnipotentia. Here he argues not only that Christian dogma, being based on divine revelation, is beyond the range of rational demonstration but also that the norms of human rationality need not apply to the content of dogma. Indeed, his fundamental theological principle excluded any reasonable assurance that human experience as a whole could be orderly and intelligible. For Damian, the entire created order depends simply on the omnipotent will of God, which can even alter the course of past history.

See also Aristotelianism; Asceticism; Hedonism; Logic, History of: Medieval (European) Logic; Naturalism; Reason.

Bibliography

works by peter damian

Opera omnia. In Patrologia Latina, edited by J.-P. Migne. Vols. 144 and 145. Paris: Vivès, 1867.

Selected Writings on the Spiritual Life. Translated by P. McNulty. London: Farber and Farber, 1959.

Book of Gomorrah. Translated by J. P. Payer. Waterloo, ON: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 1982.

Letters. Vols. 1–4, translated by O. J. Blum; Vol. 5, translated by O. J. Blum and I. V. Resnick. Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1989–2004.

works on peter damian

Endres, J. A. Petrus Damiani und die Weltliche Wissenschaft. Munich, 1910.

Gaskin, Richard. "Peter Damian on Divine Power and the Contingency of the Past." British Journal for the History of Philosophy 5 (1997): 229–247.

Holopainen, Toivo J. Dialectic and Theology in the 11th Century. Leiden: Brill, 1996.

Jestice, Phyllis G. "Peter Damian against the Reformers." In The Joy of Learning and the Love of God. Studies in Honor of Jean Leclercq, edited by E. R. Elder, 67–94. Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian, 1995.

Eugene R. Fairweather (1967)

Bibliography updated by Jonathan J. Sanford (2005)