Peter of Celle
PETER OF CELLE
Cluniac, abbot, bishop, Latin stylist, and spiritual writer; b. Champagne, c. 1115; d. Chartres, Feb. 20, 1183. Peter was abbot of Montier–la–Celle, near Troyes, from 1145 or 1150 to 1162, and then of Saint–Rémi, Reims, from 1162 to 1181, and bishop of Chartres from 1181 until his death. His Christocentric piety and ascetic ideals, expressed in a prolixity of Biblical allegorizing, and his administrative abilities, demonstrated early in his reform of Celle and in continuous assistance to diocese and papacy, made him the admired counselor, confidant, and correspondent of nearly all the great personalities of his time, to whom he addressed a flow of letters, sermons, and tracts (Patrologia Latina, ed. J. P. Migne [Paris 1878–90] 202: 397–1146).
Bibliography: j. de ghellinck, L'Essorde la littérature latine au XII e siécle (Brussels-Paris 1946) 1:100–101, 194, 225. j. leclercq, La Spiritualité de Pierre de Celle 1115–83 (Paris 1946); "Nouvelles lettres de P. de C.," Analecta monastica v. 5 (St Anselm 43; 1958) 160–179, works, bibliog. p. glorieux, "Candidats à la pourpre en 1178," Mélanges de science religieuse 11 (1954) 5–30. john of salisbury, Letters, ed. and tr. w. j. millor et al. (New York 1955–) 1:ix–1iii.
[p. edwards]