Peter de Palude

(ca. 1275–1342)

Peter de Palude (Latin Peter Paludanus, French Pierre de la Palu) was born in the county of Bresse in Savoy around 1275. He entered the Dominican order in Lyon but studied in Paris. In 1314, he received a master's degree in holy theology. He attended the order's general chapter on behalf of the French brothers twice. In 1318, Pope John XXII appointed him his legate on a mission to secure peace between the Duke of Flanders and the French king. Unfortunately, his mission was not successful. He was also a member of the commission appointed by the same pope to investigate errors in the writings of Petrus Olivi. In 1329, the Pope summoned him to Avignon and appointed him Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem. In Egypt, he unsuccessfully negotiated with the Sultan for the liberation of Palestine. His frightening accounts of the situation in the area led to the organization of a crusade against the sultan, but it did not happen due to reluctance and disagreement on the part of the Christian princes. On July 17, 1336, he became bishop of the diocese of Couserans. He died at the end of the 1460s in Paris and was buried in the Church of St. James there.

Throughout his life, Peter de Palude devoted himself to scientific work and writing. He left behind his comments on Peter Lombard's Sentences. He is also the author of commentaries on all the books of Scripture, as well as a concordance to the Summa Theologicae of St. Thomas Aquinas. No wonder, then, that in the ceramic decoration of the Lima convent's cloister garth of Santo Domingo he is depicted like other Jerusalem patriarchs - with a book.

Bibliography:

Sikes J. G., Jean de Pouilli and Peter de la Palu, „English Historical Review”, 49 (1934), pp. 219–40.
Hödl L., Dignität und Qualität der päpstlichen Lehrentscheidung in der Auseinandersetzung zwischen Petrus de Palude († 1342) und Johannes de Polliaco († p. 1321) über das Pastoralstatut der Mendikantenorden, [in:] Bonaventura. Studien zu seiner Wirkungsgeschichte, Werl 1976 (Franziskanische Forschungen, 28), pp. 136–145.
Dunbabin J., A Hound of God. Pierre de la Palud and the Fourteenth-Century Church, Oxford 1991.