Introduction
Peter Cellensis, also known as Peter of Celle, Peter of Celles, Pierre de Celle and Peter de la Celle, (b. in Champagne c. 1115; d. at Chartres, 20 February 1183) was a French Benedictine and bishop.
Life
He was born into an aristocratic family and educated in the Priory of Saint-Martin-des-Champs at Paris. He became a Benedictine, and in 1150 was made Abbot of "La Celle" in Saint-André-les-Vergers, near Troyes, where he got his surname, Cellensis.
In 1162 he was appointed Abbot of St. Rémy at Reims, and in 1181 he succeeded John of Salisbury as Bishop of Chartres. He was highly regarded by many other churchmen of his time such as Thomas Becket, Pope Eugene III and Pope Alexander III.
Works
His literary productions were edited by Janvier and reprinted in Patrologia Latina (202:405-1146),. They consist of 177 epistles, 95 sermons, and some treatises. The treatises were titled:
- Epistola ad Joannem Saresberiensem
- De panibus
- Mystica et moralis expositio Mosaici tabernaculi
- De conscientia
- Tractatus de disciplina claustrali
His letters were edited separately and are believed to be valuable from an historical standpoint.
According to the Catholic Encyclopedia (1913), his sermons and treatises "are extremely bombastic and allegorical".
Modern editions
- Peter of Celle, Selected Works: Sermons, the School of the Cloister, On Affliction and Reading, On Conscience, trans Hugh Feiss, CS, (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 1987)